Wolf Man (2025) Movie Review - The Concession Stand

Welcome everyone to the concession stand here on the KB radio network.

I am your host,

Kevin Reed,

and this is the review of the brand new horror film from the good folks over at Universal Pictures and Blumhouse

Wolfman. And this film is directed.

and co-written by Lee Warnell,

who has given us some really good films as a director.

The Invisible Man from about,

what,

five years ago,

which is another universal monster that he did and reimagined it.

Upgrade was a very,

very good film.

I think underrated,

to say the least.

And he co-wrote

Insidious and...

the very first Saw film,

as well as co-starred in that movie as well.

Well,

he's mainly behind the director's chair now,

or sits in the director's chair,

and he directed this latest reimagining of a universal monster film,

and this film stars Christopher Abbott,

Julia Garner,

Matilda Furt,

and it follows a man seeking to protect his wife and daughter from a werewolf only.

to become infected and slowly transform into the creature i was highly anticipating this film uh coming into this new year that we are currently in for

a number of reasons number one lee wannell uh he has yet to let me down so i was super excited to see what his take of the wolfman would

You know,

after seeing The Invisible Man,

The Invisible Man was just bananas crazy good.

Had no business being that good,

yet it was.

It was so good.

And all his other films always keep you on the edge of your seat,

keep you scared,

keep you terrified,

and all that good stuff.

And

I was excited to see what he would do.

with this material uh the second reason i was excited for this was out of all the universal monsters or just monsters in general i absolutely love werewolves uh it's a close race between werewolves and vampires for me but

it's something about werewolves if i could pick and this is a weird thing to say but if i could choose to be anyone you

it will probably be a werewolf it's something about a werewolf that intrigues me you know i would love to be a werewolf uh vampire not so much maybe it's the sucking of the blood thing even though werewolves you know tear off flesh and eat eat you alive but that's that's neither here nor there but

i i just would prefer to be a werewolf it that's besides the point anyways i love werewolf movies i i actually enjoyed that uh you

werewolf film that came out about a month or so ago werewolves with frank grillo it was what it was you know it it was a campy little werewolf film and it leaned heavily into it it didn't apologize and i

actually enjoyed it and so i i enjoy werewolf movies and so that was my second reason the other reason was uh julia garner who i am a gigantic julia garner fan

you know uh ever since ozark i will watch anything she's in good or bad you know and i enjoy her in everything she's in and can't wait to see her in fantastic four in case a lot of people don't know she's in that film she's not playing one of the fantastic four she's actually playing silver

surfer in that movie so i'm excited to see what her take of that character will be but i will i was really excited to see her in this film i was not disappointed

This set the bar for

2025 to me.

This is the bar here.

You know,

the bar will move gradually up or down depending on how the rest of this year goes.

But as it stands right now,

you have to match

Wolfman. This was an excellent film in my eyes.

Was it a perfect film?

No,

it wasn't perfect.

There were some character decisions that were kind of questionable.

in this movie but it's a horror film show me a horror film where a character doesn't do something stupid that you sit there and like why did you do that

you know um they all horror films have that it is no exception here but besides that this was amazing this was an amazing film this movie is

90 minutes long and it was a small contained story that just centered on this family these are the only three characters in the film well it was a fourth but you

you know watch the movie you'll know what the fourth one is but it's it is so it's just contained in this one house for the majority of the film and you know what can keep you interested in something like that well they

found the way they found the way and and i love short little small contained films like this i love it trust me epic wide-scale films have has its place you know

Lawrence of Arabia has his place.

You've been heard the Ten Commandments all those big epic films from back then They have their place,

but sometimes you need something small a small

Story yet with large stakes and this is it.

This is it right here It gives you everything you need and want it and didn't know that you want it all

Within these 90 minutes everything was set up

the characters were flushed out well i mean well written flushed out characters here uh from uh christopher abbott who i don't know much about christopher abbott the only thing i've seen christopher abbott in unfortunately

was craving the hunter uh about a month ago he was in that movie and no fault of his but it was it was a pointless character

I didn't like the character.

