Horror movies

Originally, Ryan Gosling was attached to star in the 2025 Wolf Man remake, and the plot was much different. This direction could have tied into an increasingly popular horror subgenre, namely one with a lot of marketing cache with younger viewers. Add in what could have been a far more impressive werewolf design, and the unmade film makes the finished product an even bigger silver bullet to the genre.

Work on the movie that became 2025's Wolf Man began in 2020, with the movie first coming together around a major Hollywood star. The initial version of the Wolf Man remake was set to star Ryan Gosling, with the film apparently being something of a passion project for him. He still ended up being credited as one of the movie's producers, but the werewolf movie that came out in January 2025 was a lot different from what was hinted at five years beforehand.

Though exact details were scarce and somewhat subject to scrutiny (especially given that the abandoned iteration was so different from what was made), industry rumblings noted that Gosling's Wolf Man movie would have had him as a newscaster who reports on the very murders he commits in his lupine form. Comparisons were drawn to movies such as Nightcrawler starring Jake Gyllenhaal, among other films, and it all sounded vastly removed from the usual tropes of the genre.

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Some horror movie fans who've heard about the plans for the Wolf Man remake have compared it to a horror genre that's risen to prominence in recent years. Considered by some as being an offshoot of the "found footage" horror genre that rose to prominence through The Blair Witch Project, analog horror is known for its grainy, eerie visuals reminiscent of home videos. The subject matter can be mundane or overly supernatural, with the main horror aspects manifesting in the somber tone and ironic lack of jump scares.

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Easily one of the worst parts of the new Wolf Man movie was the title monster. The werewolf design in Wolf Man 2025 is now notorious for how uncharacteristic it is, barely resembling anything particularly canine in aesthetic. It looked far different from both the versions of the character played by Lon Chaney Jr. and Benicio del Toro, with the latter in particular being obviously wolf-like. Not only was the Christopher Abbot Wolf Man not wolf-like enough, but the overall design was simply a letdown, as he gave more of a diseased mountain man vibe.

The movie itself was hard to take seriously given how ridiculous the title creature looked, and even though it was meant to be evocative of the body horror in David Cronenberg's remake of The Fly, it ended up falling completely flat. Now, an unused sculpt has been revealed of how the Wolf Man would have looked in Ryan Gosling's version of the movie. This design is far more effective, actually resembling a humanoid wolf while also homaging the Lon Chaney version. There was also just enough emotion in this version that suggested the story of the unmade movie, similarly suggesting that this werewolf retained a bit of his human personality and intelligence.