Werewolves in Film

[Grislygus]

Movie werewolves have been around for many years, and from The Wolfman to The Howling, they've all been portrayed differently. My question is, which film do you believe did the best job with them?

I personally believe that one of the frontrunners would be American Werewolf in London. While not faithful to the more traditional ideas (wolfsbane, silver, all that), I think that the monster was taken in a new direction, in a clever, interesting, and believable way. It also looked damned cool, which helped a lot.

[Mockery]

The Monster Squad

[ArrowX]

Dog Soldiers

[fastrunner]

The Howling, IMO

[Zomboid]

American Werewolf in London (also one of my top 10 :O) and ginger snaps had really cool, classic designs, but I like the ones that walk upright and look menacing as fuck. Howling is probably the first example I'd seen of that so I'll go with that.

[glowbelly]

TEEN WOLF 2

[Grislygus]

Well, no one movie can possibly compare to the sheer genius that was Teen Wolf 2.

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

An American Werewolf in London is a personal favorite as well, followed by The Howling and Silver Bullet.

I assume that when you say ‘faithful to the more traditional ideas’ you are referring to the dogmatic Hollywood lycanthropic folklore established in Universal’s The Wolf Man. That film was the origin of such elements as silver being fatal to werewolves, wolfsbane acting as a repellant, and that the ‘curse’ can be transferred via a bite or scratch.

None of those cannons are part of any previous traditional old-world werewolf folklore. Essentially, silver was not fatal to werewolves until 1933. The entire silver bullet idea was introduced later in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. I don’t remember the date on that.

[Juttin]

Originally Posted by glowbelly

TEEN WOLF 2

I think it's technically called " Teen Wolf Too", which just makes it irritating :/

[Grislygus]

Originally Posted by J. Tithonus Pednaud

An American Werewolf in London is a personal favorite as well, followed by The Howling and Silver Bullet.

I assume that when you say ‘faithful to the more traditional ideas’ you are referring to the dogmatic Hollywood lycanthropic folklore established in Universal’s The Wolf Man. That film was the origin of such elements as silver being fatal to werewolves, wolfsbane acting as a repellant, and that the ‘curse’ can be transferred via a bite or scratch.

None of those cannons are part of any previous traditional old-world werewolf folklore.

I was never partial to the Howling's werwolves. While I loved the special effects involved, I've always felt that the overall design was almost ratlike.

And yes, I was referring to Hollywood's 'traditional ideas'. I must confess that I don't know a damn thing about pre-hollywood werewolves. Now, with vampires, I'm fairly well-versed, but my knowledge of werewolves begins and ends with film.

I'm curious. Where did the European view of werewolves start? (I'm assuming that the legend is indeed a European one.) What were the real core beliefs?

[DuFresne]

Originally Posted by J. Tithonus Pednaud

I assume that when you say ‘faithful to the more traditional ideas’ you are referring to the dogmatic Hollywood lycanthropic folklore established in Universal’s The Wolf Man. That film was the origin of such elements as silver being fatal to werewolves, wolfsbane acting as a repellant, and that the ‘curse’ can be transferred via a bite or scratch.

Like Grisly, I'm pretty ignorant to the whole werewolf thing. Were those hollywood werewolf elements, by chance, derived from vampire legend? The same basic principles are there, even if the objects themselves are different.

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

Well, the answer to that question depends on how you define a werewolf. Every culture has shape shifting creatures of lore, though I suppose the modern definition of a werewolf is a man who is able to transform into a wolf and back to a man again.

The etymology of the word is debatable with Germanic and Old English being the most likely. However, predating the word, there are werewolf like monsters (men able to turn to wolves or lupin-like creatures) in myth and folklore as far back as 1500 BCE ( or even 2500 BCE if you count the beast-man Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh – though he was a beast full time and requires a lose definition).

The first transforming myth on record is likely the Greek myth of Lycaon being turned into a wolf by Zeus. In different versions of the myth his offspring were able to polymorph between the two forms. In Histories, the 'first historian Herodotus writes of the Neuri, a Scythian tribe men able to transform into wolves. There is an account of an Olympic boxer named Damarchus who was purported to be a werewolf, likely he was simply a hairy Scythian or perhaps suffered from hypertrichosis. Later, in about 50 AD, Gaius Petronius adds the whole full moon transformation to the werewolf mythology. That addition is really one of the very few aspects to carry as law in the European version of werewolves.

It is important to note that the majority of these ancient werewolf myths had no real special critera for identifing or killing the afflicted. Also, it is important to note that the transformation was almost always a complete man to wolf process. The bipeal werewolf was not a common impression.

The whole development and evolution into European versions of the myth and governing folklore is likely tied to the role werewolves played in early Christianity – it being a punishment and overtly negative. For example Simon Magus, an early messiah alternative to Jesus, was allegedly able to turn into a wolf. St. Patrick transformed and entire clan of Scots into wolves, according to early Christian folklore, as punishment and the entire druidic connection to nature and wolves further outlined the process as negative and connected werewolves with pagan beliefs.

Just as standard practiced pagan rituals became witchcraft and evil. As a result, a lot of the old tradition means of identifying werewolves came to be heavily prejudiced against pagans and those who may have not fit into the Christian norm. For example, those with red hair were considered possible werewolves (as the Scots held on to a lot of pagan traditions) and those born on the 25th of December (previously a day of pagan importance before claimed by the Christians as big J’s B-day.

The line between pagan witchcraft and werewolf folklore became even more blurred as becoming a werewolf became a matter of choice and required a magical potion, balm or ceremony.

Of course, as all that was going on in English European folklore, different European, Asian and Middle Eastern cultures were adapting the werewolf folklore as well. All had different cannon to reflect the beliefs, ideals and morals of their individual cultures.

There are really no 'core' beliefs as quite literally they change from country to country. Not unlike the vampire myths.

Today, what we have is a mash of all that plus the Hollywood dogma.

I know far too much about this stuff, don't I?

[Grislygus]

You can NEVER know too much about horror.

[HickMan]

I can. Because that post was too biblical for me to understand

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

Well, basically, what I am say is that a lot of the werewolf myths were created by the masses in power and make the 'unwanted' minority look like 'the bad guys'.

Another werewolf film I enjoyed was Wolf - wih good old Jack. That was sort of a remake of all the old Universal Wolf Man flicks.

[Dixie]

I would like to suggest Werewolf in Washington.

[executioneer]

tooth and claw