Posted in: Blumhouse, Movies | Tagged: blumhouse, leigh whannell, wolf man

Wolf Man: More Pure Horror Than Invisible Man? Whannell Thinks So

Leigh Whannell is ready to make his version of the Wolf Man a "pure horror film" and his scariest yet. It opens in theaters on January 17th.

Published Fri, 27 Sep 2024 11:47:08 -0500

by Jeremy Konrad

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Article Summary

Leigh Whannell's new Wolf Man aims to be a pure horror film, the scariest he's made yet.
Whannell previously reinvented The Invisible Man, now tackling the beloved lycanthropy story.
The director wants Wolf Man to feel fresh, avoiding nostalgia and cliches of past werewolf movies.
Originally set for Halloween, Wolf Man now releases on January 17th, 2025 in theaters.

Wolf Man director Leigh Whannell is no stranger to reinventing a classic monster. He was the man responsible for 2020's hit The Invisible Man, keeping the lore but updating the story in a winning way for modern audiences. he is now attempting to do the same thing with a tough nut to crack, the beloved lycanthropy story of a man turning into an uncontrollable beast. In a new interview with Empire, the director talked a bit about how he is approaching this as a fresh take on the werewolf story and how this will be horror in its purest form.

Writer/director Leigh Whannell at the world premiere of his movie Insidious Chapter 3 at the TCL Chinese Theatre, Hollywood. Editorial credit: Jaguar PS / Shutterstock.com

Wolf Man Is A Tough Nut To Crack

"I was watching a lot of domestic thrillers when I wrote The Invisible Man because I love that genre. [Wolf Man] is me saying, 'I just wanted to make something that is straight-up, pure horror." I think of it as a companion piece to The Invisible Man. I didn't want this film to be a nostalgic or a retro Wolf Man film in any way." [I was] actually writing down in my notepad everything that's been done, and then saying, 'Okay, that's the list of what not to do. I'm hoping that you go in and say, 'Oh wow, I haven't seen that werewolf movie before,' when the lights come up."

That is the exact attitude I was hoping for. Wolf Man is a character and story that is very near and dear to my heart, and frankly, the only film to get it right since the classic Universal film is the version we got in The Monster Squad in 1987. So, it has been quite a long time since we have had any kind of quality Wolf Man on screen. No pressure or anything, Leigh.

Wolf Man was originally scheduled to be released in theaters by Halloween, but Blumhouse and Universal decided to postpone it to January 17th, 2025.

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