diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 2626813a7b..148263def6 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -3598,9 +3598,9 @@ dependencies = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "wat"
-version = "1.0.36"
+version = "1.0.37"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "0b0fa059022c5dabe129f02b429d67086400deb8277f89c975555dacc1dadbcc"
+checksum = "8ec280a739b69173e0ffd12c1658507996836ba4e992ed9bc1e5385a0bd72a02"
 dependencies = [
  "wast 35.0.1",
 ]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index a66027c480..f909d7149f 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ anyhow = "1.0.19"
 target-lexicon = { version = "0.12.0", default-features = false }
 pretty_env_logger = "0.4.0"
 file-per-thread-logger = "0.1.1"
-wat = "1.0.36"
+wat = "1.0.37"
 libc = "0.2.60"
 log = "0.4.8"
 rayon = "1.2.1"
diff --git a/cranelift/wasm/Cargo.toml b/cranelift/wasm/Cargo.toml
index 636a7c232a..9c1613fa8b 100644
--- a/cranelift/wasm/Cargo.toml
+++ b/cranelift/wasm/Cargo.toml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ smallvec = "1.6.1"
 thiserror = "1.0.4"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
-wat = "1.0.36"
+wat = "1.0.37"
 target-lexicon = "0.12"
 # Enable the riscv feature for cranelift-codegen, as some tests require it
 cranelift-codegen = { path = "../codegen", version = "0.72.0", default-features = false, features = ["riscv"] }
diff --git a/crates/fuzzing/Cargo.toml b/crates/fuzzing/Cargo.toml
index 30e208d9e8..12e90c3fc5 100644
--- a/crates/fuzzing/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/fuzzing/Cargo.toml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ wasm-smith = "0.4.4"
 wasmi = "0.7.0"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
-wat = "1.0.36"
+wat = "1.0.37"
 
 [features]
 experimental_x64 = ["wasmtime/experimental_x64"]
diff --git a/crates/lightbeam/Cargo.toml b/crates/lightbeam/Cargo.toml
index 6734949795..de4a2e5878 100644
--- a/crates/lightbeam/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/lightbeam/Cargo.toml
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ wasmparser = "0.77"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 lazy_static = "1.2"
-wat = "1.0.36"
+wat = "1.0.37"
 quickcheck = "1.0.0"
 anyhow = "1.0"
 
diff --git a/crates/test-programs/Cargo.toml b/crates/test-programs/Cargo.toml
index 74e16cbd9c..5ff2b9676b 100644
--- a/crates/test-programs/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/test-programs/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ pretty_env_logger = "0.4.0"
 tempfile = "3.1.0"
 os_pipe = "0.9"
 anyhow = "1.0.19"
-wat = "1.0.36"
+wat = "1.0.37"
 cap-std = "0.13"
 
 [features]
diff --git a/crates/wasmtime/src/module.rs b/crates/wasmtime/src/module.rs
index 8408d2af97..374ec6ccd0 100644
--- a/crates/wasmtime/src/module.rs
+++ b/crates/wasmtime/src/module.rs
@@ -228,10 +228,23 @@ impl Module {
     /// # }
     /// ```
     pub fn from_file(engine: &Engine, file: impl AsRef<Path>) -> Result<Module> {
-        Self::new(
+        match Self::new(
             engine,
-            &fs::read(file).with_context(|| "failed to read input file")?,
-        )
+            &fs::read(&file).with_context(|| "failed to read input file")?,
+        ) {
+            Ok(m) => Ok(m),
+            Err(e) => {
+                cfg_if::cfg_if! {
+                    if #[cfg(feature = "wat")] {
+                        let mut e = e.downcast::<wat::Error>()?;
+                        e.set_path(file);
+                        bail!(e)
+                    } else {
+                        Err(e)
+                    }
+                }
+            }
+        }
     }
 
     /// Creates a new WebAssembly `Module` from the given in-memory `binary`