Universal's upcoming monster movie Wolf Man was largely inspired by iconic '80s horrors The Fly and The Shining, writer-director Leigh Whannell has revealed.
In a new interview with Empire magazine, the filmmaker, who co-wrote the script with Corbett Tuck, Lauren Schuker Blum, and Rebecca Angelo, explained how The Fly's use of practical effects encouraged him to lean into the "tragedy" of the titular character's transformation.
"What The Fly did that a lot of other practical-effects-driven horror movies from that time did not do was bring the tragedy out of these practical effects," Whannell noted. "It wasn't a joke in The Fly. It was there to illustrate someone who was dying of an illness […] I was like, 'I've got to do that'. It's not about being funny or icky or gory. This is about the tragedy of the human body falling apart."
"She's going to be the emotional compass of this film," Whannell said of Garner's character. "She's going to be what Shelley Duvall was in The Shining. You don't get scared in The Shining without Shelley Duvall. And so I was like, ‘I’ve got to find someone who can drink up the audience’s empathy.’ And she did an incredible job."
