Wolfman 2025: Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

Since this is a Universal film, Y’all know what that means? Cue the Universal Logo!

Ok before we get far into this review I’m about to say something that’s controversial, I know I probably won’t get a lot of people who agree with me on this.

I actually liked this film, no wait wait hold up hear me out.

I could see what the director Leigh
Whannell was going for, yes that’s the same director who made The Invisible Man 2020 which is an amazing film I highly recommend watching it.

Also yes it does seem Universal is back at it trying to make this Universal Monster Universe a thing again.

Also check out my review on The Invisible Man as well when y’all get the chance, but back to what I was saying. The angle Leigh Whannell was going for I actually liked, he wanted to treat this as more of a virus.

Also some context to why people hated this film, I fear that this film may have shot themselves in the foot when back in October last year Universal revealed the werewolf design at Universal Horror Nights, what we saw was ooooof. Here’s an image so y’all can see.

Yeah where do I begin, well firstly that doesn’t look like a wolfman and more like a crackhead homeless man. However, I will say this the design there isn’t the wolfman design, well kinda.

That design u see is the design of the wolfman that infects Blake our main character, granted the makeup looked slightly better in the film and they got rid of the Grey hair and beard, but the design of Blake’s transformation is different.

I’ll explain that in spoilers, but also what didn’t help is when u take an established lore such as Wolfman and do your own take on it, such as in Leigh Whannell’s words “I wanted to make this Wolfman more of a virus rather than a supernatural thing”.

Kinda pissed off people (including me) because again u already got an established lore of Wolfman so why mess with it? What exactly is Wolfman about this if he doesn’t turn back into a human and transforms into a wolfman via the full moon, but this time it’s a one-way transformation permanently?

Well glad to say it but in my opinion, it did work out for the film, u kinda have to go see it to see what I mean.

Last thing, they really didn’t help themselves by releasing the full transformation clip on YouTube 10 days before the film came out, yeah why when it’s that close to releasing would u release the transformation clip on YouTube for free?

Don’t u know that’s the one thing fans go into these Woflman movies for, the transformation? Anyway here’s the clip.

Now do I think that transformation scene is good? Ehhh I have mixed thoughts. As I said I’m not massively a huge fan of Blake’s Wolfman design, I was more of a fan of the other Wolfman design, the one who infected him.

Because he has long hair, sideburns, a thin mustache, and beard, a snarled-up nose, no lips, sharp teeth, rabbid-looking eyes, and hair on his hands.

Now first thoughts when I heard that I thought ok I could see this going either of 2 ways.

1. It’s shite and fails spectacularly

2.  It succeeds and is a creative direction

So where does it fall in for me? I actually think it works. His main inspiration was David Cronenbergs The Fly, basically the plot summary is this.

After our main 6 character Blake (played by  Christopher Abbot) father dies, who he was estranged because his dad was a hunter who lived on a farm. He scared the hell out of Blake because he was kinda tough on him.

So Blake and his daughter and wife Charlotte (played by Juliia Garner) decided to make this a famous road trip and head out to Michigan to his dad’s farm which is in the middle of the woods.

To go collect up all his belongings, btw Blake and his wife are in a tough situation, they are kinda on the brink of that relationship ending, also Charlotte doesn’t feel she’s close to her daughter while her daughter is closer to her father who has one job to protect her.

Anyway they head out there and they drive through the woods in a moving truck where they accidentally stumble into some sorta creature.

Which causes them to steer off the road into some trees, they escape but Blake gets scratched by the thing so they head to the farm to spend the night.

Stay away from that thing, and unfortunately for them, as there’s a danger outside, there’s soon gonna be a danger inside. For u see Blake gets infected and he starts mutating into that thing in the spam of 1 night.

Will our main duo make it out alive? Y’all will find out in spoilers, that’s all I’ll say in the non-spoilers.

Speaking of spoilers I’ll give a very small spoiler, this connects back to why I like the approach of this film. In the beginning, we get an opening crawl of words that Essentially say.

“A hiker went missing in the woods, some creature thing been spotted in the woods. Many speculated that the hiker got infected with a virus that turned him”

My instant thought was oh Wendigo, seriously try telling me y’all don’t think Wendigo when hearing that description?

