Leigh Whannell is back with another reimagining of a classic Universal Monsters movie, but his Wolf Man reboot pales in comparison to The Invisible Man for one important reason. Released in 2020, Whannell’s redo of The Invisible Man starred Elisabeth Moss as a woman who escapes from an abusive relationship with a powerful optics engineer. When he creates a high-tech suit that allows him to become invisible, he begins using it to stalk and terrorize her.
Whannell’s recently released Wolf Man revamp tries to similarly blend horror tropes with a poignant dramatic story. Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner lead the Wolf Man cast as an unhappy married couple whose relationship is put to the test when they’re tormented by a werewolf on an isolated farm. Whereas The Invisible Man blended its thematic exploration of abuse with its horror elements really effectively and seamlessly, Wolf Man’s handling of the theme of generational trauma is on-the-nose, and its connection to the werewolf story feels forced.
The Invisible Man Blended Horror Tropes With Real-Life Horror Seamlessly
Griffin’s Invisibility Perfectly Symbolized The Lingering Trauma Of Abuse
The Invisible Man blended its horror tropes with the real-life horror of domestic abuse seamlessly. Griffin’s invisibility perfectly symbolized the lasting trauma of an abusive relationship. Long after Cecilia has escaped from the relationship and gotten far away from her abuser, he’s still haunting her. She feels like he’s right over her shoulder, tormenting her, and his invisible presence realized that feeling in deeply disturbing fashion. It was the perfect pairing of a horror premise and a real-world social issue.
Wolf Man’s Thematic Connection Of Generational Trauma & Werewolves Feels Forced
Wolf Man Spells Out Its Themes In Unsubtle Dialogue
Wolf Man doesn’t blend its dramatic theme with its horror subgenre anywhere near as effectively as The Invisible Man. The story of Blake’s father becoming a werewolf and terrorizing him, then infecting him and turning him into a werewolf that, in turn, terrorizes his own daughter, is supposed to be a horror metaphor for generational trauma. Blake didn’t have a happy childhood, because his dad had a bad temper and was obsessed with hunting monsters, so he was determined to give his daughter a happy childhood, but just ended up making all the same mistakes as his own dad.
The link from generational trauma to werewolves is nowhere near as seamless as The Invisible Man; it’s just a psychological concept crammed into a well-worn horror genre.
In theory, that’s not a bad idea; it’s actually a pretty neat concept for a horror movie mixed with a family drama. But Wolf Man totally bungles the connection between the two in its execution. The link from generational trauma to werewolves is nowhere near as seamless as The Invisible Man; it’s just a psychological concept crammed into a well-worn horror genre.
It spells out its themes in on-the-nose dialogue: Blake tells his daughter that daddies try so hard to protect their kids from getting scarred that they become the very thing that scars them. Not only does that telegraph what Wolf Man is trying to say in a very unsubtle way; it also doesn’t hold any water. It’s not inevitable that a protective father will end up hurting his kids — it is possible to just be a good dad.
