Lawrence Talbot, an American man on a visit to Victorian London to make amends with his estranged father, gets bitten by a werewolf and, after a moonlight transformation, leaves him with a savage hunger for flesh.
Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, Geraldine Chaplin, Art Malik, Antony Sher, David Schofield, Cristina Contes, David Sterne, Elizabeth Croft, Simon Merrells, Asa Butterfield, Olga Fedori, Lorraine Hilton, John Owens, Gemma Whelan, Nicholas Day, Clive Russell, Michael Cronin
Where to watch
Max
Curator Review
Verdict
A lavish, old-school monster movie with strong atmosphere, period detail, and committed performances, but it’s also uneven, overstuffed, and sometimes more impressive in pieces than as a whole. If you want a serious, bloody studio werewolf tragedy, it has enough gothic scale to be worth a look.
Best for
fans of classic Universal monster remakes
viewers who like gothic horror with ornate production design
people who prefer serious, humorless creature features
audiences who enjoy practical gore and transformation effects
Skip if
you want a tight, fast-paced horror movie
you dislike melodramatic Victorian gothic tone
you need sharp character writing over atmosphere
you’re looking for a playful or self-aware werewolf film
Overview
The Wolfman aims for grand, tragic monster-movie grandeur, and for stretches it gets there. The film leans hard into foggy Victorian dread, lavish sets, and a mournful, old-studio-horror mood that feels unusually expensive and tactile for a mainstream horror release of its era. When it works, it feels like a sincere attempt to resurrect the Universal monster tradition with bloodier teeth.
Worth noting
Its biggest strength is the atmosphere: the costumes, locations, and production design do a lot of heavy lifting, and the creature material has a satisfying feral brutality. The cast commits fully, especially in the more theatrical moments, which helps the movie sell its melodramatic, doom-laden tone.
Bottom line
But the film is also clunky and overextended, with a narrative that can feel messy and characters that are more functional than fully drawn. It’s the kind of movie that inspires admiration for its ambition more often than love for its execution. Still, if you’re in the mood for a somber, blood-soaked gothic creature feature, it has a distinctive appeal.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Patrick Willems (3★) · 1078 likes
It’s not great but this is probably the last time a mainstream studio horror movie could really be described as “lavish.” Real sets! Shot on film! Hopkins hamming it up! A big budget you can see onscreen!
matt lynch (3★) · 451 likes
Mostly I'm a sucker for a bipedal werewolf in a torn up suit howling at the moon from a London rooftop. Hokey but secure in its lack of irony, and pretty bloody too. Want to give extra points for Anthony Hopkins in hammy Van-Helsing-from-Coppola's-DRACULA mode, but they'd be cancelled out for wasting Emily Blunt.
Joe A (3★) · 421 likes
Say what you want about this version of Wolf Man, which is riddled with issues, at least this one features a full moon.
Podcast Ep. 210- Wolf Man (2025)
haley (2.5★) · 357 likes
the way the werewolf ran looked strangely similar to 7 year old me pretending to be a horse
nathaxnne [goodbye <3] (4.5★) · 343 likes
The Wolfman captures the spirit, the feeling and the texture of watching the original run of Universal Monster movies more than I thought would be possible, with the welcome addition of werewolf-inflicted disembowelments, decapitations, sundry other maimings & loss of limb. In keeping with its source material, there is a kind of overstuffed clunk and quaint literalness to the proceedings that if one is not a fan of the original The Wolf Man might seem laborious, but I was delighted. I… more The Wolfman captures the spirit, the feeling and the texture of watching the original run of Universal Monster movies more than I thought would be possible, with the welcome addition of werewolf-inflicted disembowelments, decapitations, sundry other maimings & loss of limb. In keeping with its source material, there is a kind of overstuffed clunk and quaint literalness to the proceedings that if one is not a fan of the original The Wolf Man might seem laborious, but I was delighted. I… more