Wolf Man (2025)

Why can the modern movie landscape somehow not give us a great new werewolf movie? We've had some very good ones, but it's an archetypal monster that seems unable to be redefined and refreshed in a way that gives it a place in modern pop culture alongside the many vampires, zombies, and even bandage-swathed mummies. Thankfully, here's Leigh Whannell to put things right. Or not, as the case may be. I don't want to beat around the bush here. Wolf Man is awful.

Christopher Abbott is Blake, a man who ends up heading back to the family homestead with his wife (Charlotte, played by Julia Garner) and young daughter (Ginger, played by Matilda Firth) in tow. The property is in the middle of nowhere, and most of the locals don't venture outside after night has fallen. So the family getting a bit lost and trying to continue driving after sunset isn't a great idea. There's soon some trouble when they encounter a wild humanoid creature that seems intent on putting the bite on them. Eventually trapped in a house, it soon becomes obvious that at least one member of the family has been wounded. And the wound is starting to change them.

While Whannell is the director here, it's maybe telling that this is a screenplay co-written by himself and his wife, Corbett Tuck. The latter is a first-timer in that role, which would explain a lot of the inherent weakness of this. It wouldn't explain it all, and I'm sure both Whannell and Tuck thought they had stumbled upon a great new hook when they decided to let everything basically play out over one long night, but this feels like a sorely under-developed piece of work. There's no solid lore, which means no way to use or break any rules established within the confines of the film, there are too few characters, meaning very few moments have any real sense of danger, and, most damningly, the third act simply serves as a reminder of the last time someone tried to reinvigorate this IP (in a film that was much better than this one, in my opinion).

I don't want to completely dismiss Abbott and Garner, but it's worth noting that Firth, the youngest cast member, seems to do the best work. That may be down to the adults being weighed down by the screenplay, or maybe I was just put in such a sour mood that I was unable to enjoy anyone onscreen, with the exception of the innocent child. Sam Jaeger, Ben Predergast, and Benedict Hardie also have some screentime, and I'm equally loathe to give them any praise (although none of them are bad, they're just trapped in this mass of awfulness like the bug in the amber at the start of Jurassic Park).

The music from Benjamin Wallfisch isn't bad, but the people I really want to praise are those working in the sound department. The one real strength of Wolf Man is the soundscape; all rustling branches, bass-heavy growls, and strange frequencies showing the difference in hearing between some of the main characters. That's offset by the embarrassment of the creature effects and make-up though, which delivers viewers a werewolf that is one of the very worst to be put onscreen. Seriously. Look, I HAVE seen a lot worse than this, of course, but not in a film with some actual money and studio resources behind it.

Inept in almost every way, even (especially?) in the final scenes, this is a huge disappointment for fans of Whannell and/or his cast. It's a huge step down from his work on The Invisible Man, although it's clear that he wanted to emulate that style of blending the archetype with some relevant social commentary. Maybe he should have been clearer on what he wanted to comment on (masculinity, perceived emasculation, family bonds, and communities maintaining dangerous secrets are all in the mix), or maybe he should have just forgotten about that to focus on something that would have been entertaining and satisfying for those wanting loud howls and hairy scares.

3/10

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Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

If watching Insidious: The Red Door has helped me fix a major blind spot then it was all worthwhile. I was setting up my review template for this (which is when I usually double-check cast and crew names) when I realised that I had been mis-spelling Leigh Whannell’s name for over a decade. Over a decade. Please, I implore you, if you ever read anything from me that contains such a constant error, please let me know. Sometimes the brain tricks you into thinking you are spelling things correctly, which can create the habit of a long-standing error. This long-standing error has now been corrected, with me editing every one of my online reviews that I could still access, after seeing Insidious: The Red Door. Which probably means that I got more from this film than most people.

I really enjoyed Insidious. While many people were underwhelmed by it, and quite a few were in a rush to refer to the main demonic figure as Darth Maul, I thought it was an excellent horror movie with some perfectly-executed scares. Despite the ups and downs of the series, it stays just ahead of The Conjuring movies, and is helped by not having to be beholden to central characters we know were actually viewed by many others as self-serving fraudsters. If Insidious: The Red Door is the last in the series then it is a very disappointing end, but I would prefer the series to end here than to try and limp through another instalment or two.

