Why So Blu?

Wolf Man (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

The Universal “Monster-Verse” has been up and down for what feels like decades now. The Wolf Man debuted in 2008 with a whisper. Way before that, in the late 90s, The Mummy set the tone for what could’ve been a legendary run of revived monster films.  The Mummy series continued, but its returns weren’t as promising as the debut. Things went quiet until The Mummy and a rebranded Dark Universe were revived again, this time with Tom Cruise, and this time being a critical flop.  Then, nothing once again.  Cue Leigh Whannell’s 2020 remake of The Invisible Man. Told with a modern twist involving gaslighting and a strong female character, the film was a success during the pandemic, leading to renewed interest in Universal’s monster movie legacy. Now, 5 years later, we have Wolf Man. Not The Wolf Man – just Wolf Man. How does this modernized version of the classic werewolf tale go? Do we have another success or another miss? Prepare for some shocking transformations and some revelations about the 4K transfer of 2025’s first monster flick!

Film

Seeking a fresh start, Blake moves his wife Charlotte and daughter Ginger to his childhood home in rural Oregon. Upon arrival, they encounter a brutal animal attack, forcing the family to barricade themselves inside the house as an unseen creature prowls the perimeter. As the night wears on, Blake’s injuries worsen, and his bizarre behavior turns monstrous. To protect her daughter, Charlotte must decide whether to confront the danger outside or the growing horror within.

Wolf Man begins simply and quietly.  A young child is taken hunting by his protective father.  In an Oregon forest, the child, Blake, lives off the grid with Dad. He is already well-versed in forest survival and hunting skills.  His father is strict and wants him to be able to take care of himself.  Their relationship is cold – very “yes sir, no sir”. This is 1995, and a preface card lets us know that and in this very forest a man has been bitten by a creature and then gone missing.  As the boy and his father hunt, they find a deer.  Off screen they hear some scary sounds that push them into a nearby deer hide. Before the sounds can correlate to whatever is making them, the creature runs off.

30 years later, we officially meet Blake.  Now approaching 40, Blake is living in San Francisco with his publisher wife Charlotte and his daughter Ginger.  Currently unemployed, Blake is sort-of a shell playing Mr. Mom while Charlotte goes out and earns for the family.  Blake is estranged from his father, long thought missing or dead after a mishap in that same off the grid Oregon forest. One fateful day, Blake receives an envelope with papers and a set of keys.  His father is officially declared dead, and the forest farmhouse is now all Blake’s.  Taking the opportunity to start fresh and revive his writing career, Blake moves the family to Oregon.

Before Blake, Charlotte and Ginger can get settled, the family endures a horrific accident after they get lost on the way to the farm.  They crash their moving van swerving to miss a person or animal in the road, their neighbor dies in the crash, and they all nearly die themselves trying to escape.  All this is without mention of Blake’s being gashed by the creature that was in the road.  But what is the creature you ask? A Wolf Man perhaps.

Retreating on foot to the farmhouse while being chased, the family barricades themselves inside for the night in hopes to survive until sunrise.  Blake reveals that the creature has been in the woods for years and locals know to go inside before dark to avoid attacks.  As Blake powers on the generator, there are bangs on the door and the Wolf Man continues to taunt from the outside.  As the night progresses, Blake begins to deteriorate.  The wound from being slashed on the arm worsens and then teeth begin to fall out of Blake’s mouth.

Thinking Blake is now just taken ill, Charlotte vows to get to daylight and get Blake to a hospital.  The family pushes through to survive but the stakes become high as the challenges get more and more severe over the course of the night. Charlotte becomes more and more fueled with determination as Blake becomes more and more changed by his wound.  The wound makes him become something more diseased and decayed and Blake begins to become unfocused, unable to hear Charlotte or Ginger correctly, becoming deaf to their words and hungry for their flesh.  The tables turn and then Charlotte and Ginger must make choices for their own wellbeing.

Wolf Man is a very 2025 retelling of the original story of The Wolf Man. The Lon Chaney original has the titular character bitten by the wolf on the night of a full moon, making him turn into a werewolf on those full moon nights.  This iteration has Blake scratched and then he begins to become infested – He deteriorates much like Seth Brundle in The Fly (1986). There are modern sensibilities here such as family estrangement, gender roles in a marriage and navigating marriage issues.  There is the deterioration of a human at the core of the story but also the breakdown of a whole family too. So, there are deeper themes running through this Wolf Man.

Does that make Wolf Man very good?  I didn’t personally connect with this version of the story.  There is a slow burn quality to Whannell’s version that left a lot to be desired for me.  With so many quiet moments and lulls in the pacing, you begin to tire waiting for Blake’s full transformation.  The slow strain we endure as we see Blake struggle and Charlotte quiver with fear is taxing.  Even little Ginger seems to be wanting something more to happen as the family spends time running to and from the house screaming.  And this is all in between moments where very little is said and done.

Whannell is a master of atmosphere and aesthetic, though.  Wolf Man looks and sounds fantastic.  The actors look and sound right too.  The performances are even very good a lot of the time.  The story is the part that is disappointing.  The characterizations are tepid at best with some frustrating developments within the family dynamic.  Blake is played decently as a human but is plagued by so much up and down behavior as he is changing.  Conflicted I get, but as an audience member, I found myself saying “decide already!!” to the screen as he tethers between wanting to attack his wife and child and just wanting to be around them.