I didn't like the movie.

I can't fault him for that.

But I haven't seen him in nothing else.

Even though he looks familiar,

I've probably seen him pop up in things.

But this is the first time I've seen him,

the star of a movie.

What a good job for him to act.

His acting was amazing here.

Even after he becomes the Wolfman and is not a spoiler is in the trailer.

And for him to act in the moat.

through these you know from the other side of these prosthetics were it was great it was beautiful to watch uh julia garner i would say she's the weakest but not weak she's not a weak character but she's the weaker weaker of the three um

i liked her her character when i mentioned earlier about decisions that were made throughout the film she made some stupid decisions it didn't

necessarily burn her in the end but it made you question like what are you doing right now you know there was a there was a moment in this film no spoilers uh where something is happening to her husband her husband is going through this transformation and

he's he's wigging out you know obviously he's not in his right mind and she decides to go off

and try to do something else,

you know,

to try to get him out of there,

and leaves her daughter with this man that is not well.

And I'm like,

where's your daughter?

Why are you leaving your daughter?

I know that's her dad,

but he's not right right now.

Do you know what I'm saying?

It's just a dumb decision that was made there,

and she made another one towards the end of the film that I was like,

what are you doing?

But it didn't bite her in the end,

but no pun intended.

But the standout here,

the star here was Matilda Furt,

who plays the daughter,

the young daughter here.

Man,

what a great job by her.

She had to,

I guess you could say she was the audience here.

She was us in this movie.

And the relationship between her and Christopher Abbott,

you know,

the father-daughter relationship.

that they had,

it was genuine.

It was pure.

It was real.

I actually,

for a minute,

I was like,

is this his real daughter in real life?

You know,

cause they have that connection.

I know.

Cause I have two daughters and I know the connection between a father and a daughter when I see one and it was there,

it was great.

And you know,

and once he's going through this transformation and everything,

it was,

it was heartbreaking to see too.

And so

I loved her.

She really acted her behind all of that.

I mean,

she was the standout between these two other adult actors in this film.

she she stood out the most um the werewolf aspect of it all or is this really a werewolf you know what how do you define a werewolf because this isn't your granddaddy's werewolf this isn't your dad's werewolf uh you

know with the uh uh the hair and the kind of hind legs and all this here this is this is truly wolf man this is wolf man

You know,

it is a man that just has wolf attributes,

you know?

And that's what I love about

Lee Warnell.

He found a way to make this kind of a realistic type thing.

You know,

something that you can believe this is happening.

You know,

it isn't a fantasy.

There really was no fantasy element to this.

You know,

he treated it more like a...

virus or disease that was passed on to him and that's another aspect that i'm gonna jump in in a second but as far as the werewolf part of it all it is awesome i've

never seen a transformation take place like this and i don't mean like uh you know american werewolf in london type transformation which was which still to this day holds up as one of the greatest transformations

on screen but i'm talking for these 90 minutes because that's how long it takes the whole movie is him transforming into this thing you know going through different stages but it's not it's

not your it's not like you've seen before but it's nothing that's gonna wow you you know it's not like it's a state-of-the-art visual effects and all this other stuff it was basically all practical maybe a few

digital shots,

but it was mostly practical and the transformation was,

it was just done in a very unique way.

And I'm not really talking about the physical aspect of it all.

The exciting part about this was the visual and the sound,

you know,

uh,

the,

the senses.

of our lead character of christopher abbott's character being turned up to 11 you know with his hearing and his ability to smell and uh the speech and all this other stuff all that the way it was done

was so unique so simple it was so simple i found myself while the film was going i'm like

have i ever seen this before you know because it seems so simple like i know this has been done before this had to been done before but i've never seen it done in this way so intelligently i mean kudos

my hat goes off to we uh lee wannell in the job that he did depicting the stages of transformation for this uh individual uh going back to you

what the symbolism of it all.

