Wolf Man Trailer: Christopher Abbott Goes Beast-Mode In Leigh Whannell’s Universal Horror

Just before the real-world horrors of 2020 were unleashed, filmmaker Leigh Whannell unleashed a horror of the more enjoyable kind: his stark take on The Invisible Man, reinventing the HG Wells story (and Universal Monster) as a parable on gaslighting. There, Elisabeth Moss was stalked by her abusive invisible ex, and nobody believed her. Now, Whannell is back with another recalibration of a Universal Monsters favourite: the Wolf Man. Or, as he is here, simply Wolf Man – another film that promises a smart take on a creature as old as time. This one stars Christopher Abbott as Blake, the man who transforms into the titular beast, with Ozark’s Julia Garner as his wife Charlotte. Soon, she’ll have to face up to the notion that her loving husband is becoming… something else. Watch the trailer:

It’s just a brief teaser for now, but there’s plenty to chew on here – not just plenty of rural imagery, which places this in a different mode to the shiny, sci-fi-edged trappings of The Invisible Man, but also hints at what Wolf Man will be exploring. Our guess? It’ll be a tale angled towards toxic masculinity, with Blake’s lupine transformation seeing him exhibit primal outbursts, and Charlotte having to reconcile her loving husband with the inner beast that’s emerging. Plus, if The Invisible Man – and Upgrade, and the underrated Insidious: Chapter 3 – is anything to go by, it’ll be a proper genre thrill-ride too. That Upgrade-esque shot of Abbott transforming, with the camera snapping to his contorting body movements, is particularly thrilling.

Here’s the first poster:

And the official synopsis: “Christopher Abbott 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 (Julia Garner), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida 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. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognisable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without. “

We’ll find out if Wolf Man lives up to Whannell’s take on The Invisible Man when it hits UK cinemas on 17 January, 2025.