Wolf Man Parent Guide

As a young boy, Blake (Zac Chandler) saw things he couldn’t explain in the remote Oregon woods; things that couldn’t be seen by his off-grid survivalist father, Grady (Sam Jaeger).

The two had more issues than the mystery in the woods, and as the years dragged by, Blake stopped speaking to his father. Now, 30 years later, Blake (Christopher Abbot) has a wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), and a daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth), and he’s trying desperately not to make the same mistakes his father did. Things have been rocky lately, but Blake thinks he sees an opportunity to bring his family together. Grady went missing some years ago, and the state has finally declared him dead, so Blake needs to go back to Oregon to clear out his dad’s old house. He thinks this is a good chance to bring his family together, so he insists that Charlotte and Ginger come with him - but the woods are just as dangerous as they were when Blake was a boy, and there are things in them that he cannot hope to understand.

We’re living in the renaissance for century-old Universal monster movies – and that’s fine with me. I like a simple horror flick, a neatly packaged little creature feature with a brisk runtime, a small cast, and some good effects. The film is very focused and doesn’t waste time expositing as to the potential causes of whatever form of lycanthropy this may be; instead taking the audience on a blood-soaked tour of the consequences.

Wolf Man may be a straight-up, old fashioned monster movie, but it still finds a lot of time to dwell on the inherent tragedy of it all, which keeps the film a little more grounded. Emotional core notwithstanding, parents are going to have some concerns about the gruesome violence and body horror, including a few instances of partial self-cannibalism – a reminder to bring your own snacks to the movies. There are a few f-bombs dropped here, along with a handful of other profanities, but far fewer than is typical for R-rated horror.

Unlike director Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, this film is less of a social parable and is more focused on embracing the simplicity of things going bump in the night. It’s got a primal fear to it, that evolutionary dread in the dark, that instinctive terror of predation. Naturally, this show isn’t a great bedtime movie for the kiddos, but older genre fans will have some fun with this one.