Warning: This article discusses major spoilers for "Wolfman".

Before Lee Whannell took his talents to the Double Cut Universal Monsters franchise, the Australian filmmaker first dabbled as an actor, writer on the Saw and Insidious franchises, and (most importantly for our purposes here) a first-time director. made a name for himself with stylish, low-budget thrillers. His precise career trajectory was hardly typical compared to most, but the broad strokes of his progression through the studio system until he peaked—at least so far—with The Invisible Man and most recently The Wolf Man (which I reviewed for /Film here) couldn't have been more ideal. It's hard to miss how his latest monster movie feels like the culmination of almost every lesson learned in The Invisible Man, especially with the approach of making the title character feel fresh and modern. But more than anything else, "Wolf Man" harkens back to Whannell's arguably most underrated film of all: "Upgrade."

The 2018 sci-fi film made waves immediately after its release (you can check out Matt Donato's /Glowing review of the film here) and inspired something of a cult following for its inventive camerawork, its genre-bending story, and the fact that it did Venom better than any of the actual Venom movies to date. The film follows Logan Marshall-Green as Gray Trice, an old-school junker/mechanic who ends up with a cutting-edge chip (and its accompanying artificial intelligence, STEM) that essentially turns him into a high-tech vigilante.

On the surface, neither The Wolfman nor Upgrade might share much in common... until you look deeper into how they both treat the idea of ​​perspective, autonomy, and the way we portray those concepts in film.

It sounds silly to say (write?) out loud like this, but everything we see depicted in a movie or television show is done with a significant amount of intentionality and purpose. Think of any close-up/insert shot of a hand holding a coffee cup or a phone screen, a steady shot that shows us a city skyline or building exterior, or the vast array of colors that make up the production design, costumes, and overall look. on a whole movie. It was all done for a reason - whether to evoke a certain emotion, convey some key information, or simply provide context for the rest of the scene.

So when it comes to what is almost certain to be the biggest and best talking point in Wolf Man (aside from all that creature design controversy), is worth digging deeper why Lee Whannell decided to shoot those angry-looking scenes from the Wolfman's perspective the way he and director of photography Stefan Duscio did.

The first of these awkward moments comes after poor Blake (Christopher Abbott) has already been scratched by the Wolf Man during that tense car accident in the Oregon woods early on, and is now gradually succumbing to the symptoms. At first, we don't get the full picture of what's wrong. Sure, he seems a little sweaty and nervous, but otherwise he seems capable enough to protect his family. That is, until he noisily walks up to the cabin's front door, his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) wander into the hallway and just ... stare at him blankly. We don't find that out until a few scenes later they are not those who act strangely - he is. After locking the audience strictly into Blake's point of view, the camera shifts seamlessly to Charlotte's perspective and reveals the full extent of her husband's transformation into the Wolf Man. The lighting changes dramatically, the framing of the camera literally tilts off its axis, and we realize that Blake's condition has already deteriorated significantly. He can't speak, his wounds are festering, and he's well on his way to becoming the Wolf Man.

In both Upgrade and The Wolf Man, Lee Whannell's clever filmmaking decisions use conventions and our own expectations of the genre to keep viewers on their toes. "Upgrade" relies heavily on very scary tilts and shots that ignore the usual horizons of the frame - all of which disorient us and help us engage with the heavy action. (The moment Gray lets the AI ​​in his head completely take over his body and fight the battles for him, as seen in this clipis the film's earliest and most effective example of this.) While The Wolf Man never opts for this maximized approach of controlled chaos, Whannell's similar choice to completely change the film's visual language achieves much the same effect.

In "Wolf Man," Whannell and director of photography Stefan Duscio reunite — yes, they also worked together on "The Invisible Man" and "Upgrade," which should hardly come as a surprise — and once again work their unique magic. . In this case, they rely on a much more subdued method to bring the audience back on their heels. After putting us exclusively in Blake's headspace for the entire film, where we rarely (if ever) see anything he doesn't see himself, we suddenly switch places as the camera literally slides to Charlotte's perspective. This first happens at Blake's bedside, and again in the darkened basement as she frantically calls for help on the CB radio... although we initially see this in night vision and with the muffled sound Blake experiences in his sensory overloaded state.

While this is a completely different shift in perspective than what the duo do in Upgrade, Whannell and Duccio find an equally effective way to keep us on edge during these moments in The Wolf Man, all while staying 100% true to the wild. different tones of each respective film. Lee Whannell who made The Wolf Man just couldn't have done it without Lee Whannell who first wowed us with Upgrade - and we're lucky to have them both.

"Wolfman" is now playing in theaters.