Wolf Man - A Werewolf Movie Told from Different Angle that Should be a Nice Addition to the Genre

This week there were two new Western movies released in Indonesia but only this one that I was interested in. My wife who is not a real fan of horror genre was not truly excited to see this one. However, since it's not a supernatural horror type, she was willing to accompany me yesterday. OK, why don't I just get to it then.

Brief Story Line

Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott - Kraven the Hunter, The Sinner TV series etc) was having strained relationship with his father Grady (Sam Jaeger - Why Women Kill TV series, The Eyes of Tammy Faye etc) due to his difficult childhood time. But when Blake got news about Grady after falling out for years, he decided to go to their old house together with his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner -  Ozark TV series, The Royal Hotel etc) and their young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth - Subservience etc).

Unfortunately though, they encountered a vicious beast who attacked them and Blake experienced strange symptoms that would endanger the whole family. 

So what would happen to all of them? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

To be honest, I was a little bit skeptical seeing this one cause from the brief trailer I saw earlier, seemed to give the impression that it would be slow burn psychological type of movie. However, the opening scene was already impressive to me as it gave the strong suspenseful feeling especially supported by amazing sound effect. It was not a very long scene but it felt longer due to the intensity.

After some introductory moment of the main characters, the film did not take long to reach to the interesting part. For me the wonderful thing was how the story was told from different angle with focus on the transformation part. Somehow it gave a deeper emotional impact to us. Obviously it would not be great if the studio did not have proper sound system to support the awesome sound effect from the movie, and I was thankful that the one we saw this had a great system. Only thing that might be less satisfying was the overly dark setting in certain scenes which made them difficult to see. But I understood later that it was to show the distinct different perspective which I thought was pretty smart of the director.

Now I have seen quite a lot of werewolves movies and series, but none of those seemed to heavily focused on the transformation side like this one. I read that the movie was a reboot of the 1941 film of the same title which had a lot of difference. This movie's reimagining story was co-written by Corbett Tuck and Leigh Whannel who was also the director. Likely he was chosen because of his past success of directing The Invisible Man and Insidious: Chapter 3. For a movie that is about monster, the special effects were pretty decent to me. It did not rely on heavy cgi effect but it did not reduce the intensity created from the suspense.

Surprisingly to me, the film got mixed reviews from critics and audience surveyed did not really enjoy it either. Probably because the scary part was not on the multiple jump scare or the terrifying images which were more of what general audience preferred (including me). However, my wife and I felt the movie was full of suspense and emotionally exhausting. Even when we thought it was already over, there was still something else before the finish. The ending was also a plus point for me cause I thought it was satisfying and conclusive. Btw, there was no mid or post-end credit scene, so it certainly felt to be a stand alone film.

The cast were also OK to my opinion. One critic said the film had shallow characterizations which I thought was too harsh as it did not feel that way, afterall we are not looking for an Oscar worthy character study movie. Overall this might not be something people look for when they go to see a werewolf film, but for those who want to see a different angle of werewolf story, then this one could be a nice option. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars