This article contains mild spoilers for "Wolfman".

The centerpiece of any werewolf movie is its transformation sequence. Starting with George Wagner's The Wolf Man in 1941witnessing a human being transform into a hairy wolf-like beast drew horror nuts in droves. In The Wolf Man, Lon Chaney, Jr. sat still in a chair for a static image of his face. Then the film's brilliant makeup artists will add a thin layer of makeup and hair, and Cheney will be shot again. Several shots were stitched together using a clever cross-fade, giving the impression that he was transforming. It looks great to this day.

1981 was also a banner year for werewolf transformation, as Joe Dante's The Howling and John Landis' An American Werewolf in London were released. Both films made extensive use of makeup, puppetry, mannequins and rubber creature heads to create some truly terrifying werewolf transformations. I'd also like to point out the transformation in 1988's Howl IV: The Original Nightmare where the man literally melts into a puddle and then reconstitutes himself as a Werewolf like the T-1000 in Terminator 2. It is new to most.

The wolf transformation in Lee Whannell's new film Wolf Man has - for those who don't mind spoilers - was already available onlinealthough I recommend saving the video until you watch the movie. Needless to say, the sequence is likely to divide audiences. On the one hand, Whannell seems to have wanted to dramatize a werewolf transformation that was as realistic as possible, keeping wolf-like mutations to a minimum and keeping the werewolf more human than wolf. On the other hand, the lack of ultra-dramatic changes may upset horror fans who were raised on "American Werewolf" and "Howl." For many, the transformation will not be long enough, different enough, or strange enough.

Unfortunately, there are no scenes of Christopher Abbott's face eerily stretching into the wolf's muzzle.

It should be explained that the werewolf curses in Whannell's "Wolfman". not a magical curse but a biological virus. Christopher Abbott plays a character named Blake who contracts the virus from a werewolf attack while en route to his dead father's cabin in the Oregon woods. The virus takes hold quickly, and its transformation is rapid. At first, his senses are heightened. For example, he can hear a spider walking along a wall from several rooms away. Fun detail from the novel: Blake also loses the ability to understand human speech. After a while, his wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth) sound like they're talking nonsense.

However, because the transformation is so quick and because no explicitly stated magic is involved, it seems Vanel wanted to keep the wolfishness of his central monster to a minimum. It seems he wanted to make a realistic monster. Blake is losing hair on his head, but growing a little extra on his back. His nails turn into claws, and his hands seem to spread. His face swells a little, and his nose becomes smooth and more animal-like. His ears become slightly pointed. Oh yeah, and his teeth are growing and his eyes are turning yellow and more wolfish. He is more like a strange, scary friend than a wolf.

But that's it. Unlike 1941's An American Werewolf in London, Howl, or The Wolf Man, this new werewolf doesn't go full wolf. His legs do not break into wolf legs. His ears do not move to the top of his head. He has no tail. The wolf mutations seem, at least for a horror movie, more believable. It is theoretically possible for someone's face to swell when they are exposed to a serious illness or their teeth fall out. One may even lose their mental faculties. These are symptoms of several serious diseases.

But by leaning toward realism, Whannell robbed The Wolfman of a remarkable transformation sequence. Whannell is a careful and efficient horror director (he previously made The Invisible Man and Upgrade) who knows how to work within a budget. It would be exciting for horror fans to see him swing at the walls and stretch the limited budget of The Wolf Man into a werewolf mutation for the ages. He couldn't use expensive modern CGI, but there's still a lot that can be done with carefully planned, cheap practical effects. Also, even though the Wolfman is relatively tame and invincible, the Gorhounds know that Vanel can be wild. Not only did he write the first three Saw movies and the first four Insidious movies, he also directed Insidious: Chapter 3.

He brings a wild Australian sensibility to his films that only he and his countrymen can provide. Heck, famed Aussie director Philip Mora helmed both Howl II: Your Sister Was a Werewolf and Howl III: The Martians. Venel could take cues from Mora.

But then, this all comes down to preference. Or one likes realistic werewolves that are grounded in biology and others like magical werewolves that fully mutate into large carnivorous monsters. Whannell aimed for the former, but would potentially upset fans of the latter.

Something tells me this is going to be an easy debate that goes on for years. Kind of like the slow zombies vs fast zombies argument. No conclusion will ever be reached.

The Wolfman is now playing in theaters everywhere.