By the way, many thanks go out to Jonathan D. Jones, for his contributions to this list.
Universal’s first werewolf flick. This is the movie, in a nutshell:
Dr. Wilfrid Glendon (played by Henry Hull) is a botanist who goes to Tibet in search of a rare flower. While in Tibet, he is attacked by something in the dark, and bitten. He gets back to London and meets a stramge man named Dr. Yogami (Warner Oland), who tells him that they’ve met before “in Tibet, in the dark”. Glendon laughs at him until he becomes a werewolf himself.
That’s right, kids: no wolfsbane, no silver bullets, no gypsy curse. Just a British scientist who gets bitten by a guy named Yogami in Tibet, and comes back to turn into a wolflike beast every full moon, eventually turning on his own wife. It could happen to anyone.
Even a man who is pure in heart,
And says his prayers by night,
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms
And the autumn moon is bright.
Gotta love that.
Larry Talbot (Chaney) is bitten by werewolf Lugosi, survives to carry the curse himself. Cast includes Rains as unknowing father, Ankers as perplexed girl friend, Ouspenskaya as wizened gypsy woman who foretells his fate and attempts to care for him.
Seriously, if you’re into werewolves, and you haven’t seen this one, there’s something wrong with you.
Larry Talbot (the Wolfman) is looking to be destroyed, so he seeks the castle of Doctor Frankenstein, along-side the gypsy woman. Once they reach the castle, they find it to be destroyed- all except for Doctor Frankenstein's research and the monster.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Abbott and Costello comedy featuring Frankestein, Dracula, and (most importantly) the Wolf Man.
What else could you expect from a Hammer horror film? Just the slightest bit campy, but ultra-eerie too. Has all the blood and cleavage you’d expect from a Hammer film, but truth be told, it’s a good movie.
A young bastard orphan is plagued by nightmares while local sheep are slaughtered. He grows up into a fine young werewolf (despite the fact that the makeup looks kinda ape-like). The lots of creepy events surrounding his birth alone make this movie worth seeing.
Billed as a horror-comedy (how does that even work?) but I really don’t see that. Okay, it’s got its light moments, but there really weren’t any parts in the movie that made me laugh. If it’s a horror-comedy, it’s a good horror and a pretty bad comedy, cause I didn’t get it.
Pretty standard werewolf movie stuff. Starts in Britain (why is it that so many of the great horror movies come from Britain?) when a young man and his best friend are attacked by . . . well, something . . . killing the best friend and leaving our hero a bloodthirsty werewolf. However, this is the first werewolf movie (as far as I know) to keep an actor in work even after his character has been killed and horribly mutilated. In fact, the dead guy is one of the coolest parts about the movie. Only our hero can see him, and he’s always popping in (each time in a more advanced state of decay, a cool touch) to say hi and give him advice. MUCH better than its 1997 semi-sequel.
A little ironic that two of the most popular werewolf movies in the history of the genre came out in the same year, huh?
I’m not gonna waste time trying to explain the plotline. If you haven’t seen it, go rent it or buy it. Just trust me on this one.
Wolfen (1981)
This film is about werewolves with special vision, etc. who go on a rampage to kill people. Oh, the delightful cheesiness of this movie . . . gotta love it.
The Howling II (Your Sister Is A Werewolf)(1984)
A poor followup to The Howling.
I’m a big Stephen King fan, so I expected better from a movie based on a King story. Still, this movie doesn’t suck; it’s just not what it could be.
It’s a nice simple story set in a small town, with four main characters (counting the werewolf). Revolves pretty much around a boy trying to get help from his family to kill a werewolf.
It’s better than it sounds when I tell it, but like I said, it’s still not quite the best werewolf movie out there.
Haunted Honeymoon (1986)
Pretty damn funny Gene Wilder comedy about a couple whose honeymoon is interrupted by ghastly goings-on. Features some werewolf content.
This film was made in 1987. Werewolves turn up in Australia, only these are marsupials. A sociologist falls in love with one of them and tries to save the whole tribe.
A woman is haunted by the ghost of a nun who was killed by lycanthropes.
A group of people gather at an old castle, that has been shut down for 500 years, to play a game called "Whos the Werewolf."
A carnival freak show is the scene of a battle between a vampire and a werewolf-drifter who pursues him.
A reporter investigates a series of bloody murders in an off-beat town.
Jack Nicholson plays a dishrag who’s about to get fired. Then he gets bitten by a werewolf. The changes are for the better (at first), as he has more energy, is more bold and daring, and takes on a new love life. However, and let’s not forget this point . . . HE’S A WEREWOLF. That never has good results for the poor bastard.
Not a bad movie, although I still can’t watch any Nicholson film without thinking of The Shining. I call it Anthony Hopkins Disease (come on, you know you can’t help associating the guy with Hannibal Lecter, no matter what role he’s in).
A scientist gives a werewolf metal skin. Barry Bostwick is in it (you know, that guy from Spin City).
This movie is every bit as bad as it sounds. Maybe even more.
Tom Everett Scott plays an American tourist in Paris. Long story short, he encounters a werewolf, saves some girl from committing suicide, figures out she’s a werewolf, figures out HE’s a werewolf, and then they try to thwart a group of WILLING lycanthropes who are trying to “thin out the human herd,” as it were.
Plenty of special effects, but the fact that the werewolves look nothing at all like wolves kinda throws it off. In fact, the weak script kinda throws it off too. Now that I think about it, there’s only one entertaining part of the whole film, and that’s just for the guys (Julie Delpy, figure it out). Myself, I’d skip this one, but hey . . . who knