Wolf Man

Werewolf at the door

Actor-filmmaker Leigh Whannell’s spin on classic werewolf-movie lore is both thoughtful and delivers the horror, though at nearly an hour and 45 minutes long, I found it a bit attenuated. Because even at this length, it’s unclear what Whannell is trying to say about nature vs. civilization. He’s given us simply a family-under-siege movie where the dangerous creature may as well have been Cujo or Cocaine Bear.

Raised in rural Oregon with a survivalist single dad, Blake (Christopher Abbott) has nonetheless grown into a decent, ordinary guy. No, his childhood wasn’t great, but then again, whose is? He’s done his best to put away the past, moving to San Francisco and marrying the smart and lovely Charlotte (Julia Garner); together they’re raising precocious daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth). Is her name a cute shout out to John Fawcett and Karen Walton’s feminist werewolf movie Ginger Snaps (2000)? I don’t know, but Whannell is a savvy genre filmmaker, so it’s entirely possible.