How scary is the film from the director of The Invisible Man?

For die-hards, no horror movie can be too scary. But for you, a bitch, the wrong one can make you unhappy. Never fear, fear, because Slate’s Scaredy Scale is here to help. We have put together a very scientific and mostly spoiler free system for rating new horror films, comparing them to classics along a 10-point scale. And because not everyone is afraid of the same things—some viewers can’t stand jump scares, while others are haunted by more psychological terrors or can’t resist arterial splashes—it breaks down each film’s scares across three criteria: suspense, creepiness, and gore .

If you’re heading to the theater in droves this weekend, you might be intrigued Wolf mana reboot of the 1941 film The Wolf Man. The latest title from famed horror production company Blumhouse was written and directed by frequent James Wan collaborator Leigh Whannell, the writer behind plenty of popular horror films (Saw, Sneaketc.) and the director of the 2020 sci-fi horror stand out The invisible man. Originally, Wolf man was intended to be a starring role for Ryan Gosling, as news media reported in 2020. But after many production changes spurred by scheduling conflicts and the COVID pandemic, the film is finally here in a different form. Now it stars Christopher Abbott (The sinner, Poor things) and Julia Garner (Ozark, Invents Anna) as Blake and Charlotte, a married couple who hope that a family visit with their daughter to Blake’s empty childhood home in Oregon will save their struggling relationship. But nothing is ever that easy or that benign in a Blumhouse movie. Whannell has successfully scared us for years as the orchestrator of many of our most beloved horror films, but how Wolf man measure up to the celebrated scares in the writer-director’s CV? Let’s sniff this out.

Wolf man‘s first scene—a prologue in which young Blake heads into the woods with his father to hunt deer—handles the tension quite well, using the scope of a hunting rifle to limit the audience’s view and heighten the element of surprise. Nature is beautiful and essential, the film emphasizes, but it can also be creepy and dangerous, as best illustrated by the dilapidated house by the forest – the perfect setting to exploit the viewers’ nervous system. As Blake’s father reminds him as they hunt, you’re always “an inch away from death.” Luckily, you’re more than an inch away from jump scares with this lupine story. After the opening scene, the shocks are definitely present, but not too frequent. What’s more, you can see most of them coming. While this only makes the shocks more effective, in my opinion it also makes them easier to avoid. All in all, even the scarier among us will do just fine with this movie.

As is practically necessary for any tale of lycanthropy, there will be blood; there will be guts! Wolf man however, can be forgiving in this department, where the tumor occurs less often than you might otherwise expect. With that said, when it does happen, it’s still pretty nasty! What starts with a gnarled gash turns into watching a human body deform before your eyes. Not to mention there’s the gnawing of limbs (plural). Though Wolf man tries to focus more on disturbing you emotionally than physically, it certainly has its fair share of fun in the yuck department. Consider yourself warned: Whether or not you bite your arm to see this movie, arms will be consumed.

Wolf man tries to rank higher on this uncanny scale, but never quite makes it. I felt thrown out of the film on a few occasions, whether it was due to stilted dialogue, questionable plot development, or a general sense of What is this movie trying to be about? Unfortunately, these moments kept me from feeling suitably terrified throughout. It’s disappointing, because on paper Wolf man raises interesting and justifiably tough questions: At what point do you decide that the evolving danger within is more dangerous than what you know lurks outside? At what point do you give up on saving someone you love? Or, like the one who transforms into a beast, what is humanity at all when it comes to fatherhood and family? The thought that you could see your father or husband become unrecognizable thing right before your eyes is particularly devastating, and a good metaphor for plenty of heartbreaking predicaments in real life. But the film doesn’t try to expand on this idea as a metaphor, or even focus on this one idea throughout—a surprising miss, given that Whannell’s The invisible man was praised specifically for how it handled themes of domestic abuse. Despite claiming to be about pandemic-inspired metaphors of isolation, confinementand grief, Wolf manThe main message is muddled at best, resulting in a film that is thematically confusing, moderately entertaining and only mildly scary.

While Wolf man had a lot of wasted potential, it’s still a pretty serviceable horror film! Christopher Abbott gives a great performance and all the classic horror techniques are definitely used. Although you won’t feel petrified, you will feel nauseous or elated at times. You may even be moved by the film’s more heartwarming depictions of a strong father-daughter relationship. I’m sure 2025 still has more scary movies in store, although this first major horror release leaves plenty to be desired desired.