Leigh Whannell
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The Wolf Man (1941)
Directed by George Waggner
influenced Wolf Man (2025), The Invisible Man (2020)
Themes Plot
…and Curt Siodmak’s The Wolf Man (1941)…
Don’t expect it to crack the Mount Rushmore of canidae films where firmly sit atop ‘An American Werewolf in London,’ ‘Ginger Snaps,’ ‘The Wolf Man’ (1941), and ‘The Howling.’
…a reboot/reinterpretation of Curt Siodmak’s iconic 1941 chiller The Wolf Man…
…this Wolf Man inherits daddy issues from both its predecessors, the 1941 classic starring Lon Chaney and the 2010 version starring Benicio del Toro.
The infanticidal aspect of Curt Siodmak’s script for the 1941 film is also present, and brazenly played up, in the 2010 remake…
Whannell’s take on the material pulls less from The Wolf Man (1941) and more from Cronenberg’s The Fly insofar as the mechanisms of Blake’s lycanthropy…
The Fly (1986)
Directed by David Cronenberg
influenced Wolf Man (2025), The Invisible Man (2020)
Themes Visuals
A valid comparison would be to David Cronenberg’s The Fly, even if Wolf Man doesn’t go to that level of grotesque it grounds its uncanny bodily transformation in human relations…
I was influenced by films that use body horror as tragedy. Movies such as David Cronenberg’s The Fly and Julia Ducournau’s Raw.
…a neat nod to David Cronenberg’s The Fly…
The body horror will undoubtedly draw comparisons to David Cronenberg’s 1986 masterpiece “The Fly,”…
Whannell’s feature nicks a page from David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986), imagining lycanthropy as gnarly-ass infection that warps its host into a repulsive, feral hybrid of man and beast.
There were parts of this movie where I thought significantly more of the iconic Cronenberg body horror film The Fly than any other werewolf film I have ever seen.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
Directed by John Landis
influenced Wolf Man (2025)
Visuals Themes
Although the prosthetics here are technically impressive, the overall wolf design is so torn between paying homage to Lon Chaney Jr’s original and avoiding any similarity to the pinnacle of the genre, An American Werewolf in London (1981), that the result looks oddly like one of those deep-sea blobfish.
Anyone who goes back long enough to remember the eye-opening thrills at the time of the visceral transformations in Joe Dante’s The Howling or John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London — Rob Bottin and Rick Baker really were groundbreaking effects wizards back in 1981 — might judge the latest iteration to be low on fresh juice.
Aside from An American Werewolf in London (1981), there really is no classic werewolf film.
…through unconnected features from 1935’s Werewolf of London and the Lon Chaney, Jr.-starring Universal Monsters Wolf Man franchise to An American Werewolf in London, Teen Wolf and more…
…we don’t get to see a big show-stopping effects sequence a la An American Werewolf in London, but the makeup impresses nonetheless…
Don’t expect it to crack the Mount Rushmore of canidae films where firmly sit atop ‘An American Werewolf in London,’ ‘Ginger Snaps,’ ‘The Wolf Man’ (1941), and ‘The Howling.’
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
Directed by Joseph Ruben
influenced The Invisible Man (2020)
Plot Visuals Themes
Touches of Sleeping With the Enemy (1991) and Hollow Man (2000) aside, Whannell’s rebirth of The Invisible Man feels like a fresh take blending the most minimal of threads from H.G. Wells‘ novel with more urgent themes from today.
In the movie’s breathtaking opening (one seemingly modeled after “Sleeping With the Enemy”), she carefully, with disgust on her face, lifts the hand draped over her in bed.
One is a thriller about escaping an abusive relationship, in the vein of Sleeping with the Enemy or Enough .
The result is a film that is less like Hollow Man (though there are some similar and less convincing visual effects at play) and more akin to Sleeping With the Enemy with the paranoia and trauma cranked to 100 as it focuses on the long-lived affects of gaslighting and abuse.
The narrative is a mix of Sleeping with the Enemy , The Entity and Hollow Man .
The terrors of escaping from an abusive relationship have been depicted in films before—there are similarities here to 1991’s Sleeping with the Enemy—but the unknowns that underpin so much of this film make its themes come alive.
After such high-profile flops as 2010’s The Wolfman and 2017’s The Mummy…
…because of the commercial failure of 2017’s The Mummy—we’ll always have the bungled IMAX trailer with a downright Lynchian audio mix…
Universal’s Dark Universe, a planned Marvel-style franchise premised around the studio’s stable of classic monsters, was pronounced dead on arrival after the release of 2017’s frightful bore, The Mummy.
