First teaser for Blumhouse's new Universal Monsters movie Wolf Man gives the classic tale an Amityville Horror twist

The first teaser for Blumhouse's next Universal Monsters movie Wolf Man is here – and it looks just as tense as we'd expect from the director behind The Invisible Man .

Much like how he gave that story a refreshing, hair-raising spin in 2020, Leigh Whannell – who co-wrote the script with Corbett Tuck, Lauren Schuker Blum, and Rebecca Angelo – looks to be switching things up from The Wolf Man (1941), which is more of a tragic, slow-burn mystery, too.

In the new flick's promo, which you can watch above, Poor Things ' Christopher Abbott stars as Blake, a San Franciscan who inherits his childhood home in rural Oregon after his father mysteriously disappears. (The original film was predominantly set in Wales).

In an attempt to patch things up with his distant, high-powered wife Charlotte (Ozark's Julia Garner), he suggests the pair of them take their daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth) out there for some much-needed family time. But when the trio approaches the farmhouse, they’re attacked by an unseen animal in the darkness.

Terrified, they "barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter," the official synopsis reads. "As the night stretches on, however, Blake begins to behave strangely, transforming into something unrecognizable, and Charlotte will be forced to decide whether the terror within their house is more lethal than the danger without."

"What's that sound, Blake?" Charlotte asks in the clip. "It looked like some kind of animal," he replies. "But I swear to God, it was standing on two feet." What follows is a montage of scenes in which Blake becomes increasingly... changed, and well, given the title of the movie, it doesn't take a genius to work out what's happening to him...

While it may simply be coincidence, it seems likely that Blumhouse and Universal released the teaser earlier than originally planned, after genre fans were left puzzled by the movie's presence at this year's Halloween Horror Nights . Attendees have taken to social media over the last few days to share videos from the film's photo-op stand, in which a masked man lunges at passers-by with his bloodied hands.

"Is there going to be a wolf man in the Wolf Man movie?" one doubter replied to HHNSpeculationMatt's post, worried that it was an official first look at Wolf Man, as another said: "If they didn't say that it's supposed to be a wolf man, I would never have guessed. Just looks like a guy who had a rough life."

We don't really see Abbott fully transformed in the teaser, though it's worth noting that he – if he is the one terrorizing Charlotte and Ginger – looks to have a surprisingly human-looking arm in a moment towards the end. That said, we have every faith that the final character design won't look anything like the Halloween Horror Nights actor...

Wolf Man releases in UK cinemas on January 17, 2025. For more, check out our list of the best horror movies ever, or our guide to the most exciting upcoming horror movies heading our way.