With body horror being all the rage this year thanks to the release of Coralie Fargeat’sThe Substance, it appears as if Universal is looking to ride that hype train into 2025 based on the new trailer forWolf Man, which highlights Christopher Abbott’sgruesome transformation into a savage beast. Directed by Leigh Whannell, the film is a reimagining of the 1941 classic, and also stars Julia Garner and Matilda Firth. It follows in the footsteps of Whannell’sThe Invisible Man, which was a box office smash back in 2020.
Starring Abbott, Garner, and Firth as a family looking for a fresh start in Oregon, they soon find themselves trapped in a farmhouse with a werewolf stalking them from outside, while a gnarly wound to Abbott threatens to change him into that same creature inside. Thenew trailerforWolf Man(seen below) showcases what fans can expect come January, and based on what’s shown, it seems as if Whannell and company are leaning heavily intothe body horror aspect of the movie, which is being done mainly with practical effects instead of CGI.
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The trailer starts with the loving family entering Oregon in their moving truck, but soon descends into chaos as Abbott swerves to avoid a nasty looking man-beast standing in the road, thus crashing into a tree and flipping the truck on its side. They’re chased by said man-beast, take solace in a farmhouse, and from there we witness a little of Abbott’s transformation. There are teeth falling out, hair being shed, and heavily damaged fingernails shown with blood all around them as they begin to rip themselves free from Abbott’s hand. It’s all pretty tame when compared to a film likeThe Substance, but still,fans of body horrorwill be pleased to see the filmmakers treating the werewolf transformationwith the same care that was taken with 1980s classicslikeThe HowlingandAn American Werewolf in London.
Leigh Whannell’s Creature Will Be Something We’ve ‘Never Seen Before’
With any werewolf movie, there comes with it a certain expectation from the audience thanks to the bar set by SFX wizards Rick Baker and Rob Bottin. The transformations they created in the aforementioned ’80s classics set the standard going forward, but when it comes to Whannell’s version, he told Discussing Filmearlier this yearthat he wants to go his own way rather than just riffing on what came before him. The result, he said,will be a werewolf we’ve yet to see on the big screen.
“Rather than trying to outdo or build upon what has already been done in the past, I tried to do somethingsingular, where people could say, ‘Oh, I’ve never seen that version before.'”
Whether Whannell managed to achieve such a feat remains to be seen, as his creature is being kept under wraps until the film debuts on Jan. 17. Until then, we’ll just have to be content with a few glimpses, but based on what we’ve seen thus far, we’re already salivating at the thought of seeing his werewolf in all its savage glory.
Wolf Man is a reboot of the classic Universal Monsters movie The Wolfman. Christopher Abbott stars in the lead role and is helmed by The Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell. The film follows the same premise as the original and the 2010 reboot, focusing on a man who becomes a werewolf after falling victim to an ancient curse.