Everyone returns to their main roles, but the focus of the film is on the strained father and son relationship between Josh Lambert (Patrick Wilson) and Dalton Lambert (Ty Simpkins). Having had their most traumatic life experience wiped from their minds, there seems to be something else missing between them. Josh and Renai (Rose Byrne) have separated, and Dalton is leaving the nest aka heading to university. Go figure, something happens that triggers something in the mind of Dalton, leading him on a path to remember his past and face his demons. Literally. Helped on his journey by a new female friend (Chris Winslow, played by Sinclair Daniel), Dalton soon realises that he is in a lot of danger . . . and he might have to reconnect with his father to find a way back to something resembling a more normal, and much safer, life.

Written by Scott Teems, continuing song the path set out a long time ago by Leigh Whannell, Insidious: The Red Door is just about as redundant as movies get. There’s nothing new here, nothing to care about, and no  decent scares. As well as reprising his onscreen role, Wilson has been allowed to direct this, and it feels like a way to thank him for being part of two hugely successful modern horror movie franchises. That’s all well and good, but perhaps studios could just send him a wine subscription next time. Although competent, Wilson shows that he knows the basics of film-making without having noted the ways in which geography and set-ups are worked together to craft the best scares. The best moments here are, dare I say it, Wan-esque, but they are slightly mishandled in a way that makes you wish you were watching one of the earlier films in this series.

As for the acting, Wilson and Simpkins are both fine, and Byrne does what is required of her, but the only person to really stand out is Daniel, who provides a much-needed shot in the arm to the film, which would otherwise have been full of scenes showing one young man being glum, an older man being glum, and sometimes the two of them being glum together. 

Nobody is helped by the script, with Teems seeming far too nervous to stray from the central path that should lead to the end of the series, but the pacing and infrequent moments of humour help to make it more bearable than it could have been. Despite bringing to mind more memorable moments, callbacks to the first film generally work well, and there’s a middle section that allows Simpkins and Daniel to almost have some fun before everything descends further into darkness and peril.

It’s not good, but it’s not exactly awful either. I doubt I will remember it by next month though, and I certainly won’t want to ever revisit it.

5/10

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The Invisible Man (2020)

Let me start by saying that The Invisible Man is a good film. It uses the idea of invisibility to make some good points about control, gaslighting, and how a domestic abuser can continue to hold a victim in their grasp even when "not present". That all works well, and makes the material ripe for reworking in this day and age. Unfortunately, things don't hold together too well when it comes to the actual thrills and spills.

Elisabeth Moss is Cecilia Kass, a young woman we first see trying to make a stealthy getaway in the middle of the night. She's drugged her partner, has prepared an "escape kit", and is desperate and afraid. Helped by her sister, Emily (Harriet Dyer), Cecilia then stays with sone friends, Sydney Lanier (Storm Reid) and her father, who also happens to be a cop, James (Aldis Hodge). Scared to go outside, scared to be found by her partner, and generally unable to move on with her life, all seems to be looking up when it turns out that someone has stupidly managed to shuffle themselves off the mortal coil. Cecilia is in line for a lot of money, as long as she doesn't commit any major crime, but she can't quite shake the feeling that she is still being watched, still being messed with, and still being controlled. The title of the movie may give you an idea of whether or not her suspicion is correct.

Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, a man who knows how to use genre trappings to tell a wide variety of stories (including his previous film, the impressively bloody sci-fi action fun of Upgrade), The Invisible Man is worth celebrating for the fact that it manages to diverge from the classic interpretation of the material without feeling as if it is disrespecting the legacy of the character. The metaphor may be more pointed this time around, but that doesn't mean Whannell stops delivering a lot of enjoyable spectacle. The first half of the film feels like a lot of build up, with negative space used expertly as Moss starts to worry about her safety, even when everyone else is telling her that she has nothing to worry about. And then it's all fun effects sequences through to a surprisingly satisfying finale.

