Wolf Man's reference to a 45-year-old Stephen King movie is genius in a method that so many horrors fail to realize.

Warning: This text comprises spoilers for Wolf Man (2025)

Though Man Wolf Removed from good, director Leigh Whannel's 2025 Blumhouse movie justifies one blatantly used Stephen King reference fairly completely. 2025's Man Wolf takes the fundamental story of Common's traditional 1941 Monster movie and updates it for a twenty first century viewers. Christopher Abbott's Blake Lovell is a author and stay-at-home dad who takes his daughter Ginger and his spouse Charlotte to his remoted childhood house after her estranged father is said useless years after disappearing.

On the best way, the household crashes after encountering a wierd creature on the street. Blake is scratched by the beast, and the household takes refuge in his father's empty home, the place he begins to bear a horrific transformation. Man WolfThe ending reveals the werewolf that attacked Blake was his father, though few viewers will possible be shocked by this revelation. Whereas Man WolfThe modifications to the werewolf mythology are intriguing, the movie's plot makes this contact predictable, and Blake's lack of character growth means his plight isn't significantly compelling.

Wolf Man's Easter Egg Defined

The Winding Mountain Highway is straight from Kubrick's Stephen King adaptation

But for all of your faults, Man Wolf deserves props for accepting probably the most used reference to The shine and use it in a thematically applicable method. Early on, Whannell's movie cuts to an aerial shot of the Lovell household automobile, winding its gradual method by the mountainous roads, the bushes on either side of the street flanking the car. This shot seems rather a lot just like the Torrance household's well-known fateful household picture for the Overlook in The shineThe opening, which can be among the many most imitated pictures in horror historical past.

The picture of a automobile winding by tree-lined roads overhead has been used quite a few occasions elsewhere, showing in BeetlejuiceLike this, MidSommarLike this, MandyLike this, UsLike this, The boyLike this, BatsLike this, FallenLike this, Useless finishLike this, silent HillLike this, Let me inLike this, EmptinessLike this, MaliciousLike this, Generally they arrive againLike this, The open homeLike this, OrphanLike this, The descentLike this, Antichrist2024's Don't converse badly remake, The scaryLike this, The fourth sortLike this, Inexperienced room2016's Cabin fever remake, 2023's Undesirableand too many different movies to listing. The shot successfully alerts viewers to the isolation the characters face, but it surely has grow to be a cliché over the many years.

Wolf Man's Story Actually Justified Its Sensible Reference

Wolf Man's story echoes lots of Shining's themes

The trope is so frequent that A YouTube video of "Earlier Aerial Pictures of Vehicles Driving on Lengthy Roads in Horror Motion pictures" has been compiled by the creator The place did I see this in 2020. Nevertheless, not like many movies that reference the traditional, Man Wolf The truth is, it justifies this reference. Man Wolf mirrors The shineThe story of a stressed-out author who retreats to an remoted nation location, just for supernatural horrors to carry his darkish household historical past to mild. Jack Torrance and Blake Lovell lastly succumb to forces past their management and overpower their wives and youngsters.

Whereas it was pre- WhannelMan Wolf movie The invisible man Extra explicitly involved with themes of poisonous masculinity than his 2025 effort, each movies use horror as a car to discover the theme. Blake is torn between caring for his household as a delicate husband and father and reworking into the raging, animalistic monster that his sickness forces him to grow to be. Simply as Jack Torrance's alcoholism and historical past of abuse make him extra weak to the ghosts of the Overlook, Blake's troubled historical past together with his father leads him to contract the illness that dooms him.

Not All Wolf Man The Shining Cities Work

Wolf Man's story is extra rushed than Kubrick's traditional horror

Blake's total misguided journey to his childhood house is because of his want to face his demons and resolve his relationship together with his late father. As The shineJack, Jack, Man WolfBlake is torn between the monstrous masculinity symbolized by his estranged father and the higher man and father he desires to grow to be. That mentioned, not all the things Man Wolfmakes an attempt to borrow from Kubrick's The shine work so nicely.

Kubrick's movie takes place over weeks, so Jack's gradual descent into villainy appears extra believable and convincing. Alternatively, Blake's transformation happens only a few hours after his introduction, and your complete story takes place over the course of 1 evening. This leads to a plot that feels extra rushed. In the meantime, though Man WolfThe physique horror is grotesque and efficient, Blake's situation making the movie's sympathies more durable to discern. Whereas Jack could be learn as a tragic anti-villain, he's primarily The shineAntagonist.

Alternatively, Blake is Man WolfThe protagonist till the ultimate fifteen minutes, working tirelessly to avoid wasting his household from one other werewolf. The story's makes an attempt to delve into the daddy's sins and unravel cycles of violence disintegrate, as Blake is definitely to not blame in his destiny, whereas Jack was seduced by the ghosts of the gazebo. So, pretty much as good as Man WolfThese borrowed from Stephen King are, not all of them show as profitable because the well-known nod within the opening scene.