Reviews
[REVIEW] ‘Wolf Man’ Is Not Quite a Hoot, but Maybe a Howl
Wolf Man, written and directed by Whannell, stars Christopher Abbott in full dad-mode, working through a strained family dynamic with his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). With news of Blake’s father passing, the family takes a trip to his childhood farm in central Oregon to pack up his belongings. Not much closure is awarded to the estranged father-son relationship before getting into some real infectious business.
I’m not calling myself an expert, but I’ll be first in line for any new werewolf story I can get. Werewolves are one of the most wicked vehicles to describe the fear of change, self-acceptance, lust, anything! What I love about them is their stories allow viewers to enjoy multiple perspectives. Some movie-goers look for a more tangible fear through subcontext or relatable base storylines, and others prefer to sniff out a story of raw violence and survival. Either way, there’s a good chance you’ll find something entertaining, even in Wolf Man.
Leigh Whannell’s Reinvention of the Wolf Man
Leigh Whanell’s The Invisible Man was probably the last horror movie we saw in theaters before the world almost ended at the hands of the coronavirus. Funny enough, sickness and questionable disease make up a large portion of Whanell’s latest Universal Monsters rendition, Wolf Man. There are no full moons or silver bullets this time. “Face of the wolf” is the animalistic virus known to the indigenous populations of the rural northwest.
Wolf Man, written and directed by Whannell, stars Christopher Abbott in full dad-mode, working through a strained family dynamic with his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). With news of Blake’s father passing, the family takes a trip to his childhood farm in central Oregon to pack up his belongings. Not much closure is awarded to the estranged father-son relationship before getting into some real infectious business.
Werewolf Cinema: Tradition and Innovation
Historically, the diaspora of werewolf cinema is as vast as U.S. Route 20 is long (which will also lead you straight up to Oregon), which gives plenty of room for creative risk and personal interpretation. A great werewolf story should never be without at least a little tragedy, but as fans roll out of the theater with mixed reviews, it’s clear that we could’ve pumped the brakes on the familial trauma just a bit- we’ve seen that over and over.
Some risks were taken with this movie, just not with the plot or its dialogue, and the real plague is the tacky discourse forced onto a capable cast. However, Abbott’s body acting bleeds through as his unknown disease progresses. He’s an excellent choice for a role that swaps between loveable dad, and damaged being beyond repair. His duality makes his agonizing mutations that much more tragic for everyone- on screen and off.
Visuals, Gore, and Transformation Scenes
Conventional but visually gorgeous is a thin wire to sit on, but it’s held together with hauntingly captured countryside scenery. The real weight is pulled by transformation scenes that borrow from the greats of the sub-genre. The bits of practical body horror blessings are what saved me from a trip to the bathroom, and what I believe will save this film from the unforgiving trenches of Film Twitter. Fans of An American Werewolf in London and The Fly will have something pretty to feast their eyes on, I’ll tell you that. I heard mumblings of Cronenberg influences before screening, but I did not expect this level of gore.
The fears of not knowing what’s happening to your body, the body of a loved one, or if they will even survive are exploited in a pretty disgusting (complimentary) way. So much so, that the base conflict of breaking generational trauma, and removing animosity out of marriage doesn’t, and shouldn’t really matter. Just like Blake’s ordeal with his estranged father, we aren’t awarded closure there either- which supports my point; it doesn’t really matter.
Werewolves and Human Anxiety
Look, the intimate interpersonal themes in The Invisible Man were on point. They complimented any angle you could watch the film from, driven by a monster that exists on a human plane, but we’re playing on different turf now. Werewolves are a threat that exist on the far end of fantasy, so why not give us a more fantastic underlying conflict that aligns more with the anxieties that come with the health of self and loved ones? Clearly, a large amount of thought and effort was put into the passage of the wolf himself, and it paid off. I would’ve preferred to stay in that realm, but to be real with you, I sat down to witness a wicked wolf, and visually, yes, that goal was met.
Wolf Man is in theaters everywhere Friday, January 17th
This month on Horror Press, we’re discussing international horror. What jumped to mind immediately for me was a witchy classic that is one of my biggest blind spots. That would be the Swedish docudrama Häxan, also known in English as Witchcraft Through the Ages. Benjamin Christensen’s wildly controversial filmic essay is notorious among horror fans, and it’s been on my watchlist forever. I’ve had ample time to watch this movie, considering it debuted more than seven decades before I was born. So I’m at last correcting a major oversight. Happy Halloween season, y’all!
Does Häxan Play Well in 2026?
Even though I knew the basics of what Häxan was and where it came from, it still surprised me. Although its thesis is mostly a foundation upon which to build phantasmagorical images, Häxan very much believes in that thesis. And it has honestly aged pretty damn well. Other than the use of the word “hysteria” to describe predominantly female mental illness. But for that to be the part that’s aged worse in a movie that’s more than a century old? Not too shabby. Beyond that, it’s essentially an early feminist text. It retells witch mythology mostly to draw a direct parallel between medieval superstition and 1920s mental illness stigma. You could turn its points into a Halloween-themed BlueSky mental health thread, and you’d barely have to change the language.