Unfortunately, those moments see an invisible killer in the middle of many people who have guns. And ALL of those people turn all around with their guns drawn without once firing the damn things. I know, I know, you wouldn't fire a gun if you couldn't see anything in front of you and your colleague was in the line of fire, but people are quickly out of harm's way, usually after being thrown around or wounded by the unseen attacker, and no character trying to shoot once just becomes more and more annoying. That may not seem like a big deal, and I am sure some can easily overlook it, but it undermines the payoff after such a well-constructed first half.

Moss is very good in the lead role, a bag of nerves after spending years held prisoner by her abuser, and she does well in the many times that have her reacting to what is simply empty space. Of the supporting players, Hodge stands out as the cop and ally who you can't blame for finally considering that events have driven the lead character to madness. Oliver Jackson-Cohen is the abusive partner, and his screentime is understandably limited, while Michael Dorman gets some great scenes, playing his brother and another victim, but one who may also have helped to enable the great invisibility scheme (if he has a clue about it).

The good does outweigh the bad here, but it's a closer call than you might think. It sometimes just takes the smallest details to throw everything off balance, and that is what happens with The Invisible Man. It's very good when it uses the idea to show how domestic abuse can change the life of someone forever, and then it starts to falter when it should be more easily entertaining in the third act. Not bad at all, and Whannell keeps proving himself a valuable contributor to genre cinema, but not quite as good as some are making it out to be.

7/10

Dead Silence (2007)

After James Wan and Leigh Whannell found fame with Saw, for better or worse, they quickly moved into the territory that would become their more familiar ground over the next decade, the supernatural horror. Dead Silence is a film that is interesting now to watch for a number of reasons, not the least of them being the seeds of ideas that both men would use more effectively in a number of their more successful movies.

Things start with a dummy being delivered to the abode of Jamie And Lisa Ashen. It's not long until Lisa is dead, Jamie is the prime suspect, and a trip home sees him start to uncover a number of clues that point to the evil influence of a famous ventriloquist named Mary Shaw. He is trying to prove his innocence and find out exactly what happened, all the while being closely watched by a detective who clearly believes that it's only a matter of time until Jamie slips up and can be charged with murder.

There's so much here that I enjoy that I find it easy to overlook the things that Dead Silence does poorly. What it lacks in ANY sense of reality, what it fails to do in terms of hiding the minor and major twists, it more than makes up for with huge helpings of creepy atmosphere and a premise that allows plenty of chills to be wrung from that creepy standby, the ventriloquist's dummy. But this is a film that begins with a couple receiving a delivery of one such dummy and not immediately setting it on fire, setting their whole house on fire, and moving to the furthest possible zip code at the other end of the country. And that's not the least believable thing about the film. The production design is wonderful throughout, but turns a small town into nothing more than a succession of sets that wouldn't look out of place in any major Halloween haunt (it's no surprise to find that the film was used at Universal's "Halloween Horror Nights" in the year it was released), none of the characters feel remotely close to being normal human beings, and the finale, as enjoyably scary and effective as it is, is quite preposterous. It also suffers from the kind of editing that many disliked in Saw.

Wan directs competently enough, although he's at the beginning of a steep learning curve that he would easily stand astride within a few years, and he does enough with the pacing and atmosphere to help distract from the silliness. Whannell, on the other hand, can't seem to make headway with the script. He's gone on record with his unhappiness at the experience, and final product, but I'm surprised that he couldn't work his way out from the strong core and create something much better than what we ended up with. Both the exposition and dialogue are weak, although he deserves credit for creating the better scares that help to make things a bit easier for Wan.

Perhaps some stronger leads would have helped. I like Kwanten (although this was a while before I saw his work in True Blood and Red Hill, both allowing him to do much better work) but he's unable to do much with the material here. Donnie Wahlberg is so bad, at times, that he feels as if he's wandered in from an audition for the role of "obsessive and obstinate cop" in some parody. Judith Roberts is wonderfully creepy in the role of Mary Shaw, Bob Gunton and Amber Valletta do well as, respectively, the father and mother-in-law of Kwanten's character, and Laura Regan isn't onscreen for long enough to make a strong impression.

