This is the scariest scene in Wolf Man and it’s not even close
Universal PicturesWolf Man is in cinemas now, so here’s writer-director Leigh Whannell weighing in on the movie’s scariest scene, and how it connects to a horror classic.
Wolf Man follows in the footsteps of The Shining and The Fly when it tells the tale of a man whose alien urges encourage him to harm his loved ones.
Christopher Abbott plays the title character, whose injuries sustained during a wolf attack cause him to transform and then turn on his wife and daughter, resulting in some truly brutal kills.
You can read Dexerto’s Wolf Man review, as well as our ending explainer, plus what that means for a potential Wolf Man 2. Below, we’re delving into the movie’s scariest scene, so SPOILERS ahead.
Wolf Man’s scariest scene is a callback to Leigh Whannell’s Saw
Wolf Man concerns a man who turns into a wolf, his humanity draining away as the best takes hold. And the film’s scariest scene plays out when the title character becomes caught in a bear-trap, and bites through his leg to escape.
It’s a sequence that confirms that the human is dead, while the animal is very much alive and now capable of anything. It also harks back to writer-director Leigh Whannell’s beginnings, as in the 2004 movie Saw – which he both wrote and starred in – a man is forced to cut through his own leg to escape from a trap.
We asked Leigh if the Wolf Man scene was paying tribute to his own work, and he laughed as he responded: “Yes. Homaging the greats. Yeah it was!”
Leigh continues: “It’s funny because when I wrote the scene I was like ‘Oh this makes perfect sense – an animal caught in a trap and what animals do when they’re caught in a trap.’ But then when you’re on set and you see the chain, I’m like ‘Oh, this is totally a callback.’
“There must be some sort of visual obsession of mine that’s lodged in my brain somewhere that’s that image of the rusty chain and someone on the end of it. I don’t know, maybe too many viewings of Mad Max when I was a kid?
“I’m not sure what it is, but I would almost call it an accidental homage, as it took me until when I was on the set to be like ‘Oh yeah, he we are again.’”
Wolf Man is in cinemas now. You can also read about how Jaws and American Werewolf in London influenced the movie. And for more scary stuff, check out our list of the best horror movies ever.