Effective horror is anchored in a grounded world, and director Leigh Whannell and screenwriter Corbett Tuck laid the foundation with the story of Blake Lovell, along with his family. With his past seemingly behind him, long buried secrets get unearthed and threatens his family as they explore the Lovell farm, an inheritance from his deceased father.
Watch the Wolf Man trailer here: https://youtu.be/ndqqU-Y25rY
Blake, a struggling father and husband, is played by Christopher Abbott(Poor Things), who director Whannell thinks breathes life into the tortured character. “Chris is unable to be inauthentic,” Whannell says. “He doesn’t hit a false note. He’s not a showy actor, and he’s allergic to performative acting or reaching. He just wants to bring it into a living, breathing zone, and it’s a magic trick to watch.”
They’ve also gone to great lengths to match that authenticity with practical makeup and prosthetics as Blake transforms into a monster, with lengthy discussions on how Abbott would interpret this evolution. “Leigh and I talked a lot about illnesses from Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,” Abbott says. “In terms of the transformation, it was letting go of the reality of what it is to be a healthy human and stripping that away.”
Julia Garner(Ozark, Finding Anna) plays the role of Charlotte, the breadwinner of the Lovell family. Keeping the family afloat atop a very demanding job as a journalist stirs resentment within her, directed at her husband Blake. “In terms of her emotions, Julia is such an open wound,” Whannell says. “They’re so close to the surface, and she’s able to tap into them in such a real way. When Julia’s getting ready to go into character, she wants to live it. There’s no lounging around on her phone waiting for the take to start. She is just bristling with energy, and it changes the temperature of the set. When someone walks on in that headspace, everyone goes quiet.”
As her husband goes through a dark transformation, Charlotte goes through her own psychological changes. Garner found herself riveted by the script and drawn to this story of love and loss. “It’s about connection and grief,” Garner says. “When somebody’s in front of you and they’re slowly disappearing, it’s not a sudden death, but a slow process. Early on, Leigh discussed wanting to connect and then having that person not be there anymore. When we started prepping, I told him that I wanted it to feel that the audience was going through the seven stages of grief in one night. When Blake is going through the physical stages, Charlotte is going through the mental ones.”
The heart of the Lovell family is 8-year old Ginger, who is played by Matilda Firth. As her father, Blake, begins to transform, we see his struggle between his fierce paternal instinct and the emerging monster.
Starring in a horror movie is no easy feat for Matilda, but she found joy in the scary scenes. “One of my favorite scenes was when I was sitting at the table in the kitchen and putting lipstick on Chris,” Firth says. “I also loved the stunt work up on the greenhouse with Julie. It was freezing cold, but we had hot water bottles to keep us warm. For the scene I had to climb across and try to reach Julie. They cut a hole in the greenhouse where I could drop through and the monster is jumping up trying to get me.”
Watch the Lovell family live through the nightmare as Wolf Man arrives in Philippine cinemas on January 15, 2025. Follow Universal Pictures PH (FB), UniversalPicturesPH (IG), and UniversalPicsPH (TikTok) for the latest updates.
About Wolf Man:
From Blumhouse and visionary writer-director Leigh Whannell, the creators of the chilling modern monster tale The Invisible Man, comes a terrifying new lupine nightmare: Wolf Man.
Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott (Poor Things, It Comes at Night) stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Emmy winner Julia Garner; Ozark, Inventing Anna), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth; Hullraisers, Coma).
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. 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.
The film co-stars Sam Jaeger (The Handmaid’s Tale), Ben Prendergast (The Sojourn Audio Drama) and Benedict Hardie (The Invisible Man), with newcomer Zac Chandler, Beatriz Romilly (Shortland Street) and Milo Cawthorne (Shortland Street).
Wolf Man is directed by Whannell and written by Whannell & Corbett Tuck. Whannell’s previous films with Blumhouse include The Invisible Man, Upgrade and Insidious: Chapter 3.
The film is produced by Blumhouse founder and CEO Jason Blum p.g.a., and Ryan Gosling (The Fall Guy, Lost River) and is executive produced by Leigh Whannell, Beatriz Sequeira, Mel Turner and Ken Kao. Universal Pictures and Blumhouse present a Gosling/Waypoint Entertainment production, in association with Cloak & Co: Wolf Man.
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