“I love watching audiences scream,” said Director/Writer/Actor (talk about a triple threat) Leigh Whannell in a 2013 interview with Collider Magazine.

And that is precisely what he has done for the last twenty years.

Beginning his career in the 1990s as a film reviewer for the Australian television show, Recovery, Leigh Whannell has since become one of the most prominent writers in modern horror.

Whannell is the man responsible for the first three Saw films before the series took on its infamous torturous style, Dead Silence (he seems to have a thing for creepy puppets), Insidious 1-4 (the 3rd installment being his directorial debut), and Upgrade.

Whannell’s most recent efforts are his personal twists on the iconic Universal Monster films, The Invisible Man and Wolf Man. The ladder of which was released just last month.

The second I heard whisperings about Wolf Man, it became my most anticipated film of the year despite it only being a January release.

The reviews for this film do not speak to its excellence, in my opinion.

“The story didn’t go anywhere. It looked great, makeup was good, but the story felt.. missing. Like it ended and it felt like almost nothing happened. The movie never dragged or felt too long but at the end [it] just felt unsatisfied,” said AV of Rotten Tomatoes.

I wholeheartedly disagree with this review. I think the story was incredibly strong. Wolf Man wasn’t your typical werewolf movie. Instead of the protagonist turning in the first five minutes and wreaking havoc on a little town with pitchforks for the other 85, Wolf Man is a tale of one man’s descent out of humanity.

The film follows the progression of Blake’s (Christopher Abbott) illness as he; his wife, Charlotte (Julia Garner); and his daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth) grapple with the isolation of the Oregon wilderness.

Despite critics saying the film was shallow, I think this film was one of the most human films I’ve seen in a long time despite the inhuman history of lycanthropy.

“There are horror movies all around us,” Whannell told SyFy. “A child losing their mother to cancer is a horror story. So, what we do with these monster movies is kind of literalize this real life stuff… what it’s like to have a family member feel like they don’t recognize you anymore,” (Universal).

Horror is supposed to make you feel something, and Wolf Man did. It was a blatant allegory for memory loss and generational trauma.

On top of the phenomenal messaging, there are some spectacular practical effects. I’m not usually sensitive to gore, but there were a few moments that had me squirming in my seat. Let’s just say, viewers who know Whannell from his work on the Saw franchise will not be disappointed.

The use of sound in this film was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It masterfully replicates the sensitivity of a wolf’s hearing while also alienating Blake from his family as he transforms.

My only issue with Wolf Man were the digital effects used to represent Blake’s vision as his infection grew worse and worse. When the viewer was seeing the world through his eyes, everything on screen became this bright blue color, almost like night vision, and everyone else’s eyes were glowing.

I love the concept, however, I think its application was a little iffy. Maybe it’ll grow on me after a few rewatches.

All in all, I think this film was a wonderful interpretation of a classic story and is being critically underappreciated in its reviews. I hope that real horror fans will see the beauty in Wolf Man and hold it in the same esteem as Whannell’s other works.