It's Lycanthrope Season: Geekerati's Werewolf Film Recommendations
A Geekerati Media Recommendation Roundtable
What is it About Werewolves?
Werewolf stories and tales of transformation are my absolute favorite horror tales. Ever since I saw Gil Kane’s cover for Werewolf by Night #27 sitting on the top of a well read stack of comics, I have felt the pull of the full moon. The cover featured the eponymous hero fighting against some form of Eldritch Horror. It was compelling and bizarre and though it showed the werewolf in the “hero” role in the battle, there was the hint of danger.
It was only later that I noticed how well Gil Kane channeled the spirit of Werewolf by Night’s Co-creator Mike Ploog’s art style. As talented as I think Kane is in general as an illustrator, Ploog’s work is consistently stylishly weird and original in a way that Kane’s never is. From Man-Thing and Werewolf by Night to Lord of the Rings, The Dark Crystal, and The Thing, the Ploogian touch captures the intersection of the mundane and the weird in wonderful ways. Kane’s SoulBeast is perfectly Ploogian and I was compelled to read the book.
When I did, I was instantly all-in. The Werewolf by Night was instantly my favorite Marvel character. He had great powers which granted him the power to fight supernatural evil, but he was cursed with an almost uncontrollable rage than endangered those he loved. Even at a young age, I fully understood the horrific and narratively compelling intersection of the horror of the possibility that the one who was supposed to protect you could be the biggest threat to your safety. While, as you will see below, there are those who find this contradiction less compelling than I do, it is my favorite horror trope.
The Dr. Glitternight story arc is one I return to again and again when I’m reading comics on the Marvel Unlimited App. I wish that they hadn’t “digitally smoothed” the coloring and had followed colorist José Villarrubia’s advice on matching original coloring styles when updating the images. There are some nuances of the line art and shading missing from the updated image and while I understand it’s better than a mere scan of a yellow paged comic with faded colors, I wish they’d put forth the effort that José was allowed to do when he colored the Bernie Wrightson Absolute Swamp Thing.
My first encounter with Werewolf by Night led to a long list of lycansumption of comics and books. I’ve read Jack Williamson’s Darker than You Think more times than I can remember and the adventure I wrote for the Savage Worlds role playing game sourcebook Savage Tales of Horror Volume 2 features werewolves in a central role.
I have also watched a large number of werewolf films and love to get other people’s perspectives on them. That’s one of the reasons I asked Luke Y Thompson to write a review of the new Wolf Man movie. I was interested in his take before I eventually watched the film. Between finishing my dissertation and hanging out with my wife and twin daughters, I don’t get to see as many films in the theater as I used to. When you’re paying for four tickets, waiting for streaming doesn’t seem so bad. I was glad he liked it and it seemed to touch on the themes I enjoy while adding a touch of post-Triffids infection to the narrative.
Reading Luke’s review made me realize that this was the perfect time to do another Geekerati Recommendation Roundtable, so I asked my two semi-regular contributors (Luke and Kevin) if they’d share their favorite Werewolf movies and I sent a message to one of my favorite horror Substack authors (Dr.Rebekah King) to see if she’d contribute. Thankfully, they all agreed and I’ve put together this post which includes their recommendations as well as a few of my own.
Since I asked them to recommend their favorite Werewolf movies, and didn’t cordon off films so that a film could only be recommended once, there is a little overlap in Luke’s, Kevin’s, and Dr. King’s lists. There’s also a clear consensus favorite Werewolf film from my contributors. I won’t reveal what it is, but I imagine you could guess. What’s great about the overlap is that many of my critics like the movies for very different reasons. Take a look at how Luke and Dr. King discuss The Company of Wolves as an example, or how my introduction is at odds with Luke’s.
With all true and due respect for Universal's original Wolf Man, I tend not to be a huge fan of basic werewolf stories – my favorites always have what you might call value-added elements.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
An American Werewolf in London, arguably the greatest werewolf movie of all, is at least as much a ghost/zombie movie as it is a werewolf one, and equally brilliant at delivering crazy scares and wryly commenting on them in comedic fashion. As I said in my Wolf Man remake review, it's astonishing that more werewolf movies don't simply suggest suicide as a way out – zombie movies have zero problem with it, and it's even a common trope for characters in those films to shoot themselves in the head. American Werewolf offers it up as a kidding-not-kidding solution, before offering up some wonderfully grotesque transformation scenes. In hindsight it was the dry run for Michael Jackson's “Thriller,” which by default became the gateway for teens to get into American Werewolf in return.
