Musings of a Faerie Doll

A man is cursed to turn into a half man, half wolf creature when the moon is full. He becomes a beast and goes on a rampage, hurting, killing and in some versions spreading his curse to innocent people. He is usually killed by "someone who loves him."

When done properly, there are two simultaneous horror stories happening here:

there's A Monster that the people are afraid of. He terrorizes the village and frightens the supporting characters.

There's a curse upon our main character; he is experiencing body horror, guilt, and the loss of his humanity.

Now, there are variations to the theme. One of my favorites is Jack Nicholson's take on it in the 90s with Wolf. The theme there was that the wolf is only evil if the man is evil.

But Blumhouse consistently delivers a fresh take on even the oldest tropes. This film is not at all how I would have done it. But that's ok, because it is a brilliant take.

We see at least two characters who have the curse. One is genuinely threatening and terrifying. But we also know that he was, frankly, not a great guy to begin with.

But then our main character starts to change.

Guys. Ladies. Precious Enbies.

We get to change along with him. We see the world distort through his eyes. We hear it shift through his ears, and it is frightening and confusing.

The Effects coordinator sculpted a 3D model of his concept art for how the Wolf Man should look. Y'all. It's an emotional piece; a creature in despair, sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall and just... Staring into the distance. The director said, "Yes. This. Exactly. You Nailed It."

The look is vulpine, true, but it looks even more ursine. The monster looks like a bear with mange.

And that triggered a whole lot of feels and opinions in me. Consider the terrifying prospect of a mangy bear with rabies. That's the Wolf Man. Now put a sad wet cat of a guy inside the monster.

The story is about a family; a guy brings his wife and daughter from New York to the Pacific Northwest to deal with his father's "Estate" which is basically his off-the-grid cabin in the wilderness.

Cue the horror.

It's scary. And sad, really. This doesn't have a feel-good ending or anything, though the narrative is solid.

There's another horror film that I need to bring up, too; another one that is brilliant, well executed, and extremely hard to watch: The Fly with Jeff Goldblum. This had a similar vibe, though they are very different films. I watched the behind the scenes features on The Wolf Man. The director actually mentions The Fly as part of their inspiration, so yeah, I wasn't wrong about that.

I must give a shout out to the effects, too; most of it is in-camera, and the things that are added in post merely enhance what's already there, for the most part. There's a bit that I thought I could track how it was done; I was wrong! And it was an in-camera effect!

The one visual effect that was added after the fact (uh, I assume) is what they call "Wolf-vision." It's what I meant about seeing through his eyes; the world shifts in a strange, otherworldly way when you're seeing through his eyes. It's a dazzling effect, and very trippy. Add on the sound effects garbling and distorting all the sounds and voices, and it's pretty easy to experience his curse along with him. He hears a spider moving in a closet; it's a booming, rhythmic sound. He hears his wife speaking, and the words have English sounds in them but are a garbled mess. Familiar things become muffled and distorted, and unfamiliar sounds drown out everything else.