One Thing Directly Connects Wolf Man And The Invisible Man (Besides The Director)

Warning: This article contains major spoilers for “Wolf Man.”

Just call Leigh Whannell the monster whisperer. There have been few instances where a studio has struggled so mightily (or so publicly) in trying to get audiences interested in their crown jewel of an IP — in this case, the classic stable of Universal Monsters. By the same token, however, the turnaround has been just as sudden and convincing. Since 2020, the year that Whannell’s “The Invisible Man” released and promptly blew everyone’s minds, the franchise has enjoyed a marked improvement across the board. Not coincidentally, this also coincided with the decision-makers finally giving up on their grand dreams for some shared universe that could rival the likes of DC and Marvel. Instead of a world where Dr. Jekyll plays the Nick Fury role of assembling monsters to fight, uh, other monsters (I guess?), we’ve been treated to a number of standalone films spanning multiple different genres and each telling their own unique stories.

And, yes, Whannell was the pioneer who helped set this refreshing new tone in the first place, which makes ” Wolf Man” (as I reviewed for /Film here) such an interesting evolution of this trend. Although obviously a very different title character than the one from “The Invisible Man,” Whannell approaches this far more animalistic creature in similar ways. Both set the action in the present day, both delve deep into the psychology of their respective villains, and both reinterpret the original movies to deeply surprising — but always faithful — results. It’s that last point in particular that fans of “The Invisible Man” may end up appreciating most about “Wolf Man,” as Whannell takes the prototypical notion of a werewolf “curse” and, as he did with his 2020 film, spins it into a more relatable allegory for modern audiences.

In the hands of lesser filmmakers — and the film gods know that there have been many — various attempts to adapt the character evocatively known as the Wolf Man (or Wolfman, in years past) have made one of a few fatal mistakes. Either they get bogged down by continuity and crossover fever, which 1943’s “Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man” proves is hardly a recent phenomenon, or the dreaded scenario of having too many cooks in the kitchen rears its ugly head, as director Joe Johnston (and previously-attached director Mark Romanek) found out the hard way with 2010’s “The Wolfman.” Add the fact that the character itself is a particularly tough nut to crack, considering just how ingrained the lore and stereotypes of werewolves have become in pop culture, and it’s easy to see why the deck has remained stacked against the Wolf Man.

Fortunately, Leigh Whannell’s past experience with “The Invisible Man” clearly came in handy as he took the reins on “Wolf Man.” When he first dove into the deep end of the Universal Monsters swimming pool, he decided to take that monster in a radical direction. Where the original 1933 movie tells the tragic tale of a prankster’s descent into madness and murder on a mass scale, Whannell’s take on the material reimagines the title character in an even more sinister and all-too-real light. Though as unrepentant a villain as he’s ever been, this version of the Invisible Man embarks on a gaslighting campaign meant to torture just one victim in particular — a former lover (Elisabeth Moss) who had the gall to leave her abusive situation. Deftly avoiding old clichés about mad scientists and schemes of world domination, Whannell instead turned this film into arguably the horror movie that best encapsulated the #MeToo movement. 

Granted, the underlying themes behind “Wolf Man” don’t exactly lend itself to the exact same interpretation as what Whannell did with “The Invisible Man,” but the acclaimed writer/director pulls off a similar trick. Traditionally speaking, the monstrous Wolf Man and his grisly transformation in the light of the full moon has represented the idea of succumbing to our basest and most animalistic urges. Whether it be the fears of sexual inhibition in a puritanical society (boy, that sounds familiar) or a more broader grappling of humankind’s ability to oppress those we perceive as “lesser” (also sadly relevant!), the wolfish monster at the center of the story has lent itself to all sorts of compelling interpretations. In Whannell’s new film, he takes that to an even more interesting place.

Although I have my quibbles with how “Wolf Man” handles the more emotional side of the narrative, I can’t deny just how clever it was for Whannell and co-writer Corbett Tuck to make the entire movie about generational trauma and escaping cycles of abuse. The movie starts with an extended prologue following young Blake Lovell (Zac Chandler) and his distant, demanding father Grady (Sam Jaeger) during an early encounter with the Wolf Man. But more than establishing the main threat of the film, this sequence neatly establishes Blake’s greatest fear when he grows up and has a family of his own: turning into his own abusive father. More hardcore fans may be disappointed by a script that leans far, far away from any supernatural explanations (the Wolf Man syndrome is explained early on as a “hill fever”), but the way it subtly incorporates the traditional werewolf “curse” deserves praise. Rather than pointing the blame at the occult, “Wolf Man” finds a much more relatable target. The last-minute reveal that the creature attacking Blake and his family is actually his presumed-dead father puts a fine point on it: the sins of the father will be visited upon the son. It’s up to us, then, to find our own means of escape and spare our loved ones from living our worst nightmares.

“Wolf Man” is now playing in theaters.