Writer/Director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man, like 2020’s The Invisible Man, bears little resemblance to the Universal Monsters movie upon which it’s loosely based. Though it similarly centers on a man who returns to his ancestral home only to find himself grappling with a bizarre affliction after an equally strange animal attack, an inciting scene set in a rental truck bearing the name of Universal’s legendary makeup artist Jack Pierce and the year 1941, The Wolf Man‘s release year, serves as an early torch-passing signal not to expect a retread here.

Instead, Leigh Whannell reinterprets the horror classic from a modern lens, decimating all of the cinematic werewolf rules in the process. That alone makes Whannell’s interpretation of the Wolf Man mythos an ambitious yet polarizing effort.

The reluctant Wolf Man in this story is Blake, introduced as a doting stay-at-home dad to young Ginger (Matlida...