Wolf Man director Leigh Whannell just lost a significant Rotten Tomatoes streak. The director began his career with the Saw franchise, having directed the short film Saw 0.5 (2003) before writing Saw (2004). He quickly went on to make a name for himself in Hollywood, serving as a writer for the Insidious movies and then directing The Invisible Man (2020). His latest project, Wolf Man, sees him return to another classic horror monster, although early reactions have been mixed.

After four positive audience receptions in a row, Whannell’s Rotten Tomatoes streak ends with his latest movie. Wolf Man currently stands with a 58% Popcornmeter score, alongside a 54% Tomatometer score. Both results are enough to earn Rotten designations, marking his first negative audience score since Insidious: The Last Key in 2018. Check out Whannell’s role in each release below:

What The Rotten Tomatoes Score Means For Wolf Man

How Does The Score Compare To Other Wolf Man Movies?

This has not been an extraordinary start for the horror movie’s run. This weekend’s box office results were shocking, as the movie is expected to earn just $12 million in its four-day opening weekend. With a $25 million budget, it will need approximately $60 million to break even, thanks to marketing budgets and theaters taking their cuts from ticket sales. The start of the weekend was poor, and these Rotten Tomatoes scores only lessened its chances of a strong run. Even compared to the original Wolf Man movie, this release is disappointing:

The 2025 movie certainly improved on the performance of 2010’s The Wolfman, but that is hardly enough to build a success. After all, the 2010 release failed to break even on its $150 million budget, having earned just $142.6 million. A similar fate would be disastrous for Whannell, who was hoping to recapture the success of Invisible Man, but that seems unlikely at this point. Without audience support, it is unlikely to receive the word-of-mouth that this movie needs to recover, as this is even more clear with the C- score on CinemaScore.

Our Take On Wolf Man’s Rotten Tomatoes Score

This Is A Worrying Sign

Execution is likely to be the biggest issue for the release, as many of the Rotten Tomatoes reviewers criticized the Wolf Man’s appearance, the acting quality, and the predictable plot. The plot itself is forgivable, given that it is based on a movie from the 1940s, but the acting and the special effects are points that easily could have been fixed. Screen Rant‘s Alex Harrison released his own review, which addressed many of these criticisms before the movie was released. Harrison argued that it “lacks its predecessor’s thematic clarity” and that “any emotional bite doesn’t leave much of a mark.“

The wolf’s appearance itself earned extreme criticism when it was first revealed. Had Whannell made a drastic change to address the appearance critique, at least, it might have helped Wolf Man. Instead, audiences lost interest in the movie and failed to arrive for opening day. The poor reviews will likely keep any moviegoers from heading to theaters. Nosferatu proved that audiences are still interested in classic horror characters, but this movie proved that quality matters more than name recognition.

Source: Rotten Tomatoes