Unfortunately, due to its nature as a silent film, the majority of this message is delivered via intertitles. A lot of the time, it feels like you’re literally just sitting there reading an essay. Although I believe classic cinema shouldn’t be tampered with, I get why the 1968 re-release added William S. Burroughs narration. That’s where Häxan has aged the worst. White text on a black screen is not the reason I go to the movies. The more text-heavy portions can start to feel really dry. However…
Häxan Is a Fascinating and Bone-Chilling Object
First of all, I don’t mean to flat-out dismiss the essay portions of the film. They largely present interesting, well-researched information. And I really dug how it becomes more and more clear that Benjamin Christensen himself is the one writing the intertitles. His personality and the personalities of his actors become part of the story he’s telling. This helps Häxan feel more personal and easy to connect to, even across oceans of time.
Then there are the witchcraft recreations, which are for sure the main reason anybody throws this movie on these days. They’re right to do so, because those recreations are freaking phenomenal. Christensen & Co. use every tool in the early filmmaker’s arsenal to bring a series of truly macabre visions to life. All manner of demons and monsters parade across the screen, in a flurry that rivals any modern frightfest. There’s some impeccable makeup that feels handmade but nevertheless wholly organic in an appropriately surreal way. There’s also some reverse footage and stop-motion used to create effects that would bring a tear to Georges Méliès’ eye. It’s an endlessly creative, wholly committed romp of demonic pleasures. Even the horror scenes that don’t involve demons tend to work. I’m particularly fond of a hypnotized, knife-wielding nun who wouldn’t be out of place on a 1970s grindhouse screen.
Should You Give It a Watch?
Even though the movie is tame in terms of gore and violence, what they do show still feels genuinely shocking. While this is pure exploitation mayhem, this material also serves to underline the thesis. It plunges audiences into the lurid, heady world of witchcraft. In its operatic way, it evokes the headspace of the people who were so afraid of it, explaining their fears. While Häxan isn’t perfect, it’s a miracle it existed when it did, and it’s still well worth a watch today.
Of all the horror movies to be described as a runaway train, Rob Savage’s Other Mommy is the first in recent memory to have that quality as a negative. A more focused piece of over-the-top supernatural horror would capitalize on starting at a high speed and just gunning it. It would get increasingly faster, more horrific with its effects and reveals, more stunning and spectacle-filled. But Other Mommy never utilizes the momentum it starts with. It stays at the same steady, uncomfortable pace. And it gets old, very fast.
Other Mommy Is Missing a First Act
The movie begins in what should have been the second act; it never does stop haunting the narrative that Other Mommy feels like it’s missing 30 minutes of setup and 10 minutes of breathing room that would actually get you to care about what’s happening. Bela (Arabella Olivia Clark) is a young girl already well acquainted with a creature known as Other Mommy. A supernatural being that can change shape and size to her liking, becoming anyone she wants and then some. The entity only desires one thing: for Bela to let it into her heart and give it a new body.
Bela’s parents, Ursula (played by Jessica Chastain, in a dual role as the Other Mommy) and Russell (Jay Duplass), become aware of the space-bending creature in the film’s very first scenes. Soon, they’re on the run from the creature that’s trying to tear the already strained family apart. But the overwrought family drama of an unfaithful mother and a scatterbrained father forced to hide their struggling marriage from their kid is smothered. Much like Chastain’s performance, it’s drowned out by a barrage of aggressive and unimpressive digital effects trying to milk every single moment for a fright, desperate to keep audiences’ attention.
A Clumsy Digital Effects Showcase That Smothers the Story to Death
Other Mommy is primarily concerned with showing off its titular monster and her reality-bending powers, jumping from one “scare filled”, dreamlike sequence to the next; heavy, heavy quotes on scare filled. You become inured to every trick the film has as it shows you all the most unimaginative uses of a shapeshifting, size changing monster possible. There is no clever framing or use of shadow to obscure it, no restraint at all really. The directing is frenetic and clumsy, but it makes sure to make the monster as clear as possible. It’s all out in the open, plain to see, and bizarrely mundane for a depiction of a demonic interloper.
Every jumpscare-a-minute scene moves too fast and is too overlit to ever scare. The bright and inappropriate atmosphere fails the already rough looking digital effects. What it amounts to is a choppily edited and disjointed assortment of scenes, with weak imitations of Trevor Henderson style abominations center stage. Tall and small and melty variations of a CGI Chastain, none of them work to evoke tension or fear or any emotion other than the occasional eyebrow raise for how goofy some of them look.
There are a few moments where Chastain teases at playing the monster effectively without face and body morphing effects, sporting a genuinely disturbing countenance and creepy voice. But as soon as these fragments of interest come, they’re washed away by warping her into a lanky, slinking monster of ridiculous proportions. What we get out of the dual role is a boring creature for the feature, and a dry, one-dimensional protagonist, both squandering the phenomenal actor Chastain is.
Other Mommy is Full of Dull Performances and Squandered Potential
Duplass offers little with his supporting role, providing flat dialogue and flatter comic relief as a middling SNL sketch’s idea of a clownish father. It’s worth noting Clark actually provides the most interesting performance among the entire cast, a feat impressive from such a young child actor. But even her endearing and heart-breaking time as Bela is too little and too shadowed by the faulty composition of the film it’s trapped in.
The trailer for Other Mommy may have caught audiences off guard at the cinema in the past few months. But ultimately, that trailer showed the movie’s entire hand. Other Mommy is a pasty, crooked collage of elements from the supernatural horror movies producer James Wan made the backbone of the genre a decade ago. That doesn’t make it a throwback; just a rehash of cliches, with no structure and no sense of cohesion. It never amounts to anything more interesting than what the marketing material showed, which is a tragic end for a film, if there ever was one.
