Wolf Man - Movie Review

In the DC universe, where a dark presence of an abandoned farmhouse has taken place, ‘Wolf Man’ explores details of one fateful night in a family when the father recklessly follows the trail of the unknown animal, which transforms him into a monster. As the thin veil of humanity slips from his actions the audience is thrust into an unforgiving examination of survival and fear. This story is built up slowly and the terrible consequences, the sinister change which overtakes one man as the night progresses are revealed slowly in this eerie storyline.

The ‘Wolf Man’ masterfully tells the story of transformation and alienation using the werewolf figure, developing the dualistic motif of human nature. The atmosphere shifts from oppressive dread to sheer terror instantly, and gothic themes are an intrinsic part of both the environment and narrative. This is a film that feeds on fear and suspense; It takes the gothic horror feel that has come to define movies such as Frankenstein and The Werewolf and complicates it with psychological horror elements of the more recent modern age.

The film stars the cast of ‘Wolf Man’ with Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott doing an exemplary job. Garner also reverses the stereotype of the hysterical female by pitching the fragile toughness of an emotionally damaged woman against the core male primal fear when Abbott’s character confronts his inner beast. The relationships between the characters feel real and intense, there is excitement in every scene and a true depiction of love and family that is being put to the test by unnatural evil.

Leigh Whannell, who directed the ‘Wolf Man’, excellently combines classical motifs with modern methods of scriptwriting. Whannell’s direction makes heavy use of suspense and imagery to pull the viewers into the story’s dark universe while relying on the plot and the characters to deliver horror. His vision makes ‘Wolf Man’ a fresh iteration of the werewolf movies and locks it in as a beneficiary of the remake.

The musical score of ‘Wolf Man’ increases the movie’s gothic atmosphere and its suspense. Sublimely it integrates into the Sinnessjuk environment and adds to heightened feelings and psychological dimension of scenes. The music plays a great role in telling a story enhancing the tension and leading the viewers through looming suspense, and shock.

The isolation of the explicitly eerie farm house setting has been brilliantly captured by cinematographer Stefan Duscio. The shadow used in the film and the light employed gives a directorial portrayal of claustrophobic feelings and the onset of a catastrophe. Finally, Duscio’s lens plays an integral role with the images they create, making the setting an entity itself. The farmhouse and named gothic throughout the picture, drawing out themes of isolation and change to remarkable detail. A keen degree of detail duplicates every groan in the floor and every cast shadow in the corners to heighten the sense of horror.

The picture benefits from the notable technical finesse that brings the werewolf transformation that lies at the centre of its plot to life. Realism at metamorphosis is done combined with body horror, which can be rather disturbing yet filled with such artistic finesse: overall, it suits the film’s theme of identity and animal instinct.

The transformation in ‘Wolf Man’ is effectively done and along with that, the editing is smart, sensitive to the pacing of the movie and its thrill. It narrates events smoothly with a certain tempo: the horror sources are interchanged with more personal development points or deep social message scenes.

In this sense, ‘Wolf Man’ does not hurry with the thriller action but just accumulates tension and dips into the drastic stir of the end. The way that this leads to increasing BitConverter’s audience investment in the characters’ fates goes hand-in-hand with its frights allowing for a great deterrent when it involves horror.

The dialogue of the picture ’Wolf Man’ is laconic and meaningful, it intensifies emotions when the loud or musical component is used. This comes at the cost of dialogue that at times runs on subtext, suggesting the dramatic psychological breakdown of the characters as they come face to face with forces that are beyond their understanding.

Some may feel that this film, and in particular ‘Wolf Man’ takes a while to get going in what may be seen as slightly slower pacing. It does so at its own pace, which might not sit well with those who are looking forward to high octane action from the start of the movie. However, its focus on psychological horror is laudable, the lack of proper explanation of some of the narrative components could have strengthened this aspect even more.

Watching ‘Wolf Man’ is like traveling to the core of gothic horror – a film with the intensity of a typical monster movie, backed up by tight psychological themes that run deep. These two factors of having heavy emotional performances alongside brilliant cinematography give the audience the horror they cannot easily forget. The impact of the movie is that the audience is given a very powerful message and presented to contemplate some common human qualities that are very immoral and that make ordinary people want to become monsters.