The opening scene of the new Wolf Man reboot is tense, atmospheric, and deeply disturbing — it wrote a check that the rest of the movie couldn’t cash. Christopher Abbott leads the Wolf Man cast as Blake Lovell, who’s called up to his childhood home in Oregon when his werewolf-obsessed father is declared legally ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. On the drive up to his dad’s farm, Blake is run off the road by a werewolf, gets infected with its lycanthropic condition, and gradually transforms into a monster in front of his family’s eyes.

The majority of the film’s action takes place over the course of the fateful night of Blake’s transformation. But it opens with a flashback to 1995 in which a young Blake is taken out into the woods by his father to learn how to hunt. The opening sequence gets the movie off to a chilling start. It creates a sense of intrigue around Wolf Man’s werewolf lore without giving too much away. Unfortunately, the movie that follows can’t live up to it.

The Best Part Of Wolf Man Is Its Opening Scene

Wolf Man Peaks In Its Flashback Prologue

The opening scene of Wolf Man seems to set up a great little horror movie. Blake runs off to get a better look at his prey and catches an unsettling glimpse of a feral man off in the distance, standing perfectly still and staring at him from afar. This moment shows the audience just enough to get an idea of the horrific monster lurking in the forest, while still leaving them to fill in the rest with their imagination. Blake and his dad hide in a hunting blind, where they’re ominously tormented by the unseen monster.

This sequence is genuinely frightening, creates a palpably creepy atmosphere, and shrouds the werewolf in mystery. It also establishes a compelling dynamic between Blake and his father. Blake’s dad wants to keep his son safe, but he has a bad temper that alienates him — and, paradoxically, he brings the son he wants to protect into a monster’s natural habitat to teach him how to hunt. The relationship would’ve been an interesting one to explore, but the dad gets written out in the 30-year time jump. It’s no wonder why Wolf Man has received such mixed reviews.

Why The Rest Of The Movie Falls Short Of The Opening

After That Opening, It Just Becomes A Dull, Generic Creature Feature

Once Wolf Man jumps forward to the present day, it drops everything that made the opening scene so great. There’s a dearth of genuine scares, the atmosphere falls flat, and the monster is plastered all over the screen (with a very underwhelming design at that). What started out as an atmospheric chiller just devolves into a dull, generic creature feature.