©Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures has dropped a new featurette for Christopher Abbott‘s “horrifying” new look of Wolf Man which will open Jan. 17 in theaters. Produced by Blumhouse, this a fresh update on the classic furry Universal Monster originally invented in the 1941 film The Wolf Man.

The video focuses on how director Leigh Whannell and makeup effects designer Arjen Tuiten approach designing the werewolf in the film. Their vision was to create something unique, instead of copying the iconic werewolves created by Rick Baker in An American Werewolf in London and Jack Pierce, who designed Lon Chaney’s Wolf Man.

Abbott portrays Blake, a man who starts to transform after a wolf bite, the footage from behind the scenes shows a glimpse of his furry back and close-ups of his arms and legs, but not the whole transformation of Blake.

According to Whannell, he derives more inspiration from horror films about monsters than from werewolves. Whannell expresses his admiration for movies such as John Carpenter’s The Thing and David Cronenberg’s The Fly, which inspired him greatly, “”two anatomies trying to mix that don’t quite go together, and it’s a painful one at that.” And he also said, “I really hope that people will walk away from this film unable to forget the imagery.” 

Besides Abbott, the film also star Julia Garner and Matilda Firth who play Blake’s wife and daughter. Whannell previously wrote and directed Universal and Blumhouse’s The Invisible Man remake.