SILVER BULLETS FOR THE SILVER SCREEN

Rating Lycanthropic Cinema

I have written, a few times about various horror characters, their history and representations in popular culture. For example, Zombies, The Japanese Yūrei and Vampires. With the impending release of Robert Eggers’ forthcoming horror reinvention Werewulf—which, if his previous films are anything to go by, will be dark, gothic, beautiful looking, but not actually scary. Eggers, like Ari Aster, is one of a generation of filmmakers who specialise in so-called elevated horror. Which, if you ask me, basically means “I’m too pretentious to make scary horror films.”

There have been a number of werewolf films over the years but, in my opinion, most of them aren’t especially good. They usually manage to just miss the bull. A lot of filmmakers are often looking to subvert the genre or bring a new take on Lycanthrope lore, and that doesn’t always work for me. Maybe you disagree.

But here, I will present to you my 5 favourite werewolf films and a few honourable mentions. But let’s start with a little history.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

According to folklore, a werewolf is an individual who can shapeshift into a wolf or therianthropic hybrid wolf–humanlike creature either voluntarily or involuntarily due to a curse or other affliction. In modern fiction, especially film, transformations are often depicted as triggered by the full moon and transmitted by a bite or scratch from another werewolf. This has been expanded in some fictitious tales to include other ‘weres’ or ‘Wares’—people who transform into different animals, perhaps most commonly werebears, but also werecats, birds and serpents.

European werewolf folklore evolved alongside the witch trials but seems to have originated in pre-Christian Proto-Indo-European cultures, where Lycanthropy was used as a rite of passage for the kóryos warriors.

The modern term Lycanthropy derives from the ancient Greek lukanthrōpía which was used in relation to ‘Clinical Lycanthropy’, a condition where patients thought themselves to be wolves.

Okay, that’s the (very) brief history of the lore and terminology. Let’s dive into the films.

THE WEREWOLF

The 1913 short film The Werewolf is, I believe, the earliest screen representation of Lycanthropy. Written by Ruth Ann Baldwin and directed by Henry MacRae, it is based on an old American Indian legend of people who can transform into wolves, at will, to exact vengeance. Unfortunately, I have been unable to track down a version of this and, from what I understand the original was destroyed in a fire in 1924, which means I have not seen it. But it sounds like a very different take on the more traditional European werewolf that transforms against their will under the full moon. In this, a young Navajo woman transforms to take revenge against white settlers for killing her family. I don’t know about you, but that sounds frickin’ awesome!

The film that truly established the genre was 1941’s The Wolf Man, directed by George Waggner and starring the great Lon Chaney Jnr. It established most of the genre’s tropes. As was typical for the time, the monster is presented in a sympathetic light. I haven’t seen this since I was a kid but it is a classic. As you would expect, it is very much of its time, with some very hammy performances and effects that, although ground-breaking 85 years ago, look like bad Halloween costumes today. However, it’s still better than the 2010 remake, starring Benicio Del Toro, or the awful CGI effects in the forgettable 2004 film, Van Helsing.

In 1961 Hammer produced The Curse of the Werewolf, directed by Terence Fisher and starring the charismatic Oliver Reed. In this, the Lupine curse is bestowed on any child born on Xmas day as punishment for competing with the birth of Christ. The film features better effects but suffers from pacing issues and delays the werewolf reveal far too long. But it’s worth watching for Reed’s performance and Fisher’s gorgeous Gothic vision.

I’m not going to list every werewolf film ever made, but here are my personal favourites. I have picked these for strength of story, visual effects—great transformation scenes and for having genuinely scary or gory moments.

1. American Werewolf in London

I know this is the obvious choice, but it’s not just a great werewolf film, it’s a great film, full stop. Released in 1981 and directed by John Landis, it’s mostly remembered for the ground-breaking visual effects and stop-motion used in the mind-blowing transformation scene. A scene that still looks great today, in my opinion. I’m not entirely against CGI, it can help polish up practical effects, but when most film CG effects just look like pixels floating on a screen, it takes you out of the moment and destroys your attempts to suspend disbelief. There’s none of that here. The way David’s body twists and stretches is impressive and shocking. Seeing his hand and face grow and distort is genuinely eye watering. The film contains some classic lines, one of the best jump scares in film history, and… Jenny Agutter! What’s not to like? It’s also very funny in places, as this article by Alec Worley outlines:

The Best Scene in 'An American Werewolf in London' (1981) Isn't the One You Think