A dangerous dummy, a scary-looking old woman, an entity with a vendetta against individuals that isn't easy to placate and/or get rid of, a cop who may find himself in trouble while trying to keep track of a main suspect, Dead Silence may be viewed as a failure by some but it's an essential stepping stone in the filmographies of both Wan and Whannell. And it's actually a decent little chiller too, if also a bit of a silly one.

6/10

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Upgrade (2018)

Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, Upgrade is a sci-fi action movie that also revels in moments of gloriously gory vengeance. While it’s only the second directorial feature from Whannell, he already shows a big step up from his work on Insidious 3 (which was, admittedly, hampered by it feeling very unnecessary and also too tenuously connected to the other movies in that series).

It's the future. A believably near future. Homes are efficiently managed by computers, as are cars, and most people have become very comfortable with giving commands to invisible helpers. Grey (played by Logan Marshall-Green) is not one of those people, despite the fact that his wife (Asha, played by Melanie Vallejo) is. Marshall-Green much prefers to get his hands dirty, such as when he is working on classic cars that need an actual driver to drive them. Despite their opposing views on technology, the husband and wife make a lovely couple, until a car accident leaves them vulnerable to an attack by vicious crooks. With his wife dead and himself rendered quadriplegic, Grey would rather be dead. There is, however, a small gleam of light at the end of the tunnel. A new tech called STEM, a chip that could be planted in just the right place inside his body to help him walk and have a normal life again. But the procedure, and tech, has to be kept a secret. Which becomes more difficult as STEM starts to speak to Grey and reveal that they can work together to find those responsible for the death of his wife. Some extreme violence ensues.

I know the preceding paragraph is quite a lengthy one, and I usually try to make my movie summaries more concise, but it still doesn't cover the other interesting ideas that the film goes into, which is a huge plus. Whannell does very well indeed with the moments of action and violence, but he is savvy to the fact that he can't expect to keep viewers engaged with just those "trailer shots". So you end up getting a film that nicely hops around between the gleefully visceral and the interesting and thought-provoking ideas threaded throughout (okay, they're not the MOST thought-provoking ideas you could have in a film script but they're certainly a welcome addition to something that could have tried to coast along without them).

Marshall-Green is great in the lead role, spending a lot of the first third of the movie in quite a downbeat mood, understandably once he loses his wife and use of his limbs, and then being astounded and torn by the choices that STEM offers him. Vallejo makes a good impression in the small amount of screentime she has, Harrison Gilbertson is decent as the scientist responsible for the device and operation, and Betty Gabriel is your standard, doggedly determined, police officer who wants to help the hero and eventually starts to piece things together ahead of everyone else. Benedict Hardie is an impressively skilled and callous main villain (helped by the fact that he looks and acts like a cross between Robert Knepper and Jackie Earl Haley) but everyone else encountered by Marshall-Green does good work, even if they are there to be gorily despatched en route to the main target.

It's no surprise that this is such a big step up for Whannell as a director, considering the concept and the fact that it's not beholden to any other entries in a series. The big surprise is that it easily ranks alongside a lot of his other scripts, and may even be one of his best. Not that the dialogue is quotable, or even that good at times, but it uses some broad brush strokes to great effect in the way it explores a range of human emotions, vengeance and morality, and that blurring divide that keeps getting thinner and thinner between tech and those who operate it.

There are a lot of clear influences on display throughout - from The Terminator to the films of David Cronenberg - but Upgrade manages to cram them all in while still feeling very much like its own beast. Which may very well be the best skill that Whannell has in his bag of tricks.

8/10

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Insidious: The Last Key (2018)

Look, even if you're a huge fan of Insidious (as I am), it's hard to argue against the idea that it wasn't a horror movie that felt designed to kick off a long-running series. The second film was good, although already felt at times as if it was repeating a few of the tricks that the original had done so well, and the third film, while enjoyable enough, was too far removed from the previous events to really win over fans.

So now we're at the fourth (and final?) instalment, and where does it sit in comparison to the other entries? Well, it's not bad. It's still a step removed from the first films, yet it feels closer to them than that third chapter.

