Blumhouse's Wolfman "Gets" What Makes Werewolves Scary

For as long as I can remember, my favorite horror stories have been werewolf tales. I watch the original Universal The Wolf Man at least twice a year. American Werewolf in London is an all-time classic and I find American Werewolf in Paris to be a guilty pleasure. I consider The Beast Must Die to be among my favorite films and Calvin Lockhart’s performance as Tom Newcliffe is my mental image of what a Blade character should be.

The Benicio Del Toro remake of The Wolf Man contains one of the best science vs. the supernatural moments outside of The Exorcist. I’m even fond of films like Wolfen, The Howling, and Dog Soldiers. That play around with the archetype by adding sexuality and 80s cults, environmentalism and 70s urban decay, and action film sentiments to the lycanthropic mythos. I don’t even mind that Marvel called their Werewolf by Night by the name Jack Russell. Okay, I mind a little.

There’s a reason that werewolves feature prominently in Blood on Ice, the horror themed adventure I wrote for the Savage Worlds role playing game in Savage Tales of Horror Volume 2.

These tales resonate with me because they get at the root of what it means to be human in a way that connects with me. These tales are typically about good men and women who live forthright lives, but who come into contact with evil. Sometimes that contact is random. Sometimes the come into contact with it because they are protecting someone else. In the best of these tales, the men and women who succumb to the curse of lycanthropy are demonstrably virtuous. They are heroes and heroines, or would be before the curse. That curse is their doom.

These are stories about how those who are supposed to save us become overwhelmed with rage and become a threat to everyone they love. There are few things more terrifying than those who are supposed to protect us giving in to their rage and seeking to destroy us.

If the trailer is any hint, then Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man strikes the fear target in the bullseye. In this case, it’s a loving father who succumbs/fights the curse and becomes a threat to his family. This cuts right to the horror at the foundation of the trope. The protector becomes the predator. How do those who relied on what is now a monster react? That is the question central to the new Wolf Man movie.

That Leigh Whannell and fellow writers Corbett Tuck, Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo managed to translate this story into a movie that fits the Blumhouse single location model really impresses me. In part because, this is a kind of terror that fits that model perfectly. Leigh Whannell seems to be accomplishing for Blumhouse (financially) what Universal hoped to accomplish with The Dark Universe. As much as I liked Dark Universe, and I know I’m the only one who did, I see Blumhouse as a modern Hammer Studios here. They are the studio that has found the right approach to connect Universal’s classic monsters with modern audiences. The Invisible Man was brilliant and this film looks exciting.

I only wish that the film was being released in September/October and not during January which tends to be a season of counter programming or crappy movies. I can appreciate releasing around Christmas, though that’s pure horror counterprogramming, but coming out in “dump month” which has historically featured films like In the Name of the King and Seventh Son strikes me as odd. Then again, the release windows of the modern movie industry aren’t exactly the same as the historical one. Wolf Man’s competition will be Paddington in Peru, In the Grey, Presence, and Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. That’s a mixed genre, and potentially quality, bag, but it does include some direct competition.

Regardless, I’ll be there opening weekend. What are your thoughts?