Wolf Man is a reboot of the classic Universal Monsters movie The Wolfman, which focuses on a man who becomes a werewolf after falling victim to an ancient curse. In this version, a man must protect himself and his family when they are being stalked, terrorized, and haunted by a ᴅᴇᴀᴅly werewolf at night during a full moon. As the night goes on, he starts to act strangely himself, hinting that something else is very wrong.

Wolf Man is directed by Leigh Whannell, and it was co-written by Whannell himself and Corbett Tuck. Whannell’s previous films with Blumhouse include The Invisible Man, Upgrade, and Insidious: Chapter 3. The director is also known for his work on the first three Saw films. Wolf Man heads to theaters on January 17.

ScreenRant interviewed director Leigh Whannell about Wolf Man. He spoke about finding the balance between the emotional and the terrifying, as well as where his inspiration came from. Whannell also discussed the way the camera switches back and forth from the perspective of Blake and the rest of the family, and he revealed the thought process behind the slow transition from Blake to the wolf man.

Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man Is Tragic, Scary, And Inspired By A Real-Life Friend

“I had one friend who was suffering from a degenerative illness… and there’s no getting around the sadness of that.”

ScreenRant: This movie packs an emotional punch. It’s a sad story. It’s a tragic story, but it’s also scary. Can you talk about finding that balance?

Leigh Whannell: Yeah, it was interesting because you write a film in a vacuum. There’s no audience there to listen to, so you can’t really calibrate things when you’re editing a movie. You can test screen it, you can show it to people, and you can hear — but when you’re writing, it’s very insular. I was just thinking about what seemed to feel right to me when I was writing was the tragedy of it all.

I had one friend in particular who was suffering from an illness that was like a degenerative illness. They couldn’t walk anymore. They’re using a wheelchair. Then they can’t walk at all. They can’t communicate. So all my emotions around that I was putting into the script, and there’s no getting around the sadness of that. A film like Cronenberg’s The Fly illustrates that the two things, the horrific elements and the tragedy, can work together.

The Cinematography In Wolf Man Is Unique In That It Often Shifts Perspectives

“What if the camera just moved around the room, and suddenly you could understand what she was saying, like we’re crossing between worlds?”

ScreenRant: The way the camera spins around to shift perspectives in this movie feels like a masterclass in filming. Was that always the idea from the beginning?

Leigh Whannell: It was the idea from the beginning. That was actually the first idea. Usually, once I’ve decided to make a film, I’m going to write it. I’m just pacing around thinking, “How does this movie make me feel? What’s evocative?” The first idea I had in this movie was an image of a woman talking to a man, and we couldn’t understand what she was saying.

She was just speaking in this kind of garbled way, and then I had this idea. I was like, “Well, what if the camera just moved around the room, and suddenly you could understand what she was saying, like we’re crossing between worlds?” That idea really became sort of the central, molten core of the whole movie. Everything was built around that.

ScreenRant: What is the process of filming that?

Leigh Whannell: I had to work it out with Stefan Duscio, the cinematographer. This is our third film together. We had talked about it constantly during pre-production, and he was always suggesting, what if we used a UV camera? What if we used infrared? So we went and tested a bunch of infrared cameras.

We could never quite get there, and then we finally decided to just do it practically. So the camera would move around the room, and the gaffers would turn the dial and the lights would change, and then we augment it a little with visual effects in post-production, putting in, if you noticed, the molecules in the air. He could see kind of the animal world. So all that stuff was layered on, but most of it was done in camera.

American Werewolf In London Helped Push Leigh Whannell To Think Outside The Box

“We live in the shadow of Rick Baker’s work in American Werewolf in London. His amazing prosthetic makeup effects.”

ScreenRant: The slow transition from man to werewolf makes this movie even scarier, and helps to not show too much too quickly. Can you talk about the decision to do that?

Leigh Whannell: I think one of the other ideas, aside from the one I described, I was like, well, what can I do that’s different here? Because we’ve seen so many great werewolf transformations, and we live in the shadow of Rick Baker’s work in American Werewolf in London. His amazing prosthetic makeup effects.

So I was thinking, what can I do to separate myself from Rick Baker? I was thinking, “Well, slow it down.” And Arjen Tuiten, who was the makeup artist on this film, he agreed. He was like, “Let’s take it slowly.” That, again, just from the start, was just a conscious decision to do that.

More About The Wolf Man (2025)

What if someone you loved became something else? From Blumhouse and visionary writer-director Leigh Whannell, the creators of the chilling modern monster tale The Invisible Man, comes a terrifying new lupine nightmare: Wolf Man.

Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott (Poor Things, It Comes at Night) stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Emmy winner Julia Garner; Ozark, Inventing Anna), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth; Hullraisers, Coma).

But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.

Check back soon for our other Wolf Man interviews here:

• Christopher Abbott
• Julia Garner
• Bea Sequeira

Source: Screen Rant Plus