The Company of Wolves (1984)
The Company of Wolves blends with fairy tales as its value-added narrative, though I confess I was compelled from the moment my father described to me the scenes where the guy rips his skin off and becomes a wolf from the inside out. It feels like a lot of people have re-discovered this one recently and it's getting due respect – the fact that it's framed as a dream also allows for some surreal and anachronistic logic. Based on Angela Carter's feminist retelling of Red Riding Hood as horror, it features several fun side stories before getting to the point of the potential horrors women need to be aware of from men once they come of age.
Van Helsing (2004)
I'm sure my most controversial pick will be Van Helsing, which has never enjoyed majority support. Honestly, shoehorning all the Universal monsters together or even just three of them, is hard to do without being absurd. Stephen Sommers' take on the Dark Universe pulls it off with video game storytelling – each level the hero defeats leads to some combination of monsters creating a new threat that feels like a different, harder level as our hero keeps gaining experience and necessary items, finally powering up Altered Beast style by becoming a werewolf himself in order to kill Dracula. It doesn't cut it as classic horror, but in its story pattern of ever-increasing trials and mini-bosses, it's not meant to. It was for the kids of the digital era, and may one day be appreciated by more than just me for that.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
It had to be on my list. American Werewolf is not only the best werewolf movie out there but it’s one of my favourite horror films of all time. When two young American backpackers ignore the warnings to stay off the Yorkshire moors during the full moon, they are mauled by a monster. One of them is killed and continues to visit his friend – in ever more disgusting states of decomposition – the other seems to have got away with his life but soon undergoes a terrifying metamorphosis.
American Werewolf is often cited as a rare example of a ‘comedy horror’ which is genuinely both funny and scary. Less commented on is the fact that director John Landis is also a master of pathos: on a second watch this is a much more moving film than it first appears, from the sincere and tender romance to the moment when our hero calls his little sister from a phone box to tell her he loves her one last time. A must-watch for anyone who is interested in the werewolf trope and its genre-bending possibilities.
The Company of Wolves (1984)
If you like your fairy tales dark and your sexual subtext as close to the surface as possible, Angela Carter is your woman. The Company of Wolves is an adaptation of Carter’s short story of the same name and is basically a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood where the encounter with the wolf signifies a moment of sexual awakening.
In all of Carter’s fairy tales, hairy bodies and slavering appetites belong to beasts and men interchangeably, and young women navigate their own fears and desires in relation to these half-human others. Traditional fixations with purity are turned on their heads as heroines ignore the warnings of their frigid elders and find liberation and pleasure in succumbing to a wild embrace.
The film is best enjoyed as a string of vignettes which form variations on that theme rather than a single coherent narrative, though the red-hooded Rosaleen is our throughline as she encounters all this wolf mythology and through it navigates her journey to adulthood. You really get your money’s worth on transformations here because so many characters turn into wolves in different ways throughout the stories-within-stories. This is a film about how male sexuality appears to women, in all its appealing and disturbing forms, and the extent to which female desire has the same transforming power.
Wolfwalkers (2020)
An English huntsman is sent to Ireland by the ‘Lord Protector’ to rid a woodland of its wolf population so that it can be cut down. His daughter Robyn travels with him and befriends a wild young Irish girl called Mebh, but Robyn soon realises that Mebh belongs to a local tribe of ‘wolfwalkers,’ whose souls walk abroad in the form of wolves while their human bodies sleep. When Mebh, in wolf form, rescues Robyn from a trap, she accidentally bites Robyn who now also begins to transform at night. The two girls, born into opposing sides of a violent colonisation, now find in their friendship a means of resisting the Lord Protector’s attack on Ireland and on nature itself.
Wolfwalkers is part of a trilogy of films based on Irish folklore produced by Cartoon Saloon along with The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2012). It’s a real treat to watch so beautiful a set of original animations from an independent studio, and the influence of Irish myth and history here gives a distinct interpretation of the werewolf trope. Unusually, it is a story in which slipping between wolf and human form is as easy as falling asleep and is experienced as a communal pleasure not a solitary curse. The ‘wolfwalker’ signifies the innate freedom of the indigenous population and their shared strength in the face of all-too-human foes.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
A classic movie that took the body horror of becoming a werewolf with the angst of also being a teen girl. Ginger and her sister Brigitte must find out what is happening to Ginger after she was attacked at night and the sisters soon have to find a cure for Ginger’s new affliction. The movie has achieved cult classic status and thus has been widely watched and acclaimed, which is fairly deserved.
