Wolf Man

 After lending a (pretty enjoyable) feminist twist to The Invisible Man, writer/director Leigh Whannell turns his attention to another Universal monster with the modestly-budgeted Wolf Man. And as it starts it looks like he's got a somewhat similar angle for it, too: first with a young boy being subjected to a mildly toxic upbringing, and then showing that same boy all grown up thirty years later turned into a stay-at-home-dad, wearing lipstick (long story) while his wife returns from work with short hair and a suit.

 Not much comes of it, though, which is actually kind of cool: with the exception of factors completely out of his control, Blake (Christopher Abbott) remains a committed dad to his daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) and a loving partner to his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) throughout the movie - it's a good reversal of expectations, playing as it does against what the film seemed to be setting up (and this is a fairly minor spoiler). Unfortunately, it does make the script feel a bit messy and unfocused.

 When Blake's father is officially declared dead after being missing for years, Blake convinces his wife, whom he feels is growing distant, to go on a family outing and take a look at his dad's estate out in rural Oregon (replaced by locations in New Zealand on the film). On the way there they have a horrifying accident thanks to a mysterious humanoid figure standing on the middle of the road. The family survives and makes it to the house while being hounded by the mysterious figure, but Blake is wounded by it. Uh oh.

 It's a kind of brilliant premise: the family is cut off and trapped in a strange house by the hungry monster prowling outside, trying to figure a way to escape, while Blake is laid low by a slow transformation into a bloodthirsty beast. I guess it's a classic zombie movie situation, but since it involves having two werewolves going at each other's throats (while at least in theory being a threat to everyone else around them) it feels like a fairly novel take.

 It drags a tiny bit on its middle section, but other than that there's plenty to enjoy: some damn good body horror, good tension, and a few truly excellent scenes where the film seamlessly shifts into Blake's point of view to show us his growing disconnection from reality and his loved ones. One of them, designed to show us his senses becoming more and more acute, made me laugh - it doesn't make a single lick sense, but it's the kind of weird touch I adore. Good sound design.
 Whannell also likes to use the camera a little more adventurously than most other directors do, but only in short bursts - kind of like he did in Upgrade. There are some lovely little flourishes where simple lighting techniques are used to portray a character's isolation or to shift focus from one character to another. Unfortunately the theater I watched this at left some of the lights on while the film rolled, which made an already murky movie a little harder to parse than it should have been.

 The main issue for me, and one that hugely impacted my enjoyment of it, is the werewolves. The makeup and prosthetics are pretty impressive, but... they just don't really look anything like wolves; It's like the monsters are stuck in the initial stages of a werewolf transformation in a movie with better werewolves.

 They look like fucking cavemen. And since the main character is confused and understandably shocked at his transformation, he spends most of the time looking sad. A tragic troglodyte.
 There's also an issue with the inconsistency of the threat the non-dad other werewolf presents - but I guess I can just chalk it down to it being a little incompetent at the whole werewolfing thing. Still call bullshit on the whole greenhouse scene, though.

 Putting aside the creatures' looks and a slightly meandering middle section, the movie's not bad at all. And even with the silly-looking werewolves, things could be a lot worse: Universal's original plan was an entry in their (aborted) MCU-like 'Dark Universe' continuity, with The Rock rumoured to play the protagonist. Also consider that the last movie Blumhouse dumped in a January was Nightswim; A low blow, I know, but still a precedent.

 It's a shame the script doesn't manage to wrangle its on-the-nose themes to say something more interesting (or even cogent), but at least the story is satisfying, the family drama at the film's heart is well-handled, and there's enough cool genre stuff to satisfy me. I kind of liked it, mopey caveman and all.