Horror fans, we have some pretty good news! It appears the upcoming reboot of the Universal Pictures lycanthropy IP, simply titled Wolf Man, is going for the jugular of standard horror. According to producer Jason Blum, the film is a pure horror movie that doesn’t exactly stay in safe territory in terms of gore. Director Leigh Whannell confidently agrees with this as he takes a break from editing and speaks about his future release.
Produced by Jason Blum through his studio, Blumhouse Productions, Wolf Man has been in production since the early 2020s, when Universal noticed the potential of bringing back their catalog of Universal Classic Monsters, albeit with a refreshing take. Director Leigh Whannell had been attached to the project, but then, when Ryan Gosling entered the picture and brought along a pitch to be directed by Derek Cianfrance, there was a change of plans. Nevertheless, they exited the project, and Whannell reclaimed the director’s chair and imprinted his vision. Per Blum’s statement to Entertainment Weekly:
Wolf Man
is a straight-up horror movie. It’s a
scary
horror movie. I think most of the
Wolf Man
movies that came before this have been softer. I don’t mean that pejoratively. I just mean that this one is pretty hardcore.
Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott, Julia Garner, Sam Jaeger and Matilda Firth. The film is set to open on January 17, 2025, with Universal Pictures distributing it worldwide. It’s a throwback to the original 1941 film but set in modern times. Abbot plays Blake, a family man who gets bitten by a strange creature and, during a full moon, he inevitably turns into a wolfman.
Is the Wolf Man Reboot Going to Be Scary Enough for Modern Audiences?
Saw alumn Leigh Whannell is no stranger to reigniting the fire under a long-dead horror franchise. In 2020, The Invisible Man blew up the box office and made almost $150 million. The film was critically acclaimed, and it still has a solid score of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. The discussion of whether he would be good for another classic monster follow-up was almost unnecessary.
We’re still miles away from a result that could make Universal dust off its plans to relaunch a modernization of its catalog of Classic Monsters. Those plans died when films like Dracula Untold and The Mummy didn’t have the best results. However, it seems Whannell isn’t only making a modern Wolf Man movie. He’s making a movie that could make classic monsters scary again:
“These classic monsters like Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein have become so ubiquitous.
They’re a little bit safe now. My kids watch animated movies with those monsters running around and being voiced by Adam Sandler. So part of my thing with this movie was taking it out of that safe territory and putting it back in this truly horrific territory.”
In any case, he isn’t alone in his endeavor to bring the classics back to life. In the very near future, there are several big movies based on classic monster franchises that will be hitting the big screen. These include Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride – based on The Bride of Frankenstein – Robert Egger’s Nosferatu, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and the James Wan remake of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Whether all of these will succeed in bringing life to the old monsters is yet to be seen, but it seems that the old creatures from your grandparents’ nightmares are ready to haunt another new generation.
- Release Date
- January 17, 2025
- Main Genre
- Horror