…an overstuffed Mummy (with Tom Cruise for some reason)…
…the project was shelved after the disastrous reception to Tom Cruise’s “The Mummy.”
(Remember The Mummy? No, the other one. No, the Tom Cruise one.)
The Wolfman (2010)
Directed by Joe Johnston
influenced Wolf Man (2025), The Invisible Man (2020)
Themes Plot
If you found Joe Johnston’s failed 2010 vehicle for Benicio del Toro, The Wolfman, bogged down by Gothic melodrama, fussy folklore and CGI excess, then the comparatively bare-bones storytelling of Universal’s latest return to the monster movie hall of fame, Wolf Man, might be more to your taste.
For being a husband and father, Abbott’s character stands in marked contrast to Chaney’s hangdog loner from 1941’s The Wolf Man. But the attention the film pays to fatherhood—and its setting at the home of Blake’s father—is consistent with earlier takes on the story. The infanticidal aspect of Curt Siodmak’s script for the 1941 film is also present, and brazenly played up, in the 2010 remake, while writer-actor Paul Naschy’s long-running series of werewolf films always emphasized Waldemar Daninsky’s doomed lineage.
Meanwhile, Joe Johnston’s 2010 attempt at a period Gothic remake of Siodmak’s feature has been entirely forgotten…
“Wolf Man” is preferable to Universal’s last attempt to resurrect this old franchise, 2010’s ghastly “The Wolfman.”
Joe Johnston’s “The Wolfman” — a $150 million Benicio del Toro vehicle…
After such high-profile flops as 2010’s The Wolfman and 2017’s The Mummy…
Hollow Man (2000)
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
influenced The Invisible Man (2020)
Plot Themes Visuals
Touches of Sleeping With the Enemy (1991) and Hollow Man (2000) aside, Whannell’s rebirth of The Invisible Man feels like a fresh take blending the most minimal of threads from H.G. Wells‘ novel with more urgent themes from today.
The result is a film that is less like Hollow Man (though there are some similar and less convincing visual effects at play) and more akin to Sleeping With the Enemy with the paranoia and trauma cranked to 100 as it focuses on the long-lived affects of gaslighting and abuse.
We’ve come a long way from the era of wrapping actors up in gauze, or Kevin Bacon digitized in “Hollow Man” (which is actually a pretty good flick) - “The Invisible Man” is a welcome addition to the horror remake canon, and a refreshing reminder that seeing is believing.
The narrative is a mix of Sleeping with the Enemy , The Entity and Hollow Man .
The word of the day is hyper-realism, to create fantastical situations that seem plausible enough, instead of men wearing rolls of toilet paper/bandages or unconvincing sera like in the 1990s clunker version of the story, “Hollow Man,” starring Elizabeth Shue and Kevin Bacon.
Of course, given the title and the various iterations of H.G. Wells' famous story that have come and gone over the decades -- including Paul Verhoeven's "Hollow Man" from 2000 that upped the ante in terms of R-rated brutality -- we know the titular character (whoever he or she may be) is likely going to prove that Cecilia's issues are more than just mental manifestations.
The Terminator (1984)
Directed by James Cameron
influenced Upgrade (2018), The Invisible Man (2020)
Themes Visuals
Clearly influenced by films like The Terminator, Videodrome, The Matrix, RoboCop, and there may even be a little bit of Johnny Mnemonic in there as well (hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?), Whannell transports us into the future where technology has taken over nearly ever facet of our lives, but Grey Trace (Marshall-Green) still clings to his analog-loving existence by working on classic cars and expressing his desire to make pizza from scratch.
The writer-director, Leigh Whannell , a key member of the “Saw” and “Insidious” franchise teams (though this is only the second feature he’s directed, after “Insidious 3”), would probably be perfectly happy if you watched his movie and name-checked all the influences he’s vacuumed into it, from “The Hidden” to “Ex Machina” to “The Terminator.”
The distinction between Grey and Grey while under control is methodically crafted, giving the body robotic movements and precise command over joints similar to much of the fight choreography in The Matrix franchise (this comes as less of a surprise once you remember that Leigh Whannell actually had a minor role in the series and is no doubt also drawing inspiration from working on that set alongside his own self-professed influences such as The Terminator), all stylishly flavored with swirling camera movements and an edgy hard rock soundtrack that fits with the gnarly brutality from every death on the checklist of generic villains.
He proves to be a good student of the genre—hardly a scene goes by that doesn’t play as a shout-out to some film or another, ranging from the obvious like “Robocop” and “The Terminator” to titles whose very mention would probably be considered spoilers—but when it comes to understanding why those movies worked, he is on less sure footing.
