When I heard that there was another remake/reimaging of the Wolf Man coming, I was pumped. I did not love the 2010 Wolfman movie, but I did not hate it either. However, when I heard that Leigh Whannel was the director and that this was being put out by Blumhouse, I knew that this had the potential to be amazing. With this and Nosferatu, my 2025 movie theatre experience sure has started with a bang!
How to Download Wolf Man
Wolf Man was released on January 17, 2025. You can expect to be able to download or stream it from Peacock or other digital platforms in about two months from that date. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and check your options.
The Movie Review
A Must-Watch for Horror Fans: The Movie Review
I am a massive fan of Blumhouse. They are easily my favorite horror studio going right now and the more I think about it, the more Blumhouse is probably my favorite horror studio of all time. From Insidious, The The Conjuring, Annabelle, Happy Death Day, Sinister, The Purge, and a bunch more, I would say that I connect with at least 90 percent of what these guys put out. My least favorite Blumhouse movie is The Craft Legacy and even then, I did not hate it.
The Story: A Slow-Burn Horror That Pays Off
The movie starts in the mid-90s where we meet a young boy called Blake who lives in a very remote part of Oregon with his dad, Grady. Grady is very strict and pretty aggressive and he takes Blake out hunting and the two of them come across a strange creature on two legs. I love the start of this movie and how Grady clearly has an idea of what this thing is. Whatever it is, it chases them through the woods, forcing them to take shelter in a deer hide.
Fast forwarding 30 years, Blake lives in San Francisco with his wife, Charlotte, and his daughter, Ginger. You can tell that things between Blake and Charlotte are strained, but Blake gets news that his dad who has been missing, has been declared legally dead, leaving Blake his childhood home in the Oregon wilderness.
Blake says that a family trip to the mountains is just what the family needs to reconnect and they can check out the place that they now own. I will say that the opening scene in the 90s is awesome, but I do feel the part of the movie that gets the family from San Francisco to the woods is a little on the slow side. However, to be fair, once they get to the wilderness, no time is wasted as they do not even make it to the house before a strange creature causes them to crash and it also scratches Blake!
Tense Atmosphere and Terrifying Transformations
From here we get a tense as hell movie that sees the family not only stalked by the creature in the woods but also Blake transforming into a monster. This is a movie that keeps you on edge and all three actors, Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, and young Matilda Firth do a phenomenal job. You feel like you are in the house and in the woods with them and right until the very end, you never truly feel like they are going to be safe and get out of this.
I had a lot of fun with this movie and while it has some very tense moments and some awesome jump scares, not to mention some pretty gross and fantastic special effects. I thought that the movie also had a real air of sadness and tragedy about it all. Of course, having seen Nosferatu so close to this, it is hard not to compare the two as they are both reimaginings of classic horror icons and while I really liked this, I do think I preferred Nosferatu just a tad more. Still, I am very excited to see both of these when again, hopefully sooner than later.
