‘Wolf Man,’ from director Leigh Whannell, is in theaters Jan. 17, 2025
Wolf Man is back to terrify another generation.
Director Leigh Whannell‘s upcoming reboot of 1941’s The Wolf Man has a chilling new full trailer, showcasing Christopher Abbott‘s character coming face to face with furry terror not only outside himself but, soon, within.
Blake (Abbott, 38) is “a San Francisco husband and father who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead,” a synopsis reads. “With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth).”
“But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter,” the synopsis adds. “As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.”:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(534x382:536x384):format(webp)/Wolf-man-3-10182024-db1b0d2e2773482b893411696a8094c6.jpg)
Whannell, who got his big break writing and co-creating 2004’s Saw and also directed the 2020 thriller The Invisible Man, spoke with Entertainment Weekly about his newest horror venture ahead of its release early next year.
“These classic monsters like Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein have become so ubiquitous,” said the Australian filmmaker, 47. “They’re a little bit safe now. My kids watch animated movies with those monsters running around and being voiced by Adam Sandler. So part of my thing with this movie was taking it out of that safe territory and putting it back in this truly horrific territory.”
Blumhouse head Jason Blum told the publication that “Wolf Man is a straight-up horror movie,” and not only that, but it is “a scary horror movie.”
“I think most of the Wolf Man movies that came before this have been softer,” added Blum, 55. “I don’t mean that pejoratively. I just mean that this one is pretty hardcore.”:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(866x433:868x435):format(webp)/Wolf-man-2-10182024-4bf1147da4d448089e0598edfb3bffbc.jpg)
Whannell is in good company regarding horror reboots, as his pal and longtime collaborator James Wan is also gearing up to direct a classic monster remake: The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
“I have rejected doing remakes as a director pretty much my entire career,” Wan, 47, recently told PEOPLE ahead of the 20th anniversary of Saw.
According to Wan, “I had every kind of remake come my way and I turned all of them down” over the course of his two-decade career. “I rejected all of them, except for Creature from the Black Lagoon.“
“And the only reason why I feel this way is because I think I might have something special and I would not take on something like this if I don’t think I can do it justice,” he added.
Wolf Man is in theaters Jan. 17, 2025.