There are also some unforgivably implausible moments within Wolf Man. Some moments are simply silly.  Why wouldn’t Charlotte run when her husband has become a wolflike creature and is running on all fours towards her? Why would Blake lead his family up on a soft plastic greenhouse to keep away from a ferocious and sharp-clawed wolf man? Like I said, silly. The truck accident near the beginning also feels a bit silly as it seems implausible that the family would be so unscathed after such a huge crash downhill and then onto the side of a moving truck. Maybe I’m just griping too much?

I will still give major props to the cinematographers, the sound designers and the effects departments that worked on Wolf Man. It is very clear that they put a lot of thoughtful effort into the work they put into the film.  Even if I didn’t care for the final product, I can absolutely see their hard work on display and appreciate the technical aspect of the film.  While I can’t recommend Wolf Man as a new spin on a horror icon, I can say that it was an interestingly flawed attempt at reviving The Wolf Man for 2025.

Video

Encoding: HEVC / H.265

Resolution: 2160p

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

HDR: HDR10

Layers: BD-66

Clarity/Detail: Wolf Man hits 4K UHD Blu-ray with an excellent looking transfer. Captured digitally with some digital grain added for texture, the film has a decidedly dark look for most of the film.  Once the film goes back to Oregon with Blake and the family, things are murky but not without keeping detail intact. Watch this at night though, or if you own a Panasonic UB-820 or better, adjust your HDR Setting for a light or bright environment or you’ll be squinting.  In the right environment though, the look of the film on disc is quite pleasing and pushes the limits of what dark content can do on the format.

Depth: Foregrounds and backgrounds are equally sharp and detailed with perfect fluid movement as the camera pans around the Oregon farmhouse set.

Black Levels: Blacks go deep and dangerously close to the crushing point.  Saved by some great lighting, the blacks look excellent here and you can distinguish the shadow detail even in the darkest corners of the screen.

Color Reproduction: Colors are not always vibrant depending on the scene, but the lush forest greens really pop during daytime scenes.  A few moments of color pop up with clothing and a daytime scene in San Francisco is also fetching.  While it may not be eye-popping on the color spectrum, the colors represented in the film are faithful to their intended look.

Flesh Tones: Flesh tones look natural, and makeup effects are very photorealistic.

Noise/Artifacts: Digital grain looks real and compliments the image nicely.

Audio

Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, French Canadian Dolby Digital Plus 7.1, and Latin American Spanish Dolby Digital Plus 7.1

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Dynamics: Wow is all I can say.  I thought the HDR10 Presentation on the video side of Wolf Man was wonderful, but the Atmos mix is a left hook knockout.  Fully immersive and dynamic, the mix moves around with the characters and sound is alive. Moments put you right with Blake, Charlotte and Ginger as they try to get through their horrible night.

Height: Oregon nature, San Francisco cityscape, Creature effects, rainfall, the sound of static, distorted dialogue… you name it… if it was intended to come down on top of you in the mix it does… When the sounds of the forest move around you it’s such a cool effect! Static mixes are fine, but dynamic Atmos is such a treat!!

Low Frequency Extension: Bass hits hard for the musical score, attack scenes, the big moving van crash and for some thunderstorm sounds early on.  The bass digs deep and sounds so precise!

Surround Sound Presentation: Surround sound channels continue to dynamic movement of the sounds around the characters, especially giving life to the claustrophobic surroundings of the house, a dusty truck, a barn and the open air of the outdoors.

Dialogue: Dialogue is clear and intelligible.

Extras

Wolf Man comes to 4K UHD Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in 2 versions. A Standard O-Ring slipcover edition and a fetching Steelbook are both available wherever you get your physical media. Both come bundled with a Blu-ray and digital code.  Extras for Wolf Man show surprising depth despite being shorter than I’d like.  Leigh Whannell and his cast and crew seem very enthusiastic about their film.  The comparison to The Fly is discussed too.  It was nice to hear my assumptions verified there!

Bonus Features:

 

• UNLEASHING A NEW MONSTER – Explore Leigh Whannell’s dark and gritty take on one of horror’s most iconic monsters. Learn what inspired the visionary director to create this tragic tale of family, loss, and a night of absolute terror.
• DESIGNING WOLF MAN – Director Leigh Whannell and prosthetic designer Arjen Tuiten, set out to create a Wolf Man unlike any seen before. Take a closer look at the conceptual designs, sculptures and prosthetic make-up that aided in the creation of a monster that stays with you long after the credits roll.
• HANDS ON HORROR – Strap in for a breakdown of the film’s most thrilling action sequences. Cast and crew discuss how practical effects enabled them to capture raw and realistic performances of the most terrifying, heart-pounding scenes in the film.
• NIGHTMARES AND SOUNDSCAPES – Transition into Blake’s perspective and witness the world through the eyes of an animal. Learn how sound design and VFX came together to highlight the enhanced hearing, vision, and complete abandonment of humanity that materialized during the transformation from Man to Wolf.
• FEATURE COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR/CO-WRITER LEIGH WHANNELL

Summary

Wolf Man proved polarizing on all sides.  Theatrically it didn’t do well for Universal.  Audiences and critics, including myself, were split on Wolf Man.  My colleagues and I discussed it, and they also weren’t too enthusiastic.  A movie buff friend of mine (Shout out to you, Chino!) happened to love the film.  I have no doubt there are plenty of others that have found themselves liking or loving it too.  As we know, movies are subjective as are film reviews. While I may not have liked Wolf Man much at all, I can’t deny its solid technical merits. The skill of its filmmakers and its excellent 4K presentation are notable too.  If you’re a Leigh Whannell fan, you may want to check this out.  If you’re on the fence, a rental may be in order first.

Buy Wolf Man Standard 4K UHD Blu-ray HERE

Buy Wolf Man 4K UHD Blu-ray Steelbook HERE