Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Wolfman is written and directed by Lee Winnell now returning to another universal monsters
(00:12):
slash villain story after directing The Invisible Man.
And here a family at a remote farmhouse is attacked by an unseen animal.
But as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognizable.
The film stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner and much like The Invisible Man is
an attempt to take what is a larger than life story and ground it in some kind of reality.
(00:37):
Both of them involve a bit of a domestic situation.
In The Invisible Man it was about a woman dealing with an abusive spouse.
And here we have a stay at home dad played by Abbott who is very much trying to not
recreate the sins of his father.
He doesn't want to raise his young daughter and make the same mistakes that his dad made.
There was a really good line early in the movie that it was essentially like a parent
(00:57):
tries so hard to not scar their children that they end up becoming the thing that scars
their children.
And I thought that that was really profound.
And that's essentially the theme of the movie is trying to not become something that you
don't want to become.
In an emotional sense he doesn't want to make the same mistakes his father made.
And in a physical sense he's becoming Wolfman and would really like to not become Wolfman
(01:19):
because he's going to kill his family if he does.
Lee Wynnell is something of a legend in the genre space.
He wrote, saw and starred in it.
He of course wrote Insidious.
Had a role in that too.
And as a director, Insidious Chapter 3.
Actually not too bad at all.
Upgrade?
Great.
Upgrade is awesome.
The Invisible Man also great.
And with that movie he proved that he was arguably one of the only people of recent times anyway
(01:41):
since Stephen Somers directed The Mummy with Brendan Fraser that can actually make a really
good universal monsters film.
Invisible Man is not quite a monster but he's certainly a villain.
With Wolfman though he jumps head first into the monsters category and does a very good
job.
I don't think this film is as good as The Invisible Man but I also don't think that it's necessarily
trying to do the same things that film did.
(02:02):
It's certainly not as emotionally resonant nor is it as long as that film.
But this is far better than I expected any 2025 reboot of Wolfman to be.
This film has a lot of really good ideas.
I already talked about some of them.
But some others are.
The fact that this movie isn't so much about one transformation sequence that is like end
all be all like an American werewolf of London where it's like the greatest werewolf transformation
(02:23):
ever.
This entire film is about this guy becoming this thing.
And you get to watch him every step of the way as his senses are heightened.
There's an amazing early sequence that has a great payoff that I won't spoil for you
but essentially he's hearing something and it sounds like the world's largest animal
is stomping on the roof and what he eventually uncovers is really fun.
(02:46):
And putting us 100% from his POV and allowing us to experience how his senses change, how
he reacts to the world and sometimes even what he sees in a very unique way as well.
It's not like we cut to the predator vision or something.
We are in the real world.
We are looking at things the way a normal person would and the camera will shift and
(03:06):
it will dolly and we'll go around him and the image will begin to transform into what
he is seeing.
And that was a great idea that pays off in one very effective scare inside a barn.
Beyond that one scare though, I don't really know that that idea had any great payoff but
it was visually really fun.
I thought Christopher Abbott in particular was great here because he is playing a father
(03:27):
that is trying so hard to not do the same thing his dad did and he's trying his best
to be the best dad he can.
You instantly like him for that.
You can see that there's a little bit of his dad's anger and rage that he is holding
back and trying to not be like that early on in the film.
As far as character, this is my favorite thing to do in the whole movie is the idea of becoming
something you don't want to be and trying to be a good father.
(03:49):
And I think that's handled very effectively.
Also, the actress who plays the young girl, Matilda Firth, was terrific.
And Julia Garner has mastered the art of looking genuinely terrified because she is
very very scared for like half this movie and she's really good at it.
And I was actually kind of surprised at how simple the movie was because at the end of
the day it really is just a movie about survival.
(04:10):
You don't want to die.
This thing is trying to kill you and let's not let that happen because the invisible
man had so much depth and so many different characters.
And this movie is very contained.
And I was also surprised at how quick it starts really.
I mean, once they get there, shit hits the fan and the movie is that for the rest of
the runtime, which is really exciting.
(04:30):
That being said, when it ends, again, I won't get into any spoilers, but when it ends, I
did sort of feel like I was waiting for an emotional payoff that didn't quite come because
an aspect of the movie that is very important to the setup is that Julia Garner, as the
mother is having a harder time connecting with her daughter than Christopher Abbott
is.
(04:51):
She says that he has an easier time of it and for her it's not as easy.
And so it's important for these characters to sort of team up and go against this thing
that is now trying to kill them.
And while the physical aspect of this is certainly taken care of when it comes to the mother
trying to protect her daughter and make sure this thing doesn't kill her, I did think it
was missing a little bit of the emotional side, a reconnection, even if it was just like one
(05:13):
scene in the film where the mother and daughter have a conversation that seems to establish
steps taken to move forward.
I felt like I was missing that beat.
What I'll also say about Wolfman that I really appreciated is the commitment to practical
makeup effects.
There's no American werewolf in Paris looking shit.
It's not like all CGI or anything.
This is makeup.
(05:34):
And there's also a commitment to being a wolf man.
This is not like he transforms into some sort of canine beast.
It's just that emotionally, I think there were a few extra things I would have liked
to have experienced in the final 10 minutes.
But this is a good werewolf movie with a lot of good tension, a lot of good scares.
It's very well paced.
It never really feels like it drags.
At least for me, it didn't.
And in all the ways that a wolf man reboot could have gone wrong, I think this movie
(05:57):
sidestepped most of them.
So guys, if you see the film, I'll be curious to know what you thought of it.
Thank you so much as always for watching.
And if you like this, you can click right here and get stuck manized.