2. The Howling

Coming in the same year as AWIL, The Howling—directed by Joe Dante—takes itself a little more seriously and there’s none of the sympathetic, misunderstood monster tropes in this. After a traumatic encounter with a serial killer, reporter Karen White (Dee Wallace) visits a remote getaway only to discover a sinister truth about the inhabitants. In confronting her own inner demons, she is confronted by people with their own internal monsters. Another film that has some early pacing issues and some questionable performances, it is otherwise a very good, horror with some dark humour to lighten the load. But the real star is effects man Rob Bottin. The werewolves are believable, scary and, just like American Werewolf, this features a superb transformation scene. Only, here, it’s terrifying! These werewolves are bipedal and monstrous. The ending is good, but I feel let down by the fact that the final werewolf transformation looks more like a Yorkshire Terrier, than a Lycanthrope. Not as good a film as AWIL but it is certainly rewatchable.

3. The Company of Wolves

Neil Jordan’s 1984 transgressive, grimdark fairy-tale divides audiences. It’s a twisted, dreamlike fever dream. A surrealist retelling of Red Riding Hood in which Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson) is a young lady living with her Granny (Angela Lansbury). Granny warns Rosaleen “Never stray from the path in the woods, never eat a windfall apple, and never trust a man whose eyebrows meet.” It takes a Freudian approach to the werewolves who are mostly, it seems, aggressive male sexual predators, preying on innocent young women. The film features some gorgeous set design, costumes and horrific monster make-up. It’s not to everyone’s taste, and feels a little disjointed at times, but it’s an otherwise mesmerising watch.

4. Dog Soldiers

Neil Marshall’s 2002 low budget horror-comedy combines Night of the Living Dead with The Howling to produce an exceptional, if slightly silly, low-key classic. The set-up is similar to Walter Hill’s Southern Comfort. A group of British squaddies are on manoeuvres in the Scottish wilderness when they encounter something very unexpected. The special Ops group they are training with are found slaughtered. Hearing the haunting howling sounds of wild animals at night the survivors encounter Zoologist Megan (Emma Cleasby) who confirms their worst fears. The film is well paced, has some frantic handy cam work and genuinely frightening looking werewolves. Aside from the horror, it also has some very quotable dialogue and a memorable performance from Sean Pertwee. Given the budgetary constraints the visual effects could be better but are well shot and still manage to add to the atmosphere. The cottage siege at the end is a frantic, adrenal experience.

5. Ginger Snaps

Coming just two years before Dog Soldiers, this is a Canadian film, written by Karen Walton and John Fawcett, and directed by Fawcett. Ginger Snaps follows two teenage sisters, Ginger, a tough, edgy Goth chick and her younger sister Brigitte—played by Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins. The girls have made a pact about dying together. They stage death scenes and film them, which makes them outsiders amongst their high school peers. When Ginger is attacked by a wild animal on the full moon, she starts to undergo changes, both physically and emotionally. The analogues of female puberty and sexual awakening are not subtle here, but it’s interesting to see a female-centric take on Lycanthropy 87 years after The Werewolf. Its budgetary constraints are clear to see when the creature is revealed. The practical effects aren’t great, but the model making is nice, given the relative cheapness, though the creature design could have been better, in my opinion. Nevertheless, Ginger Snaps has strong repeat viewing credentials and has become a cult favourite.

Honourable Mentions

That’s my top five. I think that most would agree that American Werewolf in London is, by far, the best werewolf film ever made. It may not be your personal favourite, but it’s a great film that stands tall over a sub-genre that, I don’t feel has been honoured as effectively as other horror creatures, like vampires or zombies. The obvious analogues for personal, physical, emotional or sexual transformation are all here in most of these films, but very few, in my opinion, succeed in making the monsters believable or scary. It’s mostly relegated to niche low-budget interpretations, while more mainstream attempts rarely take the sub-genre seriously enough. Maybe I did Eggers a disservice and Werewulf will be the film we’ve been waiting for after all, who knows?

With my favourites listed above, here are a few honourable mentions of other werewolf films that I have seen:

Teen Wolf: The Michael J. Fox teen comedy certainly has its moments.

The Monster Squad: a 1987 parody of the Universal Monsters films. Better than you might expect.

Trick ‘r Treat: A 2007 anthology with an all-star cast, features a werewolf in one of the linked stories, rather than being about werewolves.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow: Technically not a werewolf film (spoilers) but a watchable whodunnit, with a twist that lands.

While researching this I discovered there’s a Japanese film from 1975 called Wolf Guy, starring Sonny Chiba, which I now must see! Finally, it must be said that I haven’t seen every film with or about werewolves, so I leave it to you to fill those gaps in the comment section.

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