Wolf Man is a new take on a classic story, with The Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell opting for a more grounded, psychological approach to the legendary monster.
The Invisible Man was about an abusive man stalking his ex, but Wolf Man tells a story of a father struggling against himself, trying to avoid his own father’s mistakes.
What Happens In ‘Wolf Man’?
Wolf Man opens with a father, Grady (Sam Jaeger) taking his son, Blake (Zac Chandler), on a hunting trip, seemingly a routine event for the two.
Grady is clearly a damaged, traumatized man who appears to have experienced loss—he’s very paranoid that death will take his son, and overprotective to the point of abuse.
Grady seems to believe that keeping someone safe means keeping them under control, like a military general. Ironically, by aggressively trying to protect his son from harm, Grady is passing down generational trauma.
Despite his over-protectiveness, Grady is keen to hunt down the strange creature he keeps spying in the woods, despite the clear danger—even his friend warns him to leave it alone.
He has obsessively gathered information about the beast, and as a dedicated hunter and survivalist, wants to take it out.
It’s a macho thing, but Grady is framing the hunt as a protective measure for his son.
Years later, Blake has grown up (played by Christopher Abbot) and become a father himself, to a young daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth). He’s married to a reporter named Charlotte (Julia Garner), and his relationship is becoming strained.
Blake might be far away from the woods and away from his controlling father, but his harsh childhood has left a stain. Blake is more relaxed than Grady, but when Ginger puts herself in danger near a busy city road, Blake’s bad upbringing begins to show itself, and he loses his temper.
Grady has long been missing, and when Blake receives notice of his father’s death, he decides to take his family to his childhood home in the Oregon wilderness, hoping to heal the fractures.
Blake convinces Charlotte that once they set eyes on the beautiful valley of his childhood, then things will get better.
It’s a bit of a tragic moment, as the beauty of the wilderness was clearly the saving grace of his childhood, and Blake is returning to it simply because he doesn’t know what else to do—emotional intelligence wasn’t a survival skill his father taught him, that’s for sure.
But the vibes are off as soon as the family enter the woods—they’re not in San Francisco any more, and the locals seem intimidating and unwelcoming.
A dramatic car accident and an encounter with a mysterious creature results in Blake receiving a nasty gash on his arm, and he is infected with the wolf virus.
How Does The Wolf Virus Work?
Like vampirism, the werewolf curse is flexible, with the symptoms of the curse varying depending on who tells the tale.
In Wolf Man, Whannell opts for a very grounded take, with the curse a rabies-like disease that can be received from a mere scratch, rather than a bite.
It’s not a moon-centric transformation that repeatedly puts the victim through hell and back, but a slow, irreversible decay of the body that imbues Blake with highly sensitive hearing, night vision, and a difficulty in understanding human speech.
Blake’s limbs are lengthened, his teeth exposed, and he grows some patchy hair, but this isn’t a particularly “wolfy” werewolf.
It’s a very sensory depiction of the werewolf curse, but understated, in the sense that Blake doesn’t really resemble an animal, but a deformed man.
Of course, it’s really a heavy-handed metaphor for the terrible rage Blake inherited from his father, as the wolf man that infected him is revealed to be Grady.
The Tragic Ending Of ‘Wolf Man,’ Explained
Blake does manage to protect his family from Grady, as the two duke it out in a fierce, bloody battle that ends with Blake biting through his father’s throat.
His family is then threatened by his own animal urges, a more horrifying struggle, because of the emotional torment.
Blake slowly becomes lost to the wolf man; even a bear trap can’t stop him, as he chews through his own leg to break free and pursue his family.
His protective instincts have been almost completely replaced by raw hunger and rage, but there’s still a flicker of humanity left in Blake.
Charlotte and Ginger are hiding in a deer stand when Blake approaches them. He’s slow in his approach, and Charlotte is pointing a rifle at him. Throughout the film, the running joke between Blake and his daughter was that she could “read his mind.”
Now that Blake has become non-verbal, Ginger is the one who understands his wants, sensing that he wants to die. She tells Charlotte, who finds the courage to pull the trigger.
Blake dies with a glimmer of light left in his eyes, having successfully resisted the full transformation, protecting his family by sacrificing himself.
Charlotte and Ginger are left alone, to admire the serenity of Blake’s childhood valley—it’s just as beautiful as he said it would be.
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