Wolfman is written and directed by Lee Winnell now returning to another universal monsters
(00:12):
slash villain story after directing The Invisible Man.
And here a family at a remote farmhouse is attacked by an unseen animal.
But as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognizable.
The film stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner and much like The Invisible Man is
an attempt to take what is a larger than life story and ground it in some kind of reality.
(00:37):
Both of them involve a bit of a domestic situation.
In The Invisible Man it was about a woman dealing with an abusive spouse.
And here we have a stay at home dad played by Abbott who is very much trying to not
recreate the sins of his father.
He doesn't want to raise his young daughter and make the same mistakes that his dad made.
There was a really good line early in the movie that it was essentially like a parent
(00:57):
tries so hard to not scar their children that they end up becoming the thing that scars
their children.
And I thought that that was really profound.
And that's essentially the theme of the movie is trying to not become something that you
don't want to become.
In an emotional sense he doesn't want to make the same mistakes his father made.
And in a physical sense he's becoming Wolfman and would really like to not become Wolfman
(01:19):
because he's going to kill his family if he does.
Lee Wynnell is something of a legend in the genre space.
He wrote, saw and starred in it.
He of course wrote Insidious.
Had a role in that too.
And as a director, Insidious Chapter 3.
Actually not too bad at all.
Upgrade?
Great.
Upgrade is awesome.
The Invisible Man also great.
And with that movie he proved that he was arguably one of the only people of recent times anyway
(01:41):
since Stephen Somers directed The Mummy with Brendan Fraser that can actually make a really
good universal monsters film.
Invisible Man is not quite a monster but he's certainly a villain.
With Wolfman though he jumps head first into the monsters category and does a very good
job.
I don't think this film is as good as The Invisible Man but I also don't think that it's necessarily
trying to do the same things that film did.
(02:02):
It's certainly not as emotionally resonant nor is it as long as that film.
But this is far better than I expected any 2025 reboot of Wolfman to be.
This film has a lot of really good ideas.
I already talked about some of them.
But some others are.
The fact that this movie isn't so much about one transformation sequence that is like end
all be all like an American werewolf of London where it's like the greatest werewolf transformation
(02:23):
ever.
This entire film is about this guy becoming this thing.
And you get to watch him every step of the way as his senses are heightened.
There's an amazing early sequence that has a great payoff that I won't spoil for you
but essentially he's hearing something and it sounds like the world's largest animal
is stomping on the roof and what he eventually uncovers is really fun.
(02:46):
And putting us 100% from his POV and allowing us to experience how his senses change, how
he reacts to the world and sometimes even what he sees in a very unique way as well.
It's not like we cut to the predator vision or something.
We are in the real world.
We are looking at things the way a normal person would and the camera will shift and
(03:06):
it will dolly and we'll go around him and the image will begin to transform into what
he is seeing.
And that was a great idea that pays off in one very effective scare inside a barn.
Beyond that one scare though, I don't really know that that idea had any great payoff but
it was visually really fun.
I thought Christopher Abbott in particular was great here because he is playing a father
(03:27):
that is trying so hard to not do the same thing his dad did and he's trying his best
to be the best dad he can.
You instantly like him for that.
You can see that there's a little bit of his dad's anger and rage that he is holding
back and trying to not be like that early on in the film.
As far as character, this is my favorite thing to do in the whole movie is the idea of becoming
something you don't want to be and trying to be a good father.
(03:49):
And I think that's handled very effectively.
Also, the actress who plays the young girl, Matilda Firth, was terrific.
And Julia Garner has mastered the art of looking genuinely terrified because she is
very very scared for like half this movie and she's really good at it.
And I was actually kind of surprised at how simple the movie was because at the end of
the day it really is just a movie about survival.
(04:10):
You don't want to die.
This thing is trying to kill you and let's not let that happen because the invisible
man had so much depth and so many different characters.
And this movie is very contained.
And I was also surprised at how quick it starts really.
I mean, once they get there, shit hits the fan and the movie is that for the rest of
the runtime, which is really exciting.
(04:30):
That being said, when it ends, again, I won't get into any spoilers, but when it ends, I
did sort of feel like I was waiting for an emotional payoff that didn't quite come because
an aspect of the movie that is very important to the setup is that Julia Garner, as the
mother is having a harder time connecting with her daughter than Christopher Abbott
is.
(04:51):
She says that he has an easier time of it and for her it's not as easy.
And so it's important for these characters to sort of team up and go against this thing
that is now trying to kill them.
And while the physical aspect of this is certainly taken care of when it comes to the mother
trying to protect her daughter and make sure this thing doesn't kill her, I did think it
was missing a little bit of the emotional side, a reconnection, even if it was just like one
(05:13):
scene in the film where the mother and daughter have a conversation that seems to establish
steps taken to move forward.
I felt like I was missing that beat.
What I'll also say about Wolfman that I really appreciated is the commitment to practical
makeup effects.
There's no American werewolf in Paris looking shit.
It's not like all CGI or anything.
This is makeup.
(05:34):
And there's also a commitment to being a wolf man.
This is not like he transforms into some sort of canine beast.
It's just that emotionally, I think there were a few extra things I would have liked
to have experienced in the final 10 minutes.
But this is a good werewolf movie with a lot of good tension, a lot of good scares.
It's very well paced.
It never really feels like it drags.
At least for me, it didn't.
And in all the ways that a wolf man reboot could have gone wrong, I think this movie
(05:57):
sidestepped most of them.
So guys, if you see the film, I'll be curious to know what you thought of it.
Thank you so much as always for watching.
And if you like this, you can click right here and get stuck manized.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!