Werewolf Horror Films

Genre Research

• A few references to men changing into wolves are found in Ancient Greek literature and mythology.

• Many authors have speculated that werewolf legends may have been used to explain serial killings.

• Some scholars have suggested that it was inevitable that wolves, being the most feared predators in Europe, were projected into the folklore of evil shapeshifters.

• There's a persistent belief that the stories of werewolves are inspired by encounters with actual animals.

Background

• Wolf Blood, also known as Wolfblood: A Tale of the Forest, is a silent 1925 werewolf movie starring George Chesebro, who also directed it.

• Dick Bannister is the new field boss of the Ford Logging Company. Dick is attacked by a rival company and left for dead. His loss of blood is so great that he needs a transfusion, but no human will volunteer, so the surgeon uses a wolf as a source of the blood. Afterwards, Dick begins having dreams where he runs with a pack of phantom wolves, and the rival loggers get killed by wolves. Soon, these facts have spread through the camp and most of the lumberjacks decide that Dick is a werewolf.

Wolf Blood, 1925

• First film to feature bipedal anthropomorphic werewolves. (Animal with characteristics of people.)

• Werewolf of London is a 1935 Horror/werewolf movie starring Henry Hull and produced by Universal Pictures.

• Wilfred Glendon (Henry Hull) is a wealthy and world-renowned English botanist who journeys to Tibet in 1935 in search of the elusive mariphasa plant. While there, he is attacked and bitten by a creature later revealed to be a werewolf. The mariphasa is a temporary antidote for the disease.

• It flopped at the box-office, but has been regarded by cinema historians as an imaginative classic.

• The story has been novelized twice.

Werewolf of London, 1935

• The Wolf Man is a 1941 American Werewolf Horror film written by Curt Siodmak and produced and directed by George Waggner. The film stars Lon Chaney, Jr. as The Wolf Man.

• The film is the second Universal Pictures werewolf movie, preceded six years earlier by the less commercially successful Werewolf of London.

• Larry becomes romantically interested in a local girl who runs an antique shop. He purchases a silver-headed walking stick decorated with a wolf. She tells him that it represents a werewolf. That night, Larry attempts to rescue her friend from what he believes to be a sudden wolf attack. He kills the beast with his new walking stick, but is bitten on the chest in the process.

• Universal Pictures produced a remake of The Wolf Man in 2010.

The Wolf Man, 1941

• I Was a Teenage Werewolf is a 1957 horror film starring Michael Landon as a troubled teenager and Whit Bissell as the primary adult.

• After a small party at a haunted house, Frank (Michael Rougas), is attacked and killed as he is walking home through the woods. While Police review photographs of the victim and await an autopsy, Pepi (Vladimir Sokoloff), persuades officer to let him see the photos. Pepi, a native of the Carpathian Mountains, where werewolves, “human beings possessed by wolves” are common, immediately recognizes the marks on Frank's body, much to the disbelief of Chris, who balks at the idea of a werewolf.

• This film was the first of four “teenage monster” movies produced by AIP during 1957 and 1958. All four films highlighting a theme of innocent teenagers being preyed upon, transformed, and used by corrupt adults for selfish interests.

I Was A Teenage Werewolf, 1957

• Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is a 1965 British horror film from Amicus Productions.

• It was the first in a series of anthology films from Amicus.• Dr. Terror's House of Horrors is a portmanteau film

consisting of five stories within a frame story. One story is where Dawson discovers that Valdemar is emerging to take the form of a werewolf in the night. Believing the owner, Mrs. Biddulph's life to be in danger, he melts a cross made out of silver by his ancestors to protect the house from Valdemar's spirit, to make silver bullets, which according to legend are the only means of killing a werewolf.

• Milton Subotsky considered that movie to be "the greatest horror film ever."

Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, 1965

• The Beast Must Die is a 1974 horror film directed by Paul Annett.

• The millionaire Tom Newcliffe (Calvin Lockhart) invites a group of people to spend some time in his mansion, along with his wife Caroline (Marlene Clark) where he reveals that one of them is a werewolf, and therefore must be killed. Tom submits the group to one test: put a silver bullet in the mouth. Caroline puts the silver in her mouth and starts to transform into the werewolf. She (fully transformed) attacks Tom and he kills her.

• Allmovie wrote, "The non-anthology output of Amicus Productions tended to be hit-and-miss, but The Beast Must Die is an interesting if lightweight horror-mystery hybrid from the studio." The film currently holds a modest three star rating.

The Beast Must Die, 1974

• Teen Wolf is a 1985 American fantasy comedy film released by Atlantic Releasing Corporation starring Michael J. Fox as Scott Howard, a high school student who discovers that his family has an unusual pedigree when he finds himself transforming into a werewolf.

• Although the film was a modest hit for Atlantic Releasing Corporation, the film's critical reception was generally mixed. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 53% of 19 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 4.9 out of 10.

• In June 2009, MTV announced that they would be adapting Teen Wolf into a television series "with a greater emphasis on romance, horror and werewolf mythology".

Teen Wolf, 1985

• Wolf is a 1994 American horror film directed by Mike Nichols.

• Will Randall (Jack Nicholson) is bitten by a wolf while driving home through Vermont. Will leaves his wife, takes up residence at the Mayflower Hotel, and, as the moon ripens, takes on increasingly bestial aggressive characteristics. Will tries to adapt to his new existence.

• Wolf won a Saturn Award for Best Writing for Jim Harrison and Wesley Strick's screenplay, and it was nominated for a further 5 Saturn Awards, in the categories of Best Horror Film, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Michelle Pfeiffer), Best Supporting Actor (James Spader) and Best Make-up (Rick Baker).

Wolf, 1994

• The Wolfman is a 2010 American remake of the 1941 classic werewolf horror film of the same name. This film's second half was significantly altered and expanded from the original film's plot.

• In 1891, Ben Talbot is confronted by an unknown creature in the Blackmoor woods. He tries to escape, but is mauled and killed by the beast.

• The film has received generally unfavourable reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film two and a half stars out of four. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone assigned the film one and a half stars out of four, concluding that "The Wolfman bites, but not — I think — in the way the filmmakers intended.“

• Despite underperforming at the box office, Universal originally planned a series of direct-to-video sequels but later reworked the project into a sequel of the original film rather than the remake. Universal later announced that the reboot would be a separate series with no connection to the original 1941 film or the remake.

The Wolfman, 2010