Wolf Man

What’s it about?

A family at a remote farmhouse is attacked by an unseen animal, but as the night stretches on, the father begins to transform into something unrecognisable.

The facts

• Directed and written by Leigh Whannell (co-creator of the Saw franchise, The Invisible Man)
• Stars Julia Garner (Inventing Anna, Ozark), Christopher Abbott (Poor Things), Sam Jaeger (The Handmaid’s Tale)
• English language
• Runtime: 102 minutes
• Blumhouse production
• A remake of classic Universal Wolf Man monster movies

Why did it get this rating?

This film was classified by Te Mana Whakaatu, Classification Office. You can find out more about classification process and ratings here.

Horror

Wolf Man is a horror-genre film that uses many horror elements to tease out the viewing experience, such as an isolated setting, dark shots, vivid sounds off-screen, and jump scares. The main character goes through a transformation during the film that involves physical appearance changes as well as being unable to speak and hear normally.

Gore

There is strong body horror and gore as the film progresses, and there’s a lot of blood. The strongest parts include bloody wounds shown in close up detail, teeth falling out, blood being vomited up, and fingernails growing out into claws (shown in close-up).

We see a character gnaw at their own wound, and we see a character chew their own foot off to escape after becoming trapped.

There are several scenes where we see dismembered fingers, and limbs.

Graphic violence

After a vehicle crash we see a character barely alive lying outside the wreck. They are attacked off screen by an unseen animal (we hear this) and then we briefly see their bloody wounds from a distance.

A character uses a butcher’s knife to fend off an attacking wolf man. She cuts off some of the attacker’s fingers while defending herself. We later see a brief glimpse of the bloodied hand missing fingers.

Two wolf-men fight using claws, biting and wrestling. One is killed by the other by biting his neck and we then see the large bloody gash weeping blood.

Knives, guns and a bear trap are used as weapons but mostly off-screen or obscured by the dark setting. The bloody wounds are often shown briefly.

Offensive language

There is a small amount of strong language used including “f*ck”, “sh*t” and “motherf*cking”.

When content stays with you:

We all have our boundaries, and it’s completely okay if something you’ve watched is weighing on your mind. If certain content lingers with you, consider having a chat with friends or whānau to debrief about what you’ve just seen. But if you’re still feeling affected, please reach out to any of the following helplines for support.

• 1737
• Safe to talk
• Lifeline
• Youthline

Further information

• Why are ratings and content warnings important for me and my whānau?
• Are scary films good for anything? (blog)