Upgrade is a film that, like James Cameron’s The Terminator before it, shows that humankind is perhaps a bit too dependent on technology.
That such '80s-era films as The Terminator and Robocop were an inspiration becomes instantly apparent in the latest directorial effort from Leigh Whannell (veteran of the Saw and Insidious franchises).
Ari Aster would probably jot down on a piece of toilet paper on his way out of a repertory screening of “Ginger Snaps.”
The 21st century has given us only two truly great “straight” entries, Dog Soldiers and Ginger Snaps, both made more than two decades ago.
Don’t expect it to crack the Mount Rushmore of canidae films where firmly sit atop ‘An American Werewolf in London,’ ‘Ginger Snaps,’ ‘The Wolf Man’ (1941), and ‘The Howling.’
Even the most beloved – Ginger Snaps (2000), The Howling (1981) and Silver Bullet (1985) – have their detractors.
His daughter Ginger, presumably named after werewolf movie Ginger Snaps…
I suspect this character’s name is a nod to Ginger Snaps, a wonderful werewolf film…
There are echoes of Ingrid Bergman in this performance – not only from Gaslight but from Notorious.
There are parallels here to the classic 1944 film "Gaslight," about a man who bullies and manipulates his wife into thinking that she is going crazy.
Following their doubts, an abused partner eventually stands up to their abuser to the audience’s satisfaction: see 1944’s Gaslight to 2002’s Enough , with many other examples in between and beyond.
Moss plays Cecilia Kass, the abused partner of a controlling tech entrepreneur who is developing advanced optics technology—and apparently watching 1944’s Gaslight on his down time.
No one believes her that her dead, invisible, abusive ex-boyfriend is pulling off the greatest gaslighting job since Charles Boyer in "Gaslight."
Touches of Sleeping With the Enemy (1991) and Hollow Man (2000) aside, Whannell’s rebirth of The Invisible Man feels like a fresh take blending the most minimal of threads from H.G. Wells‘ novel with more urgent themes from today.
With a few cheeky nods to James Whale’s 1933 Universal horror classic, The Invisible Man is a remake that pays homage to its predecessor while blazing its own wildly original path.
Though there’s no specifically sexual violence, The Invisible Man has a lot of spiritual kinship with rape-and-revenge movies like I Spit on Your Grave.
Though more than eighty years have passed since Claude Rains donned the dark sunglasses, smoking jacket, and yards of ACE bandages in 1933’s The Invisible Man , the character still holds a firm place in the pantheon of Universal’s classic movie monsters.
Don’t expect it to crack the Mount Rushmore of canidae films where firmly sit atop ‘An American Werewolf in London,’ ‘Ginger Snaps,’ ‘The Wolf Man’ (1941), and ‘The Howling.’
I’m aware of the other werewolf movies during the Great Lycan Renaissance of 1981 (Wolfen, The Howling)…
Even the most beloved – Ginger Snaps (2000), The Howling (1981) and Silver Bullet (1985) – have their detractors.
Before you can say “Jordan Peterson meets The Howling”…
Anyone who goes back long enough to remember the eye-opening thrills at the time of the visceral transformations in Joe Dante’s The Howling or John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London — Rob Bottin and Rick Baker really were groundbreaking effects wizards back in 1981 — might judge the latest iteration to be low on fresh juice.
Some scenes remind of Bernard Rose's Candyman --the wrong-man intrigue (and Whannell makes a clever reference to Thornhill's U.N. trouble from North by Northwest ) resulting in institutionalization.
She’s manipulated and gaslit at every turn, and I was reminded at times of Candyman , Bernard Rose’s chiller in which a woman has the damnedest time convincing everyone around her that an urban legend is very much alive.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Directed by James Cameron
influenced The Invisible Man (2020)
Plot Characters
Little wonder we eventually get an extended segment in a maximum security/treatment facility with strong echoes of “Terminator 2.” Cecilia’s claims about an invisible menace sound as crazy as Sarah Connor’s story of a cyborg killer from the future.
By the end of this weekend, everyone will have compared The Invisible Man to Terminator 2, but just because a point is common doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
Cecilia's journey likewise mirrors that of Sarah Connor's in Terminator 2 : the woman no one believes running from a technological peril of which only she is aware.
Wolf Man joins Nosferatu among 2025's re-imaginings of films whose age is perhaps better measured in centuries than decades.
…as with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, there’s stranger men hanging around my local bus-station on a Sunday night for sure…
Outside of Nosferatu, the multiplex is bare of horror offerings, so strong grosses seem assured.