Werewolves Within (2021)
Werewolves Within is a film based on the premise of a video game of the same name. It's a comedic horror movie where we follow our protagonist, played by Sam Richardson, a newly posted Park Ranger that finds himself in a lycan who-done-it. It's a fun movie with shades of Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz and a colorful cast of characters in the town as Park Ranger Finn tries to find out what is going on and keep the townsfolk calm.
Dog Soldiers (2002)
Dog Soldiers features a group of Scottish special forces who have to defend themselves in the Scottish Highlands as they are being hunted by a group of werewolves. A more action oriented movie as the werewolves are depicted as killing machines on a hunt to kill and eat the humans and thus the humans have to fight back. It's a fun horror action movie that has a new spin on the classic lycan tale in a more modern world at the time of 2002, and one that is a exhilarating watch.
An American Werewolf in London (1981)
The epitome of a werewolf movie and pinnacle of body horror in lycan cinema that set the standard for years to come. Two American backpackers, David and Jack, find themselves lost and put out after disgruntled pub goers run them off only for them to be attacked, leaving Jack dead and David changed. David tries to figure out what happened, and what's going on with him as he goes on to investigate what he's ended up in. The film is peak in the body horror genre and one that has yet to be replicated and one of the legendary movies in werewolf/lycan movies.
By now you can see that the consensus best Werewolf movie, or at least the movie that is in everyone’s list is An American Werewolf in London. There is no doubt it’s a fantastic film, but I won’t be including it in my list because I’m “batting clean up” and can fill in where I think there are gaps. Given that my favorite convention moment of all time (linked below) was sitting next to John Landis in a room with only a handful of people, sitting next to him after he decided to sit down next to me (?!) during a presentation by Forrest Ackerman, this is surprising to even me. I think it got enough praise though and I have little to add.
I think that the circle of contributors I recruited have proffered a very appealing list and I was particularly happy to see Dr. King recommend Wolfwalkers. It’s a wonderful film and part of a wonderful series of films. For those of you wondering why I refer to Dr. King by her honorific and not her first name, it’s because I believe someone who spends the 5 to 10 years working studying at Evil Graduate School deserves the recognition. In addition, she displays her expertise daily. I am also of the school of thought that one refers to Ph.D.s as Doctor until one is asked not to do so by the person who earned it.
Now it’s time for my list. Remember these are Werewolf movies and not lycanthrope films in general, so I won’t be cheating and adding either version of Cat People. I’m going to “stretch” what a Werewolf is in one of my picks, but only a little bit.
The Howling (1981)
If you were to tell someone that Robert Picardo, “The Doctor” in Star Trek Voyager, could star in a film as the tremendously frightening serial killer cult-like leader of a werewolf clan who brought a raw sexuality to the role they might roll their eyes but you would be correct. The Howling is a fantastic Werewolf film that combines commentary on the media’s obsession with serial killers and a critique of the spiritual cults of the 1970s with a raw sexuality.
Picardo’s transformation is a master class in building tension and the simultaneous sex/transformation scene with Elisabeth Brooks and Christopher Stone ranks almost as high as The Hunger on the “why did I choose to watch this with my mom?” scale. Joe Dante’s film is filled with nods to so many films that you could teach a semester of film criticism filled with watching those references including a final scene that evokes the classic rant in Network while demonstrating perfectly the argument that Daniel Boorstin makes in The Image. While the movie resulted in a number of sequels, the first one is the good stuff.
Wolfen (1981)
If you watched the trailer, or have seen the film, then you know that Wolfen is the film where I stretch the definition of Werewolf a touch. The premise of the film is simple. Human society has developed to the point where many of our cities are in a state of decay on the fringes. The homeless and forgotten live in the decayed and forgotten parts of our Metropolises, but nature has decided to take back what once belonged to it and it is taking it back through a predator that seems new but which represents the oldest threat to mankind…the wilderness after dark.
The film stars Albert Finney, Gregory Hines, Diane Venora, and Edward James Olmos in what is clearly a commentary on pollution, the climate, and a civilization in decline. The shots of New York that show the city as rotting from within weren’t filmed on a set. They are just pictures of what some of The Bronx looked like at the time. There’s a reason that The Warriors and 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982) were able to be filmed on location. The city was in many ways dying, as were many cities.
The 1970s were a period of economic stagnation and high inflation for much of the West, so much so that if you invested $1,000 in the stock market in 1968 and cashed it out in 1982 you’d have had $1,000. Given the inflation of the era, that money would also have significantly less spending power. When people talk about the 2008 financial crisis as the “worst economic crisis since the Great Depression” they are exhibiting amnesia regarding the 70s. It was a decade of stagnation, but maybe all the cocaine and Disco made them forget how bad it was.
