Julia Garner won three Emmys for her work in “Ozark.” Now, in “Wolf Man,” she plays a woman in peril. What happened?
For starters, she – and others – put too much stock in “The Invisible Man,” the horror film director Leigh Whannell made before this. That had plenty of style – and a killer performance by Elisabeth Moss.
This flops around a lot and doesn’t try to add much to the original premise. It also has so many “say, what?” moments you feel like you’re watching an insurance commercial.
Garner plays a journalist who agrees to move to her husband’s family home when he gets the keys and a deed. Since his career has been floundering, he thinks it’d be nice to try a fresh start somewhere else. Never mind that no one opts to look at the place before moving. They pack everything into a truck and head out to a home they have no clue how to find. When they get in some mysterious wooded area, they ask a local and he takes them there. Unfortunately, there’s a creature lurking and all hell breaks loose.
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Then, “Wolf Man” becomes one of those “hide from the killer” films. When the husband (Christopher Abbott) has a close encounter, something happens with his DNA and soon, he’s losing teeth and exhibiting feral behavior. This prompts the wife to grab her daughter and a huge kitchen knife and try to make it to a vehicle. Naturally, it needs a jump, so she pulls out a battery and begins the process.
When the beast comes calling, there’s a silly chase around the property that also involves a greenhouse with the flimsiest plastic cover. The family heads up there and the daughter almost falls through (never mind the folks are much heavier). Meanwhile, the van is teetering on a hill and noise starts emanating from all corners of the “new” home.

A girl is frightened by what she sees in "Wolf Man."
The film’s sound effects are good – and eerie. The music isn’t bad, either. But the script looks like something that a first-time filmmaker might try. Sadly, even the knife gets ignored.
Whannell films so many scenes in darkness, it’s hard to get all the intended chills. A journalist without access to wi-fi would be a non-starter, too.
As the cat-and-wolf game heats up, it becomes clear no one – not even the daughter – has complained about not eating. After racing around that dreadful house (one the younger version of the husband seemed to hate), no one even regrets the move. Considering the family could have turned this over to a realtor, much angst could have been avoided.
Still, that’s not the purpose. “Wolf Man” is here to point out a grisly beast could lie in all of us. We just need a few altering moments to let it go.
While Universal hopes to give new life to old characters (there’s a plan to reboot many of their classic horror films), it would have been better to let sleeping wolves lie.
“Wolf Man” is a howler.