I really like that approach, I find the whole angle of people going missing in the woods to be frightening, also it does work off that common fear. Plus in a way, u could see this as a Wendigo approach.

Think of it person goes missing in the woods, and gets hungry. Feeds on someone else and becomes less of a human. Basically a cannibal, but that’s the angle I noticed.

In all fairness, the Wendigo and Werewolves are kinda the same, kinda. But it’s why tons of Americans associate one with the other. So if this was an intentional reference to the Wendigo then I must give the director props.

For some people it might be different, now will I say this film is perfect? Uh nope, there are 3 issues I had.

1.  The house they are in has multiple windows yet the wolfman who infects the dad never thinks to break in through the windows, but he does trie the dog door though for no reason.

2.  I’m still iffy on the Wolfman design for Blake, as for the other Wolfman who infected him I actually liked it, it was done better than what we saw at Horror Universal Nights in October.

3.  This film has messaging but the issue is the film treats its audience as if they are stupid, so it has all the nuance and subtly as a brick to the face.

4. Byw I alluded to it in my reveiw but did y’all notice the biggest flaw?

I mentioned it in the reveiw did I?
I said how many wolfman are in this film? U got the wolfman thats hunting Blake and his dad in the beginning in the past

Then im the future u got Papa wolfman

Then Blake wolfman aftwr he gets infected

So uhhh huh? Also in the beginning we get told a hiker disappeared in the forest and was never seen a agin and we pieced together the fans that missing hiker is the wolfman in the beginning

So is the wolfman virus in this film a metaphor for family abuse? Or are this woods just woken up one day and said nah fam we hate humans so if u enter were giving u a wolf virus

Also small issues, the film doesn’t think its audience can understand nuance so there’s a scene where someone spells out the thing that’s happening. U will see what I mean in the spoilers.

And lastly, there’s a plot twist that’s kinda predictable because the film doesn’t play it off subtly, now granted some people might not see the plot twist in advance but still.

The film will not let u forget that it has a message, it has a message about the father wanting to protect his daughter (which he says like 3 times in this film), a message about trauma being passed down. Again with little to no subtlety.

It’s like the film thinks nah nah our audience is too stupid to figure it out, yeah we’re not that stupid.

I’ll mention this last thing, I’m noticing a pattern here in The Invisible Man 2020 that film’s message was about an abusive relationship and getting over trauma.

This film’s message is about generational trauma, so what then, is the 3rd film (which I heard is gonna be a reboot of The Mummy, but this time more horror-focused), is that gonna be about trauma as well?

Should this Dark Universe/Classic Monster Universe be retitled to the Trauma Experience Universe? Just saying, it’s fitting. So overall I’ll give Wolfman 2025 a solid 7.8/10. Warning spoilers ahead y’all been warned.

So this film opens up with that opening crawl that I mentioned: “A hiker went missing in the woods, some creature thing been spotted in the woods. Many speculated that the hiker got infected with a virus that turned him”.

Then we open up with a younger Blake and his dad going out into the woods ready to hunt a deer, oh also they have a pet dog but don’t worry about that. Anyways Blake’s dad has this fear of the woods, yet for some reason decided to move out on a farm in the woods.

Huh? Yeah, that makes sense, sure why not? Anyways his dad tries to sternly tell him information that will keep his son alive because he won’t be around long enough to protect him (get it!?). So while the dad is aiming a gun at a deer.

His son wonders off to get a better shot, instead, he sees this creature of a man standing on 2 feet who instantly vanishes as soon as Blake looks back at that area.

His dad shows up angrily but then they hear growling so they head up into a hunter tree hut where he tells Blake to keep his ears shut as he aims a gun at the closer latch.

We can hear noises from the outside, wooooooh (points to anyone who got that reference) then we see heat mist from the wolf’s snarl. But then it runs off and Blake’s dad sees a dead deer carcass in the woods.

He takes his son home, that night his son enters his Dada basement where he overhears his father on the radio talking about how this creature/virus is real. He saw the thing, and he tells the guy on the end to get his butt down here because doesn’t he also want to protect his son.

