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

Wolf Man Is Not A Fairy Tale, Not Folklore, But "Very Grounded"

Wolf Man director Leigh Whannell says the wolf man is not inspired by fairy tales or folk tales but takes "a very grounded approach."

There were not a lot of bright spots in 2020 for rather obvious reasons, but The Invisible Man was undoubtedly one of them. The unique approach to not only the character but also the way director Leigh Whannell utilized the concept to explore the themes of domestic abuse and believing victims. There is a reason that the film made Whannell shoot to the top of everyone's lists of directors to keep an eye on, and his involvement in Wolf Man is a massive reason to believe that this film will be good. It shouldn't have been surprising to hear that Whannell decided to approach the character of Wolf Man in a similar way to how he did with The Invisible Man, which takes something supernatural and makes it feel much more realistic. Whannell explained to Total Film that he was greatly inspired by the gothic horror of Tim Burton or Guillermo de Toror (justice for Crimson Peak). However, he emphasized that this is not a creature rooted in fairy tales or folklore but a very grounded approach.

"I'm a big fan of gothic horror movies. I love what Tim Burton did with Sleepy Hollow, and I love what Guillermo del Toro does," Whannell said. "There's such beauty to those gothic elements, like fog and cemeteries on a hill backlit by the Moon. From a production design element, I love all that stuff, but I think I love it more as a viewer. I'm the guy to watch that stuff, but I'm not the right guy to make it. When it comes time for me to make a monster, my mind immediately wants to place that monster in the real world and take a very grounded approach: we're not dealing with a fairy tale here, we're not dealing with a folk tale, we're dealing with something that could really happen."

So far, everyone at Universal and Blumhouse is making the right call and not showing us the Wolf Man in question. You only need to look at Nosferatu to see that you can hide the monster's design even after the release date, and people will still show up to your movie if it's good. Not knowing what it looks like just makes the entire experience even better. We still have a couple more weeks before the film is released, and we hope no one will spoil what this new "grounded" Wolf Man will look like or the themes Whannell will explore in this film.

Wolf Man: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

What if someone you loved became something else?

From Blumhouse and visionary writer-director Leigh Whannell, the creators of the chilling modern monster tale The Invisible Man comes a terrifying new lupine nightmare: Wolf Man.

Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott (Poor Things, It Comes at Night) stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Emmy winner Julia Garner; Ozark, Inventing Anna), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth; Hullraisers, Coma).

But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they're attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.

The film co-stars Sam Jaeger (The Handmaid's Tale), Ben Prendergast (The Sojourn Audio Drama) and Benedict Hardie (The Invisible Man), with newcomer Zac Chandler, Beatriz Romilly (Shortland Street) and Milo Cawthorne (Shortland Street).

Wolf Man is directed by Whannell and written by Whannell & Corbett Tuck. Whannell's previous films with Blumhouse include The Invisible Man, Upgrade and Insidious: Chapter 3.

The film is produced by Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum p.g.a., and Ryan Gosling (The Fall Guy, Lost River) and is executive produced by Whannell, Beatriz Sequeira, Mel Turner and Ken Kao. Universal Pictures and Blumhouse present a Gosling/Waypoint Entertainment production, in association with Cloak & Co: Wolf Man. It will be released in theaters on January 17, 2025.

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