And this movie is,

let me say it like this.

It's not what you think.

This is not your typical horror film.

This isn't your werewolf running through the house chasing this woman and child up the stairs,

in the closet,

in the bathroom,

and all this other stuff.

And they...

jumping off the roof trying to escape this it wasn't it's not that if you go in thinking that you're going to be disappointed that's not this film this film was a film about generational trauma and

how that is passed on from generation to generation and how it was used the device used in this film is this wolf you

Virus I guess you could say and it's done in a unique and intelligent way is on the nose There's nothing hidden.

It's not no

Deep thought type deal where you you're caught off guard like oh my god.

That is so intelligent You know you're not gonna you're not gonna stay at a Holiday Inn Express because you saw this but it's like very unique and

Really makes you look say look at things

differently,

you know,

especially if you're a father.

And I guess that's why this film affected me so much.

And

I didn't have these issues.

Let me start off by saying that.

I didn't have an abusive father and all this here.

You know,

my dad was awesome.

So he passed it on.

Hopefully I'm passing that on too.

But

I'm talking in the aspect of fathers and daughters,

you know,

and the relationship that our lead character and his daughter have and how.

close of a bond they had even when he was changing into this wolf creature and uh i guess the only humanity he had left was the love he had for his daughter a little bit for his wife you

know not to exclude his wife because he did have love for his wife but um it was just it was really the daughter that really anchored him

throughout this film and it it's a it's something to think about you know the whole premise of this or the mission statement of this film is you know what as a father you are the protector you

know you're you're the you're the last you're the first and last line of defense when it comes to your family but what happens when you become the enemy you know and you're supposed to protect

So what do you do?

And that is the basis of this film.

And this was done well.

I really,

really enjoyed this movie.

I mentioned a little while ago about the sound.

The sound design deserves a round of applause.

This is a very creepy movie as far as the sound in.

There was a scene in this film when...

Christopher Abbott's character is hearing something and it sounds like you know they had raccoons or something in the attic but you know it was it was heightened up and the way that when he makes the discovery it's like where

that sound is coming from it's like wow you know what I'm saying it was the sound throughout the film was great uh the the set design was great

the creature design was great the cinematography was beautiful uh this is the same cinematographer that lee wannell uses in all his films and so uh it just worked perfectly uh like i said i only had like two or three nitpicks it was a couple of character decisions that were made um

the logic you know the little leap in logic

uh with the with the infected that took place in the beginning of the film or you know when we get to this point of the film when uh our character gets infected it's kind of like uh i don't recall it going that way but it's it's we you

know you just have to roll with it at that point but other than that i really had no flaws no problems with this movie i enjoyed it from beginning to end

you know it's a good movie when you get mad when the credits start rolling you're like man that's it i want more and i really did want more wolfman which is currently in theaters gets a letter grade of an a minus yeah it is so

far the best movie of 2025 and i know it's only been three weeks so that's an easy statement to make but this is the state this is the uh a bar that is set you

for the remainder of the year let's see what will surpass it i would love to know what did you think of wolfman did you enjoy it are you looking forward to it or were you expecting if you saw it were you expecting a different type of wolfman or the same wolfman that we have

grown accustomed to in the past i would love to know your thoughts email the show kbradiopodcast at gmail.com you can also search for the show on all social media platforms just search

for the kb radio network also ladies and gentlemen don't forget about youtube subscribe to the kb radio network channel and like this video if you don't mind don't forget about the five stars the reviews and sharing this show if you're listening on apple podcast spotify iheart radio wherever you are currently listening to

the concession stand here on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me for this review of wolfman

Want you all to know that I love you.

Continue to love everyone.

And until we speak again,

you all be blessed.

Wolf Man (2025) Movie Review - The Concession Stand

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