‘Wolfman’ and the End of Masculinity

The film begins with a father and his son appreciating the Oregonian landscape.

In the last scene, instead of a father and son, there is a mother and daughter.

If you think that this is just yet another example of woman empowerment at the expense of men, you would be wrong. The film’s treatment of gender dynamics is a lot more nuanced than the simple substitutions made by pandering anti-male propaganda. With that being said, Wolfman is a story about the end of masculinity — or rather, a particular type of masculinity (which we can call ‘monstrous’ to avoid the trite term ‘toxic’). Monstrous masculinity is epitomised by the werewolf (which I have said elsewhere is civilisations foil — in several senses of the term). But before we get to the werewolf and the end of masculinity, let us turn to the Lovell family and their backstory (or exposition) — which seems to be one of the hardest things for storytellers to do these days.