…though it’s definitely way more accessible than something like the new Nosferatu…
…it would have had to contend with offerings like A Complete Unknown (2024) and Nosferatu (2024) – both of which saw critical and commercial success.
Natch, there’s a fly in the ointment – corporate espionage, bottom lines and more that drive the bigger picture, and themes right out of “Frankenstein” or “Blade Runner” (1982) – but it’s all a device for Grey to tap into his inner HAL and hack up henchmen, some of whom have guns implanted in their arms; one who can sneeze deadly spores.
First up, it's a near-future, cyberpunk-tinged tale, which (bar Blade Runner and The Matrix) has a spotty track record at the box office.
Sure, it’s got your dime-a-dozen Blade Runner cyberpunk debris (holograms, drones flying over city streets), but production designer Felicity Abbott infuses these objects with an organic sensibility that furthers the film’s thematic intermixing of the natural and artificial.
Upgrade zips along like a version of the original Blade Runner on speed (it even has a futuristic detective segment utilizing security camera footage) as the structure is as simple as tracking down each man responsible for the attacks one by one, but honestly, that’s all the movie needs.
Directed by Leigh Whannell (co-creator of Saw, Insidious, and lots more) with a whole lot of zing, it’s sort of like a tragic film noir combined with dashes of Blade Runner, RoboCop, and Death Wish.
You could argue the Hitchcock influence is more derivative than homage, given the sheer volume of references and techniques Whannell (Upgrade) borrows from the cinematic master, particularly from Vertigo.
Relocated to San Francisco (the most paranoid of cities thanks to movies like Vertigo , Invasion of the Body Snatchers , and Zodiac ) and holed up with Cecilia’s cop friend James (Aldis Hodge) and his college-bound daughter Sydney (Storm Reid), Cecilia harbors justifiable fears that Adrian will find her hiding place.
Jaws (1975)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
influenced The Invisible Man (2020), Wolf Man (2025)
Visuals Characters
Much like Jaws, Whannell knows not to show the creature very often.
Not to sound too hyperbolic, but often, The Invisible Man reminded me of Jaws, how Steven Spielberg, with a few notes of music and a few edits, could evoke real tension and fear.
There’s something of Spielberg’s Jaws in Whannell’s method (albeit without the technical skill).
Adrian is as much the shark from “Jaws” or Michael Myers from “Halloween,” as he is a “Sleeping with the (Invisible) Enemy” or “When A(n invisible) Stranger Calls” stalker; bridging a force of nature and a deeply human expression of malice.
Steven Spielberg tapped into this fear by not showing audiences the shark in “Jaws,” just close-ups and the camera from the point of view of the creature.
In the end, the clear borrowing from the great, snarky original 1987 “RoboCop” (near-future cityscape and all) almost overpowers “Upgrade.”
The ghosts of “eXistenZ” (1999) and “The Terminator” (1984) may linger at its edges, but Paul Verhoeven’s “RoboCop” (1987) is the most obvious influence haunting “Upgrade,” whether one’s comparing their social commentaries or a parallel fascination with matters of the steel and flesh.
It’s not a scattershot approach, per se; what it is, is deliberately weird, pulling signifiers from a range of nominally similar films (Robocop, say, or Videodrome, or even the notably more sunny Robot & Frank) but deploying them in ways that keep the viewer off kilter.
Paranormal Activity (2009)
Directed by Oren Peli
influenced The Invisible Man (2020), Upgrade (2018)
Themes Visuals
If the “Paranormal Activity” and “Insidious” franchises are rather silly, they also have released solid efforts like “Sinister,” “Get Out,” as well as “The Purge” franchise.
Writer/director Leigh Whannell ("Saw," "Upgrade") aces adapting H.G. Wells’ nineteenth century novel for the modern #MeToo age as a paranoid thriller, low budget effects à la “Paranormal Activity” effecting big chills, Elizabeth Moss excelling as a woman with only herself to turn to.
It’s horror on a psychological, “always watching” level that pulls from Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity (early mind games) to Whannell’s own Upgrade (later action sequences).
As he showed us in Paranormal Activity , Whannell knows that the root of fear and horror lies in the things we don’t see rather than from those we do.
Like the malevolent demons of Blumhouse‘s signature Paranormal Activity franchise, he remains mostly an unseen, evil force messing with his ex’s mind.
And the “evidence” of Cecilia’s unseen stalker is mostly relegated to simple, practical effects that would not be out of place in a Paranormal Activity movie, but that only makes Cecilia’s plight more traumatic.