The Wolf Man’s Monstrous Final Look Is Bound To Divide Horror Fans

This article contains mild spoilers for “Wolf Man.”

The centerpiece of any werewolf movie is its transformation sequence. Starting with George Waggner’s “The Wolf Man” in 1941, witnessing a human being turn into a hairy, wolf-like beast has attracted horror nuts in droves. In “The Wolf Man,” Lon Chaney, Jr. sat still in a chair for a static shot of his face. Then the film’s brilliant makeup technicians would add a small layer of makeup and hair, and Chaney would be shot again. Several shots were layered together using clever cross-fading, giving the impression that he was transforming. It looks awesome to this day. 

1981 was also a banner year for werewolf transformation, as it saw the release of Joe Dante’s “The Howling” and John Landis’ “An American Werewolf in London.” Both of those films made extensive use of makeup, puppetry, models, and rubber creature heads to create some truly terrifying werewolf transformations. I would also like to call attention to a transformation in 1988’s “Howling IV: The Original Nightmare” wherein a human literally melts into a puddle of glop and then reconstitutes as a Wolf Man like the T-1000 in “Terminator 2.” That’s a new one for most.

The wolf transformation in Leigh Whannell’s new film “Wolf Man” has — for those who don’t mind spoilers — had already been made available online, although I recommend saving the video until after you’ve seen the movie. Needless to say, the sequence will likely divide audiences. On the one hand, Whannell seems to have wanted to dramatize a werewolf transformation that was as realistic as possible, keeping the wolf-like mutations to a minimum, and keeping the Wolf Man more man than wolf. On the other hand, the lack of ultra-dramatic changes might upset horror fans who were raised on “American Werewolf” and “Howling.” For many, the transformation will not be long enough, different enough, or weird enough. 

Sadly, there are no scenes of Christopher Abbott’s face extending creepily into a wolf snout. 

It should be explained that the werewolf curse in Whannell’s “Wolf Man” isn’t a magical curse, but a biological virus. Christopher Abbott plays a character named Blake who contracts the virus from a werewolf attack while en route to his dead father’s cabin in the woods of Oregon. The virus takes hold quickly, and his transformation is swift. At first, his senses become enhanced. He can hear a spider walking on a wall from several rooms away, for instance. A fun novel detail: Blake also loses his ability to understand human speech. After a while, his wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth) sound like they are speaking gibberish. 

Because the transformation is so swift, however, and because there is no explicitly stated magic involved, Whannell appears to have wanted to keep his central monster’s wolfishness to a minimum. He seems to have wanted to make a realistic monster. Blake loses the hair on his head but grows a little extra on his back. His fingernails turn to claws, and his hands seem to spread out. His face swells a little, and his nose becomes smoothed out and more animal-like. His ears also become a little pointy. Oh yes, and his teeth grow and his eyes become yellow and more wolf-life. He’s like a weird, scary dude more than he is a wolf. 

But that’s it. Unlike in “An American Werewolf in London,” “The Howling,” or the 1941 “The Wolf Man,” this new Wolf Man doesn’t go full wolf. His legs don’t break into wolf legs. His ears don’t move to the top of his head. He has no tail. The wolf mutations seem, at least for a horror movie, more plausible. It’s theoretically possible that one’s face would swell when exposed to a serious illness, or that their teeth would fall out. One might even lose their mental faculties. These are the symptoms of several serious diseases.

But in skewing toward realism, Whannell robbed “Wolf Man” of an outstanding transformation sequence. Whannell is a thoughtful and efficient horror director (he previously made “Invisible Man” and “Upgrade”) who knows how to work within a budget. It would have been exciting for horror fans to watch him swing for the walls and stretch “Wolf Man’s” limited budget into a werewolf mutation for the ages. He couldn’t have made use of expensive modern CGI, but there’s still a lot that can be done with carefully planned, inexpensive practical effects. Also, even though “Wolf Man” is relatively modest and downbeat, gorehounds know that Whannell can be wild. Not only did he write the first three “Saw” movies and the first four “Insidious” movies, but he also directed “Insidious: Chapter 3.” 

He brings a wild Australian sensibility to his movies that only he and his fellow countrymen can provide. Heck, famed Aussie director Philippe Mora helmed both “Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf” and “Howling III: The Marsupials.” Whannell could have taken cues from Mora. 

But then, this all comes down to preference. Either one likes realistic werewolves that are grounded in biology and others like magical werewolves that mutate fully into outsize carnivorous monsters. Whannell aimed for the first, but will potentially upset fans of the second. 

Something tells me this will be a lighthearted debate that will continue for years. Sort of like the slow-zombies vs. fast-zombies argument. No conclusion will ever be reached. 

“Wolf Man” is now playing in theaters everywhere.