From creating “Saw” franchise along with James Wan to revitalize the monster movie genre with its critical and financial hit “The Invisible Man” Leigh Whannell has been tapping into our fears for over two decades, and his latest star, Julia Garnerthink he’s done it again with “Wolf Man.” Not only that, but he has gone further than ever before.
IN a recent interview with ScreenRantshared Garner that Whannell’s “Wolf Man” creates more horror than previous iterations by making the transformation from man to wolf part of the journey. In it filmGarner’s character is forced to watch in dismay as her husband (Christopher Abbott) begins to become a beast, both physically and emotionally – like a disease slowly taking hold.
“It’s more scary when it’s a slower transition because I still recognized little parts of Chris,” Garner said. “His skin and his hair changed but he still had his eyes and I think if you want to do something scarier just go with something familiar. That’s why they always put dolls in horror movies because you see a doll almost every day. So I think this ‘Wolf Man’ is almost scarier for that reason – it’s something that’s familiar, that Charlotte still sees her husband, but he’s not there anymore.”
As scary as Abbott’s breakdown reads on screen and as daunting as it was to perform opposite him, Garner admitted that the novelty of his grotesque appearance quickly wore off on set.
“The first time I saw him with the prosthetic, I couldn’t stop looking at him,” she told ScreenRant. “It was very weird and bizarre and I was just like, ‘Oh my god, this is scary,’ and then I got used to it after like three days.”
Talking to IndieWire’s Jim Hemphill for a recent interviewWhannell shared how he wrote the script for “Wolf Man” during the covid-19 lockdowns and that he was drawn to the idea of illness as a monster that many are forced to face. David Cronenberg worked in similar territory with his 1986 version of “The Fly,” a film that served as a strong influence for Whannell.
“‘The Fly’ was an allegory for illness, and I felt that was what my ‘Wolf Man’ story was,” the writer/director said. “I have to find the emotional conversation for me, because scaring people is very mechanical. The emotional bedrock underneath is what stirs emotions in me. And I trust that.”
Watch Garner’s interview with ScreenRant below.
“Wolf Man” is currently in theaters from Universal Pictures.
