The idea is already problematic because Whannell and Tuck create situations where the adults seem just a little dumber than the teenagers in bad slasher films. Charlotte is a busy journalist, but Wade persuades her that she could work remotely in his dad’s home in the woods. Even the most generous employer would have an issue with her relocating to an area with a weak electrical grid and spotty (if any) cell reception. Oh, the roads are dirt, and wild animals and armed (and not terribly stable) people also live in the gorgeous scenery.
It’s difficult to get worked up about the survival of characters who seem almost suicidal in their actions. When Blake crashes their moving van off the road trying to dodge a faint, hairy apparition, one wonders why they don’t just reverse course. Whannell keeps pushing his characters into what increasingly seems to be an obligatory danger.
As they retreat to Blake’s boyhood home, he gets scratched by one of the mysterious critters and innocently endangers his family by locking them in the house with him.
There is some potential for chills with having furry menaces both inside and outside the home, but Whannel and Tuck ran out of ideas after figuring out who to shoehorn The Fly in their reworking of the Lon Chaney, Jr. original. It’s a given that Julia Garner can play fear, but Whannel barely taps into her skills.
“Whannell and Corbett Tuck have difficulty updating werewolf tropes for a contemporary environment.”
Thankfully, Charlotte is not helpless prey, but it’s much more fun to watch Garner conniving instead of cowering. Her verbal dueling with opponents, as she did in Ozark and Inventing Anna, is sadly missing here. Considering how The Invisible Man featured a leading lady (Elizabeth Moss) who could hold her own against the unknown danger, it’s as if Whannell has forgotten what worked last time.
He wisely keeps the werewolves out of clear sight for the first two-thirds of the movie, setting up an implied threat that is dismissed when werewolves step into the light.
It’s probably harder to make a good werewolf movie than a vampire flick. Getting furry makeup to cover a thespian’s entire body is a lot more difficult than simply inserting fangs. That’s probably why there are fewer good lycanthropy films like Joe Dante’s The Howling and more groaners like Joe Johnston’s macrobudged 2010 remake, which squandered both Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins.
It’s comforting to know The Fly is still readily available so that viewers don’t have to waste their time with a film that has fewer chills than The Twilight Saga.
"…it’s so much more fun to watch Garner conniving instead of cowering."