The Wolfman’s gruesome final appearance is dividing horror fans

This article contains mild spoilers for The Wolf Man.

The centerpiece of any werewolf movie is its transformation sequence. Starting with George Wagner’s 1941 The Wolf Manwatching a man transform into a hairy, wolf-like beast filled the crowd with terror. In The Wolf Man, Lon Chaney Jr. sat motionless in a chair for a static shot of his face. Then the film’s brilliant make-up artists will add a light coat of makeup and hair, and Cheney is off to star again. Several shots have been stitched together with a clever cross-fade, giving the impression that he is transforming. It still looks awesome to this day.

1981 was a landmark year for the werewolf transformation, as it saw the release of Joe Dante’s Howl and John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London. Both of these films made extensive use of make-up, puppetry, models and rubber creature heads to create truly terrifying werewolf transformations. I’d also like to point out the transformation in Howling IV: The Original Nightmare from 1988, where a man literally melts into a pool of water and then transforms into a werewolf like the T-1000 in Terminator 2. This is new to most.

The wolf transformation in Lee Vanello’s new Wolfman film has — for those who don’t mind spoilers — were already available onlinealthough I recommend saving the video until you’ve watched the movie. Needless to say, the sequence is likely to divide audiences. On the one hand, Whannell seems to have wanted to dramatize the werewolf transformation as realistic as possible, keeping wolf-like mutations to a minimum and making the werewolf more human than wolf. On the other hand, the lack of over-the-top changes may upset horror fans who grew up on An American Werewolf and The Howling. For many, the transformation will not be long enough, different enough, or surprising enough.

Unfortunately, there are no scenes of Christopher Abbott’s face horribly stretched into a wolf’s face.

It should be explained that the werewolf is a curse “Wolf Man” Vanello it’s not a magical curse, but a biological virus. Christopher Abbott plays a character named Blake who contracts the virus from a werewolf attack on his way to his dead father’s cabin in the woods of Oregon. The virus takes hold quickly and its transformation happens quickly. At first, his feelings are heightened. He can hear a spider walking on a wall, for example, from several rooms away. An interesting detail of the novel: Blake also loses the ability to understand human speech. After a while, his wife (Julia Garner) and daughter (Matilda Firth) sound like they’re talking gibberish.

However, due to the fact that the transformation happens very quickly and because there is no overtly stated magic, Vanel seems to have wanted to minimize the wolfishness of his central monster. It seems he wanted to make a realistic monster. Blake loses the hair on his head, but grows back a little. His fingernails turn into claws, and his arms seem to spread. His face swells a bit and his nose becomes smooth and more animal-like. His ears also become slightly pointed. Oh yeah, and his teeth grow and his eyes turn yellow and more wolfish. He looks more like a weird, scary dude than a wolf.

But that’s all. Unlike 1941’s An American Werewolf in London, Howl, or The Wolf Man, this new Wolf Man doesn’t go full wolf. His legs do not break into wolf legs. His ears do not move to the top of his head. He has no tail. The wolf mutations seem, at least for a horror movie, more believable. It is theoretically possible that the face will swell as a result of a serious illness or teeth will fall out. You can even lose your mental abilities. These are symptoms of a number of serious diseases.

But in leaning toward realism, Whannell deprived The Wolf Man of a great transformation sequence. Whannell is a thoughtful and effective horror director (he previously directed The Invisible Man and The Update) who knows how to work on a budget. It would be thrilling for horror fans to watch him hit the walls and stretch Man-Wolf’s limited budget into a werewolf mutation for the ages. He couldn’t use expensive modern CGI, but a lot can still be done with carefully planned inexpensive practical effects. Also, even though the Wolfman is relatively meek and docile, the Hounds know that Vanel can be wild. Not only did he write the first three Saw movies and the first four Insidious films, he also directed Insidious: Chapter 3 .

He brings a wild Australian sensibility to his films that only he and his countrymen can provide. Heck, acclaimed Aussie director Philip Moreau created both Howl 2: Your Sister Was a Werewolf and Howl 3: Marsupials. Whannell could take cues from Moreau.

But then it all comes down to preference. Some like realistic werewolves based on biology, while others like magical werewolves that fully mutate into huge carnivorous monsters. Whannell was aiming for the former, but would potentially upset fans of the latter.

Something tells me this is going to be an easy debate that will drag on for years. Kind of like slow zombies vs fast zombies argument. No conclusion will ever be reached.

The Wolf Man is now playing in all theaters.