As they are my favorite classical monster, I will always give werewolf movies a chance, and more often than not I get burned. Such was case with Blumhouse's attempt at revivifying the Universal Wolf man template for modern audiences in much the same way that they succeeded with 2020's take on the Invisible Man. Instead of a straight werewolf yarn, what we get is an examination of generational family trauma and how it affects its adult survivors, and also the damage done to their children.
Raised by a super-strict survivalist dad deep in the woods of Oregon and deeply impacted by their harsh relationship, Blake Lovell (Christopher Abbott) finds his adult life marked by a strained marriage, but he does his best to be the best father that he can be for his daughter. When his father dies, Blake takes his family on what's meant to be a trip to settle his father's estate, but that will also serve to help strengthen the family bond. What no one expects is the presence of a creature that stalks the deep woods, a creature that Blake's dad's harsh parenting prepared him for with little or no explanation. Local Native American legens mention a disease that renders the infected feral and savagely carnivorous, and while driving to his dad's estate, Blake becomes infected and slowly loses his humanity while trying to protect his wife and daughter from the creature that inflicted its curse upon him. There is no cure, and it's only a matter of time before the beast wins out, and mother and daughter are stranded in the deep woods, god knows how many miles from anything even resembling help.
The premise is interesting and the depiction of Blake's slow transformation is a study in tragic agony, but if you are looking for a werewolf story along the lines of THE HOWLING, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, DOG SOLDIERS, LATE PHASES, or even the classic genre-defining 1941 THE WOLF MAN, you are shit out of luck. This WOLF MAN strives to be a study of the aforementioned trauma, as well as watching a loved one succumb to an incurable disease. It's not particularly scary, is rather dull, and in the end it's quite a disappointment and a squandered opportunity. I don;t even recommend this for werewolf purists. And, let's face it, the titular creature is simply not an actual lycanthrope. It's a person suffering from an infection. Instead, go for a re-watch of any of the aforementioned far better werewolf flicks.
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