Wolf Man (2025)

Plot of Wolf Man 2015: As a boy Blake lives with his Vietnam vet father in an isolated farm house in Oregon. One day when they are out hunting the boy glimpses a strange humanoid creature in the woods, and he and his rather retire to a hide and wait things out. Thirty years later Blake, his wife Charlotte and their daughter Ginger, live in San Francisco. Blake is an out of work writer, and Charlotte is a journalist. One day he gets a document with keys, telling him that after years his father has been proclaimed dead and he is now the owner of the family house. He persuades his wife that they should go to the house in a van to collect his dad’s stuff (this from a summary. I thought they were moving there). In the forest they meet Derek, the son of a former neighbour who offers to direct them, but on the way Blake swerves off the road due to a figure in the way and the van ends up perched in the trees. Derek is killed by a creature and Blake scratched but they get to the house and barricade themselves in. Outside a creature prowls about and inside Blake begins to change, first losing the power of speech.

Content: No sex or nudity, or drinking or smoking. Out in the forest the Vietnam vet and his son hunt. The father is harsh with his son to ensure his safety.  Blake and his wife seem to be slightly at odds in San Francisco. The family drive through the woods of Oregon the van spectacularly leaving the road and ending up on its side in the trees. Derek falls out and is dragged away by the creature, whose presence is identified by a sort of clicking sound associated in my mind with the presence of aliens. Once in the house the couple hardly have time to fall in or out before Blake starts to change. Charlotte also changes a bit becoming resourceful and courageous. It is pretty dark even in the day, and nearly everything takes place in the night, but luckily they have a generator. There is some body horror and quite a bit of blood.

A View: The critics were in general critical of the wolf man persona. We like them to be hairier. We could see how this was going right from the start, so there were few surprises. It seemed very bad luck for Derek, who has survived into adulthood in this dangerous woodland, to be killed on meeting with Blake. Not really much of a story and very few surprises, but you will watch it if you are a werewolf fan, if only to make up the set.

Fun Fact: New Zealand stood in for Oregon, but they had to import a left hand drive van.