Oh also the camera aims at Blake’s dad’s arm drawing us a tattoo with his name on it, hmmmmmmmm wonder if that will become important for later, can’t imagine why.

Anyways so cut to 30 years later we see Blake is a dad who’s lost his job and is taking care of his daughter, btw the way this film represents to us that Blake might have a bit of anger to him like his dad is kinda strange.

When Blake and his daughter are walking in the town of San Francisco his daughter is walking on the side of a wall thing between the street and the sidewalk, he tells her to get down multiple times but she doesn’t listen so he gets mad.

I mean that’s a fair reaction to have, unless are people that fragile these days? Oh, and his wife comes in on the phone and he tells her to take that call into the other room but she ignores him and gets odd the phone and says can u not do that?

Again I don’t see the big issue here, he asked her a request calmy, he didn’t even raise his voice to her and yet this is to show us he might have a temper? Anyway he gets a paper that says his father went hunting for some wolf thing and now he’s presumed dead.

Plz keep this in mind for later, anyways since both Blake and his wife’s marriage is on twin ice he has a plan to take them out with him during the summer to go pick up his dad’s belongings at the farm in Michigan.

Right right so let me get this straight, so uh Blake ur relationship is at an all time low and ur thought process is to take ur wife to a cabin in the woods that get this has no reception or power, they have to use a power generator instead.

He fully knows this already because he lived there, oh needs to forget a wolf-like creature is in the woods that he encountered as a kid and heard confirmation from his dad on the radio while talking to his friend that night.

But I guess Blake’s trauma of his dad being stern to him was just so dang much that he forgot about the actual danger in the woods he encountered that almost killed him and his dad, which realistically should have caused way more trauma than his stern dad.

But sure let’s just go with that, btw if u haven’t caught on that this film is about generational trauma then don’t worry Blake will at least say 3 times to his daughter it’s my job to protect u.

I’m not like my dad, I don’t want to be like him. Anyways they drive to the woods in a moving truck where they find this random guy in a hunter’s tree hut, this guy being the son of Blake’s father friend.

He offers to get in the truck and point the way to the farm since Blake is forgetting where it is, anyways that night when they get close and still driving. Blake spots that wolf creature standing on 2 feet right in front of the road.

So he swerves off the road into 2 trees, and instantly the man who lives in the woods and knows how to hunt, heck might know of this unknown virus because he talks about it. Instantly decides to open his door which causes him to fall on the floor where the wolfman can drag him away.

Btw one my biggest gripes with the 2025 film is the film jist manifests tesnion

They drive a uhaul truck through the mountains in dense forest and next thing u know the wolfman standing in front of the road and they go oh sshit and skeeeeeet their truck off the side which causes it to roll down a hill into 2 trees

Uh huh, so physics are completely out the window

Pssssst I don’t think that guy was that bright, anyways Blake has his family climb on top of the truck and Blake tries closing the other door because he sees the creature crawling on the side of the vehicle. As he does close the door, the creature scratches him and takes the body of his friend as a meal.

Well he’s dead, anyway so the trio runs to the barn which isn’t too far away, they get inside and barricade the place with a book shelf. Btw now Blake has scratch marks on his arms.

So not too long into them barricading, Blake tells his daughter for the umpteenth time how it’s his job to protect her and have her fall asleep.

Oh also Blake eats raw jerky he finds in a secret room in the basement, which then causes his tooth to fall out his mouth into his hand, ewwww.

The wife takes a look at the bite mark on his arm because it’s bleeding, he assumes it’s a scratch he got from the glass. Oh also he shows her a radio to contact someone for help in the basement, anyways she wraps his arm up.

BTW the wolfman that’s outside, it doesn’t make sense that he doesn’t try to break In through the windows. Yet he tries to grab Blake by the leg from the dog door, so the wolfman is smart enough to use a dog door but can’t figure out how to smash glass.

Oh wait a minute he does smash glass later on but I’ll get to that later.

Now this is where I’m gonna halt this review and talk about my perspective on the body horror of him transforming into this creature and how I’d rewrite it.

