At one point in time, there was set to be a “Dark Universe” of Universal Monster reboots, though with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy failing to ignite much interest in that shared cinematic universe, those plans were largely abandoned. In 2020, however, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man managed to be a hit with both audiences and critics, returning to the world of beloved monsters with a new take on The Wolf Man for a project he calls a “companion piece” to his previous adventure. This isn’t to say that these projects will connect in any substantial narrative way, though, and will merely serve as a thematic extension of what he started in 2020. Wolf Man is set to land in theaters on January 17, 2025.
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“I was watching a lot of domestic thrillers when I wrote The Invisible Man, because I love that genre. [Wolf Man] is me saying, ‘I just wanted to make something that is straight-up, pure horror,’” Whannell detailed to Empire Magazine. “I think of it as a companion piece to The Invisible Man … I didn’t want this film to be a nostalgic or a retro Wolf Man film in any way.”
He continued, “[I was] actually writing down in my notepad everything that’s been done, and then saying, ‘Okay, that’s the list of what not to do’ … I’m hoping that you go in and say, ‘Oh wow, I haven’t seen that werewolf movie before,’ when the lights come up.”
Cruise’s The Mummy suffered largely due to not quite knowing what it wanted to be, as it attempted to honor the horror elements of the original take on the monster, though also injected hefty amounts of action and adventure as seen in the Brendan Fraser-starring The Mummy films, while also trying to establish a conceit that would allow for spinoffs and sequels. The result was a messy and overstuffed experience, which only sits at 15% positive critical reactions on Rotten Tomatoes.
Whannell’s Invisible Man took the original concepts of a man with a fragile mental state descending into darkness due to rendering himself invisible and injected some contemporary themes into it, instead telling the story of an abusive man who fakes his own death and utilizes a suit that makes him invisible to terrorize his ex-girlfriend from seemingly beyond the grave. While the original mythology seen in 1941’s The Wolf Man saw a man being transformed into a werewolf under select conditions throughout the year, first looks at Whannell’s Wolf Man look to be much more contained to one major instance of terror.
Fans are especially excited to see how the monstrous creature will look in the upcoming film, as the only small glimpse we’ve been given of the creature came during the in-person Halloween Horror Nights event, which didn’t build much confidence among fans for the monster’s on-screen look.
Wolf Man is set to hit theaters on January 17, 2025.
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Image Courtesy of Tri-Star Pictures