Wolfen gives you a glimpse of the reality and is a demonstration that talk about “Late Stage Capitalism” wasn’t as far-fetched then as it is today. Wolfen captures that fear and is a perfect encapsulation of the fears of economic uncertainty and the guilt of cultural and climatological neglect.
The Wolfman (2010)
Okay, between Wolfen, The Howling, and An American Werewolf in London, I think we can say that 1981 was the greatest year in history for Werewolf movies, but we’ve had some excellent ones recently as well. Luke argued that his controversial pick was Van Helsing, but I think mine is even more controversial in a way. Van Helsing may be a gonzo video game influenced actioner, but it has its defenders. There are few who will defend 2010s The Wolfman, but I’m proud to be among them. The film came out four years before Universal’s planned shared universe project the Dark Universe which would pit Superheroic Monsters against The Devil. In some ways its poor performance in the box office was a contributing factor to Universal’s decision to attempt that project.
There are several reasons I enjoy The Wolfman ranging from the fact that it is a haunting update of the original Universal film to the fact that it has a stellar cast that includes Anthony Hopkins, Benecio del Toro, Hugo Weaving, and Emily Blunt, all of whom put in yeomanlike efforts. The special effects are fantastic and Rick Baker and Dave Elsey rightly won the Oscar for their work. None of those are the reason the film resonates with me though. My love of the film comes from a single amazing sequence in which The Wolfman critiques the hubris of the scientific community. Like The Exorcist, The Wolfman is a film about a person tortured by supernatural forces who looks to science to save them yet finds the science more horrifying than the curse. While the film was a commercial, and critical (32% on Rotten Tomatoes and the fans agreed), failure, it’s one of those cases where the critical reviews read more like memos from the Universal Development team than actual reviews. It’s almost as if Development was recruiting critics to justify their upcoming Dark Universe instead of examining what was in front of them.
The Wolfman, like Hammer’s The Woman in Black, is a wonderfully Gothic tale filled with the passions and tragedies so prevalent in that genre and it’s a film I watch every year. Ironically, the product line they promoted to replace the “out of date Gothic tale” with new Superheroic action was also a failure and even more ironically, I’m one of the Dark Universe’s lone defenders too. I liked Dracula Untold and The Mummy, but I might not have enjoyed The Rock as Werewolf in Aaron Guzikowski’s Wolf Man had that ever emerged from Development Hell.
Cursed (2005)
I’m a sucker for a Kevin Williamson/Wes Craven horror film and Cursed is in many ways the quintessential Kevin Williamson horror movie. The movie follows the plot of the original Wolf Man very closely, but adds a couple of twists involving the sexual politics of people in their young 20s. It’s a bit of a spin on Fright Night and The O.C. and is light-hearted fun. Williamson’s original screenplay involving a serial killer is much darker, and might have been a better film, but the studio wanted a PG-13 horror-comedy. Since I’m one of the 20 people in the world who like those, this one is definitely my bag. If you prefer darker tales, there are plenty of those in our combined lists.
Honorable Mention: The Beast Must Die (1974)
I’m pretty sure I’ve recommended this film several times already, but Amicus Productions’ The Beast Must Die is an absolute classic Werewolf film and set the stage for so many films (Werewolf and non-Werewolf) that followed. The film is a high concept mashup of the British Cottage Mystery and The Most Dangerous Game with added Werewolves. Films like Ready or Not and 2020’s The Hunt borrow moments and underlying conflicts from The Beast Must Die and are worthy heirs to this high concept masterpiece.
Calvin Lockhart’s performance as Tom Newcliffe is the best filmic performance of Marvel’s Blade character to date and is 10x cooler than Blade originally looked in the comic books. Tom Newcliffe has inviting a group of people to his English Mansion home, only to reveal that he intends to kill one of them because they are a Werewolf. Over the course of the film, the audience is asked to guess who the Werewolf is and the film even takes a brief “Werewolf Break” before the final reveal.
I recall liking the 2010 Wolfman just fine. I think the problem for a lot of people was what I call the "sent home unhappy" factor, wherein a movie they have otherwise liked does something so annoying at the end and they decide they hate the whole thing (Terminator Salvation is a great example). In this case, after standout practical effects have been the draw, there's some real dodgy-ass CGI in the finale, and that's the memory people take home with them.
Great read and list! Bad Moon (1996) is an under seen gem about a family German shepherd that must protect his family from a (great looking) werewolf. Highly recommend if you haven’t seen it.