Christopher Abbott

In Wolf Man (2025), Christopher Abbott is a gentle, anxious father frightened of becoming like his own. That is a useful starting point for an actor so often cast as troubled men: there is someone here to care about before the horror begins. Abbott is worth watching, though the film gives us too little of the family to make their ordeal matter as it should. It is a frustrating use of his ability to make unease seem natural.

His feature debut in Sean Durkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011) put him in a thriller where apparent safety does little to settle the nerves. Charlie in Girls (2012) and the lead in James White (2015) followed. The latter offered the intimate character study that suits his instinctive acting. He has since mixed independent films with studio supporting parts, including Poor Things (2023).

In Kraven the Hunter (2024), his Foreigner is an assassin whose special trick remains obscure despite repeated explanations. There is little an actor can do when the writing spends so much time explaining a character and still makes no sense. Wolf Man gives him more useful help from director Leigh Whannell, editor Andy Canny and cinematographer Stefan Duscio. Canny treats the transformation as separate physical events, while Duscio changes colour and light to put us inside Blake’s altered senses. These are the film’s strongest passages, though they do not repair its thin family drama.

The more rewarding use of him is in Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee (2025), as Ann’s husband, Abraham Standerin. He plays a decent man baffled by his wife’s decision that religious devotion means they will no longer share a bed. We felt for Abraham because Abbott makes his bewilderment reasonable, even as the film asks us to follow his wife. The performance gives proper attention to someone who could easily have been reduced to an obstacle. Start there for Abbott, provided the hymns appeal: the narration between them is less easy to recommend.