Parents' Guide to Wolf Man

As he did with his excellent Universal monster movie reboot The Invisible Man, writer-director Leigh Whannell reinvents the werewolf motif in this spooky, streamlined, emotional chiller. In 2010's The Wolfman, Universal tried to officially remake the 1941 classic The Wolf Man, but it was empty of character and chills and too heavy on gore. With Wolf Man, Whannell starts from scratch. Very little time is spent on lycan lore—we're dealing with an animal virus, more or less—and most of the action takes place over the course of a single night. The film has very few jump scares but lots of mood and atmosphere, which is created with practical monster effects (recalling not only An American Werewolf in London, but also The Fly) and through an unsettling music score and sound design. In one incredible sequence, Blake slowly creeps upstairs to investigate an unholy banging noise. He finds a closet that seems to be the source of the sound, and opens it to reveal ... a spider (Blake's heightened werewolf senses are what made the spider's stealthy steps sound like thunder).

Using clever mirrored sequences, Whannell considers the dual natures of animal and man, as well as the tragic implications of what it means when humanity is lost. In some of the movie's most heartbreaking scenes, Blake finds that he can no longer communicate with his family, and he no longer understands their human sounds. (Charlotte and Ginger's "I love yous" go unheard.) Wolf Man is a somewhat simple movie, but it effectively claws below the surface.