Is the Leigh Whannell Universal Horror trilogy upon us? We’ll have a modern trifecta if the horror director gets his way. Ahead of the release of Wolf Man, the filmmaker dived into his hopes to complete a trilogy that honors his love of these horror icons. During an interview with Empire, Whannell revealed:
“My own weird filmmaker OCD is almost like, ‘Well, I’ve made two; I have to do three.’ It has to be three. But that’s got more to do with my own neuroses than me actually wanting to do it. In my general life, I’m a pretty strange guy with my habits. I have to leave when it’s an even number, like 8:20, not 8:19, which is crazy. I’m probably revealing to you how crazy I am. So on that side of my brain, I gotta do a third one to complete the trilogy.”
Swinging for the fences, Whannell says he’d love to tackle Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, stating, “As a kid, the idea that they were both the same person was always super interesting to me. That’s up to Universal. If they said, ‘We want you to be the monster guy,’ that would be flattering to me. Like, ‘Wow, they’re entrusting me with this thing that’s so important to them.’ But I’m not gunning for that role.”
Whannell previously adapted The Invisible Man in 2020 and will soon release his modern take on The Wolf Man. Watch the trailer for the new film here.
Golden Globe nominee Christopher Abbott (Poor Things, It Comes at Night) stars as Blake, a San Francisco husband and father, who inherits his remote childhood home in rural Oregon after his own father vanishes and is presumed dead. With his marriage to his high-powered wife, Charlotte (Emmy winner Julia Garner; Ozark, Inventing Anna), fraying, Blake persuades Charlotte to take a break from the city and visit the property with their young daughter, Ginger (Matlida Firth; Hullraisers, Coma).
But as the family approaches the farmhouse in the dead of night, they’re attacked by an unseen animal and, in a desperate escape, barricade themselves inside the home as the creature prowls the perimeter. 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.
The film opens in cinemas January 25th.