Wolf Man
Universal Pictures | Release Date: January 17, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 49 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
29
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJan 19, 2025
The film soon runs out of bite, with a plot that repeatedly chews over the same thumps, bumps and rattled doors, and the same shadowy menace in underlit basements. Read full review
60
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Radheyan SimonpillaiJan 17, 2025
As sincere and sentimental as his approach is, Whannell struggles to marry the emotional beats to the schlockey thrills the genre demands. Instead, these two competing modes tend to cancel each other out, but not so much as to disregard what the ambitious director is going for. Read full review
60
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJan 16, 2025
In one sense, Wolf Man is a generic, and not especially scary, cabin-in-the-woods frightener that leans too often on tenebrous lighting and ear-shredding sound effects. . . Yet the extreme pathos of Blake’s plight is palpable, and Whannell is determined to make us feel it. Read full review
60
Time OutPhil de SemlyenJan 15, 2025
As it is, it’s an atmospheric, sporadically disquieting depiction of fatherhood in freefall. Read full review
60
EmpireSophie ButcherJan 15, 2025
It doesn’t quite marry up underlying themes with its hairy horror surface, but Wolf Man delivers strong performances, skin-crawling bodily changes and excellently scary sequences. Read full review
60
IGNKatie RifeJan 15, 2025
Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man is impeccably made, with a unique take on werewolf lore. But the emphasis is on craft over storytelling. Read full review
60
LooperReuben BaronJan 15, 2025
Wolf Man delivers some impressive moments of slow-burn body horror but falls short compared to the narrative and thematic cohesion of its predecessor. Read full review
60
Screen RantAlex HarrisonJan 15, 2025
Garner's performance is the heart of this, and if the movie were told entirely through her eyes, I think you'd have the compelling layer of doubt that the film sometimes seems to want. Read full review
60
SlashfilmJeremy MathaiJan 15, 2025
By the time Wolf Man wraps things up with an ending that's just a bit too neat and tidy, viewers will be left to reflect on the opportunities missed rather than the bold roads taken. Fortunately, even a modest Whannell misfire is well worth a watch, particularly when so much care and effort has been poured into every facet of its construction. There's still plenty of enjoyment to be had here ... as long as you don't expect this monster's bite to match its bark. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 15, 2025
It’s good, it’s intriguing, but in the end it’s nothing to howl about. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 15, 2025
What you’re ultimately left with is the typical catch-and-release horror template that occasionally sags under the weight of its own ambitions, as well as one that, having exhausted the idea’s potential early on, simply limps to the finish line. Read full review
59
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJan 15, 2025
Wolf Man grasps the sobriety of how easily men are acculturated to violence by other men, but loosens its hold around the start of its final act: the insularity of its world becomes a crutch rather than an asset, and the plot reassigns the task of solving male abandon to its female characters. Read full review
55
The Daily BeastNick SchagerJan 15, 2025
It isn’t a debacle, but it also won’t have genre aficionados howling for more. Read full review
50
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJan 30, 2025
As for the werewolf effects, I appreciate that they appear to mostly rely on practical elements, but the end result still leaves you wanting: this wolf man is less rabid animal than angry burn victim. Read full review
50
Original-CinThom ErnstJan 17, 2025
Despite being top-heavy in themes, Whannell’s Wolf Man is a plodding, uninspired tale that discards folklore—there are no full moons or silver bullets—and squanders the talent of its cast. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJan 15, 2025
Abbott and costar Julia Garner give grounded, emotional performances in this occasionally thoughtful chiller ultimately undone by its grander ambitions. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJan 15, 2025
It has so little to inspire conversation that I joked at the end that it was a cautionary tale about the mental and physical toll of being an unemployed writer. There’s something primal in all of us. Just not in this movie. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJan 15, 2025
Wolf Man is a blunt movie, but it also feels like only half a movie. Read full review
42
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJan 15, 2025
It’s, unfortunately, just one-dimensional, a little first-draft-y, perhaps rushed and hurried, and never as powerful or emotional as the film obviously hopes to be. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 15, 2025
A semi-feral drama about parental fears that isn’t remotely scary enough to catalyze those concerns into the action it puts on screen, Wolf Man runs away from its potential with its tail between its legs. “There is nothing here worth dying for,” reads the “no trespassing” sign on the childhood home where Blake inexplicably returns with his wife and daughter. There’s nothing here worth watching for either. Read full review
40
We Got This CoveredMarco Vito OddoJan 21, 2025
Despite some innovative ideas about language and body horror, Whannell's 'Wolf Man' is a disappointing follow-up to 'The Invisible Man,' struggling with uneven effects, choppy editing, and underdeveloped themes. Read full review
40
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJan 17, 2025
Whannell has the right idea. Wolf Man just needed a little more time in the lab. Read full review
40
Little White LiesAdam WoodwardJan 17, 2025
With the emotional stakes having been spelled out in giant, razor-sharp claw marks, all that’s left to do is squirm at Blake’s slow, agonising change and wait for the inevitable to happen. Read full review
40
ABC NewsJan 17, 2025
Director Leigh Whannell knocked it out of the park with his riveting 2020 reboot of Invisible Man, but his take on Wolf Man is a limp, lazy excuse for thought-provoking horror. Worse, this long night’s journey into day is no fun at all Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJan 16, 2025
In stripping down the legend—no talk of ancient curses or silver bullets here—Mr. Whannell may have modernized it, but he has also made it so joyless that it might as well have been produced by Glumhouse. This “Wolf Man” chases its own tail. Read full review
40
ColliderEmma KielyJan 15, 2025
To its credit, there are some decent gore scenes, and the practical makeup is done well, but not enough to distract from some pretty laughable special effects. Compared to the original and even the 2010 version that won the Oscar for Best Makeup, Whannell’s version isn’t breaking any new ground. Read full review
40
PolygonAusten GoslinJan 15, 2025
The movie is so twisted up in its own metaphor that it can’t muster up a single ounce of terror for the one thing we all came to see: a werewolf. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 15, 2025
Both intellectually and emotionally, there’s something promising afoot, and yet, Whannell doesn’t go far enough. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 15, 2025
The transformation scenes are passable – including time-honoured fingernail- detachment moments – but far inferior to comparable scenes devised long ago by John Landis or David Cronenberg. Those estimable performers Garner and Abbott look exposed by a film project that simply feels rushed and undeveloped. Read full review
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