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

Just call Lee Whannell the Whispering Monster. There have been few times when a studio has fought so hard (or so publicly) in trying to get audiences interested in their crown IP - in this case, the classic stable of Universal Monsters. By the same token, however, the twist was just as sudden and compelling. Since 2020, the year Whannell's The Invisible Man was released and immediately blew everyone away, the franchise has enjoyed significant improvement across the board. Not coincidentally, this also coincided with the decision makers finally giving up on their grand dreams of a shared universe that could rival DC and Marvel. Instead of a world where Dr. Jekyll plays Nick Fury collecting monsters to fight, ahem, other monsters (I guess?), we're treated to a number of stand-alone films that span multiple genres and each tell their own unique stories. .

And yes, Whannell was the pioneer who helped set this refreshing new tone in the first place, making Wolf Man (as I reviewed for /Film here) such an interesting evolution of this trend. While clearly a very different title character from The Invisible Man, Whannell approaches this much more animalistic creature in a similar way. Both set the action in the present day, both delve deep into the psychology of their respective villains, and both reinterpret the original films to deeply surprising—but always faithful—results. It's that last point in particular that fans of The Invisible Man may end up appreciating The Wolf Man the most, as Whannell takes the archetypal notion of the werewolf "curse" and, as he did with his 2020 film, spins it into an allegory more appealing to modern audiences.

In the hands of lesser filmmakers—and the movie gods know there have been many— various attempts to adapt the character evocatively known as the Wolf Man (or Wolfman, in years past) made one of several fatal mistakes. Either they're stuck with continuity and crossover fever, which 1943's Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman proves is hardly a recent phenomenon, or the dire scenario of too many cooks in the kitchen rears its ugly head, as director Joe Johnston (and previously attached director Mark Romanek) found out the hard way with 2010's The Wolf. Add in the fact that the character himself is a particularly tough nut to crack, given how ingrained the lore and stereotypes of werewolves are in pop culture, and it's easy to see why the deck remained stacked against the Wolf Man.

Fortunately, Lee Whannell's past experience with The Invisible Man came in handy when she took over the reins of The Wolf Man. When he first dove into the deep end of the Universal Monsters pool, he decided to take that monster in a radical direction. Where the original 1933 film tells the tragic story of a prankster's descent into madness and mass murder, Whannell's take on the material reimagines the title character in an even more sinister and all-too-real light. While unrepentant as the villain he once was, this version of the Invisible Man embarks on a campaign of put-down with the goal of tormenting just one victim—a former lover (Elisabeth Moss) who had the gall to leave her abusive situation. Deftly avoiding the old clichés of mad scientists and world domination schemes, Instead, Whannell turned this film into arguably the horror film that best encapsulated the #MeToo movement.

Granted, the underlying themes behind The Wolf Man don't rely on the same interpretation that Whannell did with The Invisible Man, but the acclaimed writer/director pulls off a similar trick. Traditionally speaking, the monstrous wolf-man and his terrifying transformation in the light of the full moon represented the idea of ​​succumbing to our base and most life-like urges. Whether it is the fears of sexual inhibition in a Puritan society (boy does that sound familiar) or more broadly dealing with humanity's ability to oppress those we see as "lesser" (also unfortunately relevant!), the wolf monster at the center of the story lends itself to all sorts of compelling interpretations. In Whannell's new film, he takes that to an even more interesting place.

While I have my quibbles with how The Wolfman handles the more emotional side of the narrative, I can't deny how smart it was for Whannell and co-writer Corbett Tuck to make the entire film about generational trauma and escaping cycles of abuse. The film opens with an extended prologue that follows young Blake Lovell (Zach Chandler) and his estranged father Grady (Sam Yeager) during an early encounter with a wolf. But more than establishing the film's main threat, this sequence neatly establishes Blake's biggest fear when he grows up and has a family of his own: turning into his abusive father. Most hardcore fans may be disappointed by the script's leaning far, far away from any supernatural explanations (Wolf Man syndrome is explained early on as "hill fever"), but the way it subtly incorporates the traditional werewolf "curse" deserves praise. . Instead of pointing the blame at the occult, The Wolf Man finds a much more suitable target. The final minute reveal that the creature attacking Blake and his family is actually his supposedly dead father puts a nice spin on it: the sins of the father will be visited upon the son. It is up to us, then, to find our own means of escape and spare our loved ones from living our worst nightmares.

"Wolfman" is now playing in theaters.