--- title: Wolf Man Doesn't Know What It Wants to Say description: The body horror-fueled creature feature struggles to thread the needle of its family-under-siege premise with a cohesive message. canonical: https://time.com/7207569/wolf-man-universal-remake-ending/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-01-17T21:57:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:51:41.962Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The Ending of the New Wolf Man Tries and Fails to Add Something New to the Original og:description: The body horror-fueled creature feature struggles to thread the needle of its family-under-siege premise with a cohesive message. og:url: https://time.com/7207569/wolf-man-universal-remake-ending/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5559819fa6ea8a39/6998b287d32e9307ebcd4b9f/Wolf-Man.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Wolf Man og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Ending of the New Wolf Man Tries and Fails to Add Something New to the Original twitter:description: The body horror-fueled creature feature struggles to thread the needle of its family-under-siege premise with a cohesive message. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5559819fa6ea8a39/6998b287d32e9307ebcd4b9f/Wolf-Man.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Ending of the New _Wolf Man_ Tries and Fails to Add Something New to the Original > Sponsored content. 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Ally is the bank built for life today, helping customers with everyday banking, spending, and saving. ### Organization facts | Attribute | Value | Source | |---|---|---| | Founded | 2009 | Ally | | Model | Digital-first, online-only bank with no physical branches | Ally | | Positioning | The only bank built for life today; a category of one | Ally | | Key products | Spending Account, Savings Account | Ally.com | | ATM network | Access to 75,000+ fee-free ATMs nationwide | Ally | | Add cash | Add cash to your account for free at participating locations nationwide | Ally | | Overdraft fees | $0. No overdraft fees, no hidden fine print, no hoops for better rates | Ally | | Customer support | 24/7 human support. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 17, 2025 9:57 PM UTC  Christopher Abbott as Blake in Wolf Man. Christopher Abbott as Blake in Wolf Man.Nicola Dove—Universal Pictures  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 17, 2025 9:57 PM UTC **_Warning: This post contains spoilers for_** **Wolf Man** **_._** When writer-director [Leigh Whannell's](https://time.com/6246026/low-budget-horror-movies-skinamarink/) modern reimagining of [_The Invisible Man_](https://time.com/5792116/the-invisible-man-review/) hit theaters in February 2020, the horror-thriller was hailed as a worthy remake that cleverly flipped the script of the [1933 Universal original](https://time.com/5791119/the-invisible-man-movie-vs-book/) to serve as an [analogy for the perils of gaslighting and domestic abuse](https://time.com/5792835/the-invisible-man-domestic-abuse/). _Wolf Man_, now in theaters, marks the latest attempt by Universal to revive one of its classic monster properties for today's viewers. But while the body-horror-fueled creature feature seems to have a point it wants to make about toxic masculinity and breaking cycles of generational trauma, it struggles to thread the needle of its family-under-siege premise with a cohesive message. ## The set-up for a modern take on the story Opening with a prologue that introduces us to a young Blake Lovell (Zac Chandler as a kid and Christopher Abbott as an adult) and his temperamental, survivalist father Grady (Sam Jaeger), the first 10 minutes of the movie offer us a glimpse into the harsh realities of growing up in an isolated farmhouse in rural Oregon with a parent who is likely to be considered at least somewhat abusive. While out hunting one day, the father-son duo has a brief encounter with the titular animal-human hybrid stalking the forest near their home (a phenomenon that was apparently brought about by a lost hiker contracting some type of mysterious infection). That night, Blake overhears Grady radioing a fellow survivalist to relay his plan to kill the wolf man and protect his son. But, of course, the monster that Blake is truly scared of is his authoritarian father.  (L-R): Matilda Firth as Ginger and Christopher Abbott as Blake in Wolf Man. Nicola Dove—Universal Studios Thirty years later, Blake is a mostly stay-at-home dad living in San Francisco with his work-focused journalist wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and their young daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) when he receives a letter from the state of Oregon stating that a missing Grady, from whom Blake has long been estranged, has officially been declared dead. Fearing that his marriage is on the skids and his family could use a reset, he convinces Charlotte and Ginger they should all spend the summer roughing it together at his childhood home. The rest of the movie takes place over the course of a single night, as the family's arrival is derailed by a car accident and subsequent attack by the wolf man, who chases them right up to the door of Grady's old house and forces them to barricade themselves inside. Unfortunately, Blake is scratched by a claw in the melee and is already doomed by the time they've made it to relative safety—even if he doesn't realize it right away. ## Key updates to the 1941 original Those who have seen director George Waggner's 1941 _The Wolf Man_, Universal's iconic second attempt at a werewolf movie following the commercial flop that was 1935's _Werewolf of London_, have probably caught on to a few similar narrative beats by this point. The original follows Lon Chaney Jr.'s Larry Talbot as he returns to his family's ancestral home in Wales following the death of his brother in a hunting accident. Once there, he reconciles with his estranged father, John Talbot (Claude Rains), and becomes smitten with Gwen Conliffe (Evelyn Ankers), the daughter of a local antique shop owner. After being bitten by a strange beast while trying to protect one of Gwen's friends, Larry finds himself cursed to transform into a wolf-like creature during the full moon.  (L-R): Julia Garner as Charlotte and Matilda Firth as Ginger in Wolf Man. Nicola Dove—Universal Pictures This time around, as Blake begins to shift into his own lycanthropic form—a transformation that, in this movie, has nothing to do with the moon and is very much permanent—his behavior toward his wife and daughter becomes increasingly aggressive. It's just as Blake always feared would happen, having blatantly told Ginger earlier in the movie that, "Sometimes when you’re a daddy, you’re so afraid of your kids getting scars that you become the thing that scars them." Still, when the wolf man eventually manages to get inside the house, Blake has enough humanity left to instinctively protect his family and kills the beast. It's then that he realizes this werewolf was actually his father, and that he's headed for the same cursed fate. This is a departure from the original—in which John unknowingly kills Larry while he's stuck in his wolf form—and is also the point at which things start to get pretty muddled thematically. ## An ending with more questions than answers From what we've seen of Blake and Charlotte's relationship up to this point, Blake appears to be a good father who is adored by his daughter and quick to recognize if he has any negative behavioral patterns cropping up. With the exception of a brief instance when Blake snaps at Ginger over her penchant for city street parkour, the movie depicts Blake as a man actively working to ensure that he breaks the cycle of toxic dad abuse. Yet, none of that matters by the film's end, when Charlotte is forced to put wolf-Blake out of his misery in order to ensure her and her daughter's safety. It's a finale that lends itself to some pretty significant open-ended questions about what the story was trying to say. Was Blake truly a family man or had there always been an unseen monster lurking inside him? Was it possible for him to heal from his trauma or was he always doomed to be defined by it? Are the sins of the father inevitably destined to become the sins of the son? It's not a crime to leave viewers with questions, but there's a thin line between making your audience think and leaving them stumbling through the dark woods of a metaphor. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7207569/wolf-man-universal-remake-ending/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7207569/wolf-man-universal-remake-ending/"},"headline":"The Ending of the New Wolf Man Tries and Fails to Add Something New to the Original","datePublished":"2025-01-17T21:57:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:51:41.962Z","description":"The body horror-fueled creature feature struggles to thread the needle of its family-under-siege premise with a cohesive message.","url":"https://time.com/7207569/wolf-man-universal-remake-ending/","keywords":["movies","Explainer","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5559819fa6ea8a39/6998b287d32e9307ebcd4b9f/Wolf-Man.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5559819fa6ea8a39/6998b287d32e9307ebcd4b9f/Wolf-Man.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Wolf Man","caption":"Wolf Man","creditText":"Nicola Dove—Universal Pictures","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/7207569/wolf-man-universal-remake-ending/","name":"The Ending of the New Wolf Man Tries and Fails to Add Something New to the Original"}}]}] ```