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If you want to be surprised about the transformation sequences in Leigh Whannell’s interpretation of Universal’s Wolf Man then read no further. A new short, filmed inside the SFX Monster Shop, gives away some of the movie’s secrets and purists may not want too much of a reveal.
For those who do want a preview, the short offers a lot of information about how the creature effects were done. Makeup effects designer Arjen Tuiten discusses his process. He says he thought about how to make his design and transformation different from other werewolf films.
“I was really inspired by movies like John Carpenter’s The Thing, David Cronenberg’s The Fly,” he says in the video.
This remake stars Christopher Abbott as, “Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead.
With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Emmy winner Julia Garner; Ozark, Inventing Anna), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth; Hellraisers, Coma).
But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without.”
Whannell is no stranger to creating Universal monsters. In fact, he could arguably be one of the people responsible for the whole streaming craze and how films have a short window between auditorium and living room.
He directed The Invisible Man, but due to the COVID crisis in 2020, people were apprehensive about going to the theater. Consequently, the film was available for digital rental just three weeks after its theatrical premiere and still managed to make $144 million worldwide. That release model is still used today.
Wolf Man will only be in theaters starting January 17.