The original Wolf Man hit theatres in 1941, becoming one of Universal’s earliest and most influential monster films to shape the golden age of horror. Unsurprisingly, as with most successes in the film industry, this sparked countless reimaginings throughout the decades that followed. In 2010, Universal attempted to revive the legend with a big-budget remake starring Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt. Though the film received mixed reviews it has since developed a cult following for its devotion to old-school horror.
Now, fifteen years later, Universal has released another attempt at modernizing The Wolf Man for modern audiences, this time with updated lore, CGI-heavy action, and an overall shift aimed at wider appeal. However, while the 2025 version checks some of the right boxes, it lacks the craft of its predecessors, reducing a once-terrifying and lore-filled story into a generic resurgence of yet another monster flick. Because of this, despite its troubled production and rocky reception, the 2010 remake stands as the stronger adaptation that remains more faithful to the intent of the original.
2025’s Wolf Man Forgot the Original’s Folklore
In Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man reboot, gone is the fog-drenched moorland of 1940s Wales, the silver-headed cane, and the fate played out through superstition and folklore. In its place, viewers find a modern thriller disconnected from the roots that made The Wolf Man a horror classic. Despite certain nods to generational trauma and inherited violence, the 2025 remake offers little mythic charm that defined the original 1941 film.
In the Universal classic, Lon Chaney Jr.’s Larry Talbot is a man of science returning from America to his ancestral home in the Welsh countryside. There, he stumbles into a society still obsessed with ancient beliefs. The werewolf’s curse is spoken of by Romani characters who serve, albeit through now-outdated tropes, as custodians of knowledge about the old ways. And while 1941’s The Wolf Man certainly reflects the anxieties of its era, it does so by embracing the supernatural. Contrast this with Christopher Abbott’s Blake, a man of middle-class depression.
His transformation is disturbing and monstrous, but it’s rationalized through metaphor rather than legend. Whannell trades in silver bullets for psychodrama, replacing folkloric terror with modern allegory. The werewolf curse here is no longer a remnant of forgotten lands but an expression of toxic masculinity. It’s a mutation of inherited rage passed from father to son like a hereditary disease. Gone are the chants, the prophecies, and the gypsy warnings of death, and in their place are regrets and self-help apologies. It’s intelligent, but in some ways, ironically toothless.
The Wolf Man took place within a symbolic world, where werewolves bore the weight of punishment. Of course, the 1941 film didn’t invent the idea of werewolves, but it pulled from centuries of European folklore, where the transformation was a punishment and curse for sin. In the original, the curse is passed through the bite of another werewolf, with the transformation tied to the full moon. Larry Talbot is bitten while trying to save a woman, and the only person who understands what’s coming is Maleva, a Romani seer who recognizes the signs and recites the old poem:
Even a man who is pure in heart / and says his prayers by night / may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms / and the autumn moon is bright.
What exact folklore the film is based on is never explicitly explained. However, while myths vary across regions, the general symbols of the curse remain the same. The moon controls the change, silver is deadly, and the curse isolates its victim from the rest of the world. The 1941 film draws on these beliefs and presents them without question: the full moon triggers Larry’s transformation; he’s killed by the silver-headed cane by his father; and he’s very much isolated from the rest of the village.
In some ways, it can be perceived as a metaphor for the society of its time, particularly with the aftermath of WWII. The moon signals surrender to fate, silver offers violent redemption, and the cursed man walks alone. Werewolf legends, whether from Welsh, Germanic, or Slavic roots, have always circled the same fears. Every myth reflects the era of its origin. In plague-ridden eras, they symbolized contagion, and in wartime, they became allegories for violence, trauma, and the beast beneath the uniform.
While The Wolf Man reflects the fears of its era, it still draws from European folklore. Today’s Wolf Man prefers psychological explanations. Blake isn’t cursed by a holy alignment or ancestral mistake, but infected and transformed by a father he can’t outrun. But in abandoning the logic of the original, the film risks reducing werewolf mythology to mere metaphor. The absence of traditional folklore also rewires the stakes.
In the original, Larry Talbot’s downfall is inevitable and tragic in its classical structure. The wolf’s curse binds him to destiny. Blake’s story is about choice, or at least the illusion of it. His descent is a cautionary tale about anger mismanaged and family wounds left unhealed. That’s an interesting angle, but it’s one that could apply to any monster, not necessarily a werewolf.
2010’s Wolfman Honors the Original Story and Folklore
Where the 2025 remake reinvents the myth, 2010s The Wolfman restores it. Rather than reframe the werewolf as a modern metaphor, Joe Johnston’s film returns the creature to its tragic, cursed, and superstitious origins. Visually, the film commits to the horror tradition, set in a Victorian England that replicates the environment and tension of Gothic horror. While The Wolfman didn’t come close to the success of 2025’s Nosferatu, it’s a fair comparison, both preserving their original stories while making subtle updates to meet modern audience standards.
This is what a remake should be: respectful to its source while carefully modernizing elements like pacing, effects, and performances to engage unfamiliar viewers. The Wolfman is not a misunderstood classic. It has several problems, notably awkward pacing and an overreliance on cheap jump scares. Yet, there’s still plenty that works in its favor. And, as far as remakes go, it’s nothing less than a respectful revival.
That loyalty is clearest in the film’s treatment of folklore. The Wolfman places myth at the center of its story, incorporating Romani legends, lunar cycles, and silver bullets. The curse is passed through a bite, its power bound to the full moon, and its consequences foretold by a Romani seer reciting the same poem made iconic in the 1941 original. The story itself also follows the original closely, with Talbot returning home after years away, only to become the next victim of the family curse.
While the 2010 version adds a more explicit father-son conflict and hints of Freudian tension, the emotional arc follows the same fatal logic as the original. Technically, the film supports this more traditional view of horror. Rick Baker’s practical effects were intentionally designed to echo the classic Universal Monsters aesthetic, and Danny Elfman’s orchestral score reinforces the film’s commitment to atmosphere over action. This is perhaps one thing the film had working against it, with many viewers feeling it lacked anything significantly exciting.
Rick Baker won an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Makeup for the creature’s design. He had previously won an Academy Award in makeup design for An American Werewolf in London.
By today’s standards, the film is slower and more theatrical than most modern horrors. However, this would be a fair assumption would the film had merely been a standalone entry rather than a remake. The original is just as broody, tragic, slow-burning, and dramatic, as are most Gothic horrors. Rather than weakening the myth in the name of reinvention, it adopts the original’s theology and visual gloominess. This version leans into the inevitability of the curse, the dread of moonlight, and the agony of transformation with sincerity. That may not appeal to every audience, but for those who care about what The Wolf Man was and is supposed to be, 2010’s version remains the only remake that truly understands the assignment.
