My expectations for a werewolf movie simply titled “Wolf Man” released in theaters during the notorious January wasteland wouldn’t normally be all that high, but this particular “Wolf Man” (opening Thursday night) comes from director and co-writer Leigh Whannell, who brilliantly reinvented another staple of the Universal Monsters lineup with 2020’s “Invisible Man.” That movie left Whannell with a lot to live up to, thanks to its smart, insightful and utterly terrifying take on invisibility as a tool of a manipulative stalker.
Whannell’s “Wolf Man” doesn’t have the same depth in its themes or characterization, but it’s still an effective reinvention of a genre mainstay, and another strong entry in Universal’s current effort to bring modern relevance to its vintage monster characters — in this case, from the 1941 film starring Lon Chaney Jr.
