With the cinematic Dark Universe thankfully in Universal’s distant rear view mirror at this point, new films updating the studio’s Universal Monsters characters are now something horror fans look forward to—thanks to a new era of standalone films kicked off with Leigh Whannell’s 2020 Invisible Man. His next project in that realm arrives early next year, updating classic werewolf tale Wolf Man for 2025, and the trailer was just unveiled at New York Comic Con.
Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) plays the title character, who heads to the rural home in Oregon where he grew up when he inherits it from his presumed-dead father. Desperate to save his marriage, he convinces his wife (Julia Garner of Apartment 7A, Ozark, and next year’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps) to bring their young daughter (Matilda Firth) for a visit. Once they arrive, according to the film’s official synopsis, the family is “attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.”
It’s not mentioned, but you can bet there was a full moon in the sky when this went down.
What strikes us most about the trailer is the seclusion. This wolf man isn’t going to be running around killing people. It seems as if the movie is more Garner’s than Abbott’s as she protects her daughter from her changing father. Also, you get the sense that the wolf man transformation is much slower and more methodical than what we’re used to. It could, in fact, be a nice big chunk of the movie before we get to see the full thing. In short, this is a very specific, new-looking wolf man—and we’re very excited about it.
Oh, and who else got big-time Jurassic Park vibes there at the beginning? You don’t put a vehicle in a tree unless you’ve got something special and Whannell may just have that.
The rest of the cast includes Sam Jaeger, Ben Prendergast, and Benedict Hardie; it’s directed by Whannell and written by Whannell and Corbett Tuck, and Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo. Wolf Man hits theaters January 17. Check back later today for a short interview with Whannell about the trailer and the film.
Additional reporting by Germain Lussier
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