Leigh Whannell directs Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner and Sam Jaeger in this horror where a man revisits his abandoned family farm… a remote place where something vicious stalks the night.

This new release has come out to an iffy response even though it is quite a clever update on the 1941 original. The slow burn body horror transformation reminds of Cronenberg’s The Fly and the lycanthrope vision POV is unnerving. There are a couple of decent small scale set pieces that seem inspired by the Spielberg directed Jurassic Park movies. I’m not a massive fan of either Abbott or Garner and the tiny ensemble probably would benefit from a few extra faces of fodder. The first half is drab long way around emotional stuff. Things don’t become cheerier when the monster is unloosed but Whannell should be praised for his straight faced approach. Dark, practical and uneasy, this Wolf Man is worth a gamble.

6

Perfect Double Bill: The Invisible Man (2020)

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