Why Wolf Man didn’t try to eclipse An American Werewolf in London
Universal PicturesWolf Man director Leigh Whannell explains why he didn’t try to “one-up” American Werewolf in London during his title character’s transformation.
When it comes to werewolf movies, one film stands above all others. Released in 1981, An American Werewolf in London proved to be one of the great horror-comedies, while the movie’s transformation sequence changed the way movies are made.
In previous werewolf flicks, the terrifying turn played out in darkness, or even offscreen. But director John Landis challenged make-up artist Rick Baker to craft a transformation in stark light, and the result was jaw-dropping.
It became the gold standard for the genre, and has arguably never been bettered, which gives anyone making a werewolf movie a problem. Including Leigh Whannell.
How Leigh Whannell stretched out his Wolf Man transformation
We caught up with Leigh in advance of Wolf Man’s release, and asked what it was like trying to shoot his transformation in a post-American Werewolf world.
“My way of doing it was to stretch it out,” explains Whannell. “I wanted to slow everything down. There’s no use in competing with Rick Baker – he closed the book on that. And I wouldn’t want to say I’m going to one-up Rick Baker. I would come at it from a different angle and take a completely different approach.
“Plus I thought for my film and the story I’m telling, it was more thematically interesting to have this gradual transformation.”
The result is a lengthy turn that lasts for a good chunk of the film, as Christopher Abbott’s character slowly changes from man into beast. It was also inspired by a visual image that Leigh couldn’t shake when he was planning Wolf Man.
“I started thinking and I had this image pop into my head of a man and a woman opposite each other,” Whannell reveals. “The woman was talking, but he couldn’t understand what she was saying. The speech was just garbled gibberish. And I just grabbed onto that image. I started building the film outwards from there.”
Wolf Man hits screens on January 17, 2024. For more, find out how the saddest horror movie ever inspired Leigh Whannell. While for more scary stuff, check out our list of the best horror movies ever, as well as what horror movies to look out for in 2025.