So basically his entire transformation throughout this entire night consists of,

him hearing a medium-sized spider from upstairs in a closet.

I must admit this scene was creepy because of the way it sounded like it was like the spider had like tapping shoes on, that’s a creepy idea. His hearing has increased.

He just no longer can talk at all, his wife says that on the radio as she’s trying to contact someone, yeah there was no gradual buildup to him losing his voice, we don’t get to see him lose his voice.

But what we do see is him having wolf vision where from his perspective he basically hears his wife and daughter speaking gibberish and sounding like everything is underwater. And everything is tinted in a bright green/blue color.

Then he pulls a chunk of hair off his head once, he pees his pants plus also his skin is looking ill. But that’s it for the body horror before the transformation. Oh wait forget to mention his nails fall off and get replaced with sharp nails.

His forehead and lower jaw just make him look more like a caveman than anything, but that’s it.

Now here’s how I’d have rewritten the entire body horror elements because things felt rushed and I think cut out a bit because I kid u not folks there’s one scene right after he starts chewing on his own infected arm.

BTW keep in mind he still has his full hair, right after we see the wife head down to the basement to grab keys for a truck that’s near the barn and we cut to them going outside where Blake is now balding.

Like I’m sorry wait what? Did we miss something? Did something get cut to fit the runtime? So here’s how I’d have written this.

I wish they focused more on the illness, like having him get sick. At first be normal sick symptoms like vomiting, lightheaded/doozy, slightly blurred vision, a sore throat, and his voice going away slowly.

But gradually the illness gets worse to the point Blake and his wife know yeah no this isn’t any normal virus, he’d be vomiting up blood, we’d see all his teeth fall out gradually, and his mouth would be bloody because it lost his normal teeth.

He’d start picking away at his nails till they fall off, where claws replace it. Oh and lastly gradually he’s hair would fall out as if he’s suffering from radiation sickness. This is how’d do it.

I’d prefer it over this film keep showing us wolf vision and mumble hearing for about 3 to 4 times! Like yeah yeah I get it he can’t hear them, I ain’t stupid. Idk maybe I’m not a writer but that’s how I’d done it.

Anyways moving on so the 3 of them head to the truck near the barn with a battery pack. The wife tries powering the car up with the battery while the girl and the sick father are in the car.

Speaking of a small gripe (yes I know it sounds like I’m complaining a lot but keep in mind my complaints have been minor), this woman makes stupid decisions by the 2nd act.

I mean for example about 2ish min ago she takes the bandage odd Blake’s arm where now the skin has gotten worse to the point his bone is visible, so he starts chewing on his own arm. Right after seeing that she heads down to the basement without taking her daughter. Leaving her up there with the sickly I’ll father who just chewed on his own infected arm.

Like where’s ur child? Yeah mother of the year, also whiles she’s powering the car up she has her daughter in the car with the sickly husband who again chewed on his own arm 2ish min ago.

Yeah, that whole scene I was like seriously? Don’t leave your daughter in the car with growly Mc growl growl over there.

Anyways so she powers the car on and gets out to take the battery out and close the lid, Zhe gets back into the car and wipes the windshields. Just then jumps care blam! The wolfman is standing there.

Awwww nice wolfman, he patiently waited there until she wiped the windshield for him to jump on the car and start breaking through the glass.

Speaking of, so wait if he can break through glass here then what prevented him from doing so in the house? Look I said I like this film I didn’t say it was perfect, it does suffer from horror movie logic and stupidity. Some parts more than not feel they are being held together by stupidity duct tape.

So they run on top of the greenhouse for no reason and trust me it was a stupid place to head onto, want y’all to keep in mind this greenhouse is covered by fabric/plastic. While the woman who’s underneath them in the greenhouse has claws.

No protection this is, this was a stupid place to head on top of.

But Blake points to the house to tell them to head back as he jumps down to deal with the wolfman.

Anyways Blake and the wolfman do fight off-screen, Blake gets back into the house and vomits up blood and a finger, gross. The wife lets her daughter get near him and touch his forehead! Again mother of the year!

