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Leigh Whannel’s reinvention of Wolf Man drops for Universal tomorrow, January 17th, and the reviews are now in. Unfortunately, they aren’t great. As of the time of writing this morning, it is at 57% from 82 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic is moving back and forth just under the 50% mark.
For context, his adaption of The Invisible Man was in the 90% range. So what are the critics saying?
“This isn’t a reimagining on the level of Leigh Whannell’s previous foray into the classic horror vaults, The Invisible Man. But there’s no shortage of intensity or gore, not to mention brisk efficiency.”
David Rooney, THR
“So it’s not an instant classic like The Invisible Man. I think we can all live with that. It’s still a scary and interesting movie about a wolf man, anchored by a haunting performance from Abbott, who understood the assignment and went for extra credit.”
William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“At their best, werewolf pictures can be cathartic, romantic, tragic — a vision of our desires colluding with unchecked animal impulses. This Wolf Man, however, feels like a vague anecdote.”
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
“Slack when it should be terrifying, Wolf Man suffers from cheap sentimentality, laughably obvious script reveals, poor continuity and a creature that is less predatory than painful. Pity comes to mind.”
Mark Kennedy, Associated Press
“A semi-feral drama about parental fears that isn’t remotely scary enough to catalyze those concerns into the action it puts on screen, Wolf Man runs away from its potential with its tail between its legs.”
David Ehrlich, Indiewire
“The more Whannell strains to make his bigger points resonate, the more conventional the film’s narrative becomes — alas, this “Wolf” only scratches the surface.”
Tim Grierson, Screen
“There’s an excellent opening prologue sequence and a very smart final shot – but everything between is silly, misjudged and dull with dud storytelling, middling prosthetics and wide-eyed ‘I’m scared’ reaction acting.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
“The filmmaker dismantles the lore and delivers a bold new take on the werewolf, smartly refusing to explain its rules, but it’s so wrapped up in its underserved characters and subtext that it forgets to be scary.”
Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting
Wolf Man will still be on track to make money. The budget was in the low $20 million range and it will make most of that back in its opening weekend.
The post The WOLF MAN Reviews Are In appeared first on Last Movie Outpost.
