There’s a new Wolf Man movie coming out soon, in case you forgot, and since it’s directed by The Invisible Man’s (2020) Leigh Whannell, we were kind of excited about it, but our (supposed) first look at the monster’s design has left us cackling instead of terrified.
Via X/Twitter user SpeculationMatt, who seems to specialize in covering Halloween Horror Nights (that’s an interesting niche for sure), we’ve got our first look at Blumhouse and Universal’s Wolf Man’s wolfman, or at least that’s what we’re supposed to get from this marketing kickoff, right?
As you can see, the costume seems rather cheap, but that’s not the real issue, as we highly doubt they’re just giving to performers exact copies of the costumes being used in film productions. What’s worrying is the design itself, which has little-to-no wolf features in it. I mean, that’s just an old guy turned into a background fantasy character freak. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m a more convincing wolfman when I’ve gone two months without visiting the barbershop and don’t get my morning caffeine.
Cheap jokes aside, there’s a solid chance that actually isn’t Wolf Man’s titular wolfman. Sure, you’d expect the big Halloween Horror Nights reveal for the movie to feature the actual wolfman, but looking at other attractions and performers (just scroll through the user’s recent videos), many other costumes don’t look especially close to their respective on-screen parts either. What would be the point of revealing the movie without a proper monster reveal? Well, I don’t f**king know, but I do know for sure that film executives are just rolling the dice all the time, so there’s a non-zero chance someone thought it’d be a good idea to put a random Halloween costume in front of a vague banner for the horror flick and call it a day until the first trailer releases.
The bad (but funniest) ending is that this half-orc or whatever actually represents at least one wolfman from Wolf Man, in which case we’re in for a proper wacko ride. I wonder if he’ll be guarding a bridge at some point if that’s the case.
This modern take on 1941’s The Wolf Man is releasing in theaters on (F**k You, It’s) January 17, 2025, so a trailer should be with us soon for better or worse. Meanwhile, James Wan could be prepping a Creature from the Black Lagoon reboot for Universal’s modern ‘classic monsters’ push.
