Five years ago, Leigh Whannell did the impossible: He made the Invisible Man into a truly terrifying modern monster. Instead of the mad scientist forced to wear dorky headgear, Whannell’s Invisible Man was an abusive ex-boyfriend who used his technology to torment the woman who left him. It was an ingenious update on a dated character that also inadvertently kickstarted the “horror as trauma” subgenre.
Now, Whannell is back to update another Universal Monster with Wolf Man, a taut, claustrophobic little thriller that gives a body-horror-inspired makeover to the famous cinematic werewolf introduced in Curt Siodmak’s 1941 film The Wolf Man. While not as revolutionary as Invisible Man was, it’s a rock-solid thriller that makes the most of its 103-minute runtime.