Lin Shaye returns as Elise Rainier, the psychic who can battle ghosts and demonic forces most people cannot see. She's once again joined by Specs (played by writer Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson), but she would much rather enjoy a quiet life than put herself through any more strain and horribly perilous "adventures". That looks unlikely, however, when she gets a call from someone (Ted, played by Kirk Acevedo) who believes that his house is haunted. It happens to be the house that Elise lived in when she was a young girl, and she knows how bad it is there. So she sets off to help Ted, perhaps looking for some closure at the same time.

The Insidious series certainly benefits from having Leigh Whannell writing each instalment. He's okay in front of the camera, but it's the writing that is clearly his forte. Like the best of these slick, modern, mainstream horrors, Insidious: The Last Key lays out plenty of details in the earlier scenes to pick them up again later, when the scares are being delivered. Learning more about Elise, how she was as a youngster when discovering her "gift", works very well, thanks to it being a character that viewers have now journeyed with for some time, and also thanks to the third act developments.

Adam Robitel is the director this time, and he does a perfectly acceptable job. This relies more on jump scares than the first couple of movies (I know they were accused by many of having no atmosphere, I disagree) but they're done very well, with one or two moments of impressively creepy imagery that may well stay in your mind long after the end credits have rolled.

As for the cast, forget about everyone else onscreen and enjoy Lin Shaye, a woman who has been in many horror movies over the years and has now been the unexpected lynchpin of this successful series. She never gives less than 100% in her portrayal of Elise, even in scenes that try to let Whannell and Sampson lighten things up a bit with some awkward comedy. Bruce Davison is also as good as ever, but is onscreen for about one or two minutes, and you get decent enough performances from Acevedo, Caitlin Gerard, Spencer Locke, Josh Stewart, and Tessa Ferrer, among others.

If you've seen the other films then you should give this one a watch. It's completely unnecessary, and could have been improved by removing a couple of the characters, but it's still solid entertainment.

6/10

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Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)

After an interesting, and spooky, prologue, Insidious: Chapter 2 gets straight down to business by continuing on from the events at the end of the first movie. Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai Lambert (Rose Byrne) have their son back, after rescuing him from supernatural entities, and everyone hopes that things will get back to normal. But that's just not going to happen. There's a murder to be investigated, and there are also some strange things still happening to the family. Renai is at the end of her rope, Josh doesn't want to believe that anything else will try to harm them, and granny Lambert (Lorraine, played by Barbara Hershey) eventually pieces enough together to re-enlist the paranormal investigators, Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson).

James Wan returns to direct, and Whannell once again multi-tasks as he acts onscreen after completing his duty as the writer of the screenplay. The two work well together, creating horrors that mix atmospheric moments with jump scares and unnerving imagery. Still, if you didn't like the first movie then you're not going to like this sequel. It's more of the same, and even reworks a few scenes in a nice wrinkle added to the standard paranormal activity.

The cast do what's asked of them, but the acting on display here isn't really the best that you'll see. Mind you, it's pretty good stuff compared to what viewers CAN be made to endure within the horror genre. Wilson has some fun, Byrne does well while not being allowed to relax for a minute (spending the entire movie with frayed nerves, bless her), and Hershey is good enough to help make the weaker moments work. Whannell and Sampson will annoy everyone who was annoyed by them the first time around, but I enjoyed the comic relief that they provided. Lin Shaye gets to return, playing Elise Rainier, albeit a changed version of her. Although she's not onscreen for that long, her character is shown to be, arguably, the most important one caught up in the whole situation. Steve Coulter is a new addition to the team, playing another paranormal investigator named Carl, and he does well with his role, particularly in a tense scene that sees him challenged over his method of divining results.

Perhaps not quite good, or intense, enough for more experienced horror fans, the Insidious movies definitely contain enough thrills and chills to scare plenty of money out of mainstream audiences. While I can see flaws in both movies, I must admit that I'm happier to see a film like this succeed than yet another remake of some '80s movie that someone erroneously thinks needs a big dollop of CGI to improve it. There are some big plot points here that will either please or turn off viewers, but you have to give the film-makers some credit for trying to twist the material into something a bit more interesting and unique. Okay, you don't HAVE to give them credit. But I do.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Insidious-2-Blu-ray/dp/B00FG5L2OC/ref=tmm_blu_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1405227344&sr=8-2