Just then wolfman pops in and attacks Blake, just then Blake decides to defend his family so he fights Wolfman, heck the mom helps out by stabbing him multiple times.

The fight does end with Blake taking a chunk out of the wolfman’s neck, as that wolfman dies Blake looks over at the arm of the wolfman and sees the tattoo his father had.

What a twist, the wolfman who infected him was his father all along, I would say what a twist but it wasn’t a surprise. Because why the hell would they pan to his father’s arm with the tattoo on it at the beginning of the film? Oh, what’s that for no reason whatsoever?

Wouldn’t that be called a waste of time then? Pointless recording? Anyways.

This brings up a few rants I have so bear with me.

So this brings up a question that’s never answered, so if there was a wolfman in the woods at the beginning of the film when Blake was young, if his dad is now and has been a new wolfman in the woods for a bit then here’s my question.

How many wolfmen are there? No really think about it, who the hell infected that previous wolfman? And who infected the previous wolfman before that and before that and before that?

We don’t know, we are left to take guesses. Also, remember how I alluded to that this film’s message is about generational trauma?

And how Blake constantly tells his daughter how he doesn’t want to become his father and wants to do better! Or how the fact he does say sometimes we end up being scared by our parents.

Well hey look here fellas, this wolfman who “infects” Blake with a literal “scar” was his dad all along. So I guess really his dad did end up “scarring” his own kid!

Get it!? Because he got literally scars from a wolfman that’s his dad, it’s like an allegory for getting scarred by your parents!

Wow so clever, how subtle, moving on.

So Blake runs outside to do his complete transformation, no I ain’t gonna repost the clip here. Y’all scroll back up for that clip.

BTW I kid u not I’m starting to think Blumhouse might be thinking we the audience are stupid, because I kid u not while Blake is transforming. We have his wife looking at Papa Wolfman’s corpse.

While her daughter comes up to her and this entire conversation plays out like this. Where she asks her why Dad had to get sick.

And the mom says well sweetie, ur dad’s dad got sick when he went to go hunt for a creature. He ended up scratching ur dad which infected him, so I think the virus his dad got. He passed it down to ur dad from a scratch.

No really? Wow, thanks Blumhouse! Would never been able to figure out that one without y’all spelling it out for us. Not like u just told us this info using visuals about 2 minutes ago!

Jeepers do u see what I mean by this film has a message with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer?

Anyways so Blake’s now transformed into the wolfman, sorry let me rephrase that he’s transformed into something between a mix of Gollum and a Caveman. Yeah, that ain’t no wolfman.

I prefer Papa wolfman’s design, so anyways they now have to run away from Blake the crackhead Gollum man, so they head to the barn in the dark and hurdle in a corner, but we see that Blake broke his way in so the mother grabs a bear trap and puts it on the floor, unfortunately for them Blake and crackhead Gollum man is sitting in front of them without them seeing him.

He’s using wolf vision, just as he jumps out at them he accidentally stumbles into the bear trap, giving them enough time to run off into the woods, so what does Blake the crackhead Gollum man do? Easy he chews his foot off, sounds about right.

Oh but he’s able to still crawl on all 4 and run on all 4 perfectly with 1 foot missing, again it’s like he never chewed off anything.

My foot? What’s that? Ti’s but a flesh wound, so the wife and daughter get to the woods and locate that hunter’s gun and his severed arm.

They take the gun and head to the hunter’s fort, wow it’s like poetry it rhymes, first Blake and his dad go up there to hide from the unknown creature.

Now it’s the wife and daughter who’s doing the same thing, how’d they think that!? So as they sit there huddled up, the sun starts to rise. Blake the crackhead Gollum man is behind the latch.

Just then he opens the latch, looks at his daughter, and decides to lunge at them but the wife takes the shot and her ex-husband falls out of the tree and dies, they both go stand over his corpse as he dies.

They both cry over the loss of Blake, then they both go walk over the valley to take a look at how go go it is, then they walk off, the end.

Yeah, that’s how the film ends. It is really a gorgeous ending if u ask me. Anyway that’s all folks, hope y’all enjoyed this review. Also here’s a teaser for the next review I’m posting this week as well, till then.