The next of the classic Universal Monsters to get another fresh new take is the Wolf Man, a hairy beast who’s in very good hands with director Leigh Whannell (The Invisible Man).
From Universal and Blumhouse, Wolf Man howls into theaters January 17, 2025, and Universal has released a brand new featurette video today along with a new official poster.
Whannell compares his vision for Wolf Man to Carpenter’s The Thing and Cronenberg’s The Fly, calling it a tribute to the movies he loved from the 1980s. The suggestion there of course is that Whannell’s Wolf Man leans heavily into the body horror of a man transforming into a monster, and he also touches upon the COVID inspirations inherent to the script.
Take a bite out of the new Wolf Man featurette video and poster art below.
Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) stars as Blake, a husband and father who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes. With his marriage to wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth). But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter.
The bigger problem for the family? Blake is starting to turn…
Beginning with the Universal Monsters classic in 1941 starring Lon Chaney Jr., the Wolf Man character has of course appeared on screen many times over the years. The most recent attempt to introduce the character to a new generation was Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman starring Benicio del Toro, which ultimately ended up failing to kickstart a new “Dark Universe.”
Thankfully, Universal has moved beyond the desire to create an interconnected universe of tales, instead hiring filmmakers like Leigh Whannell to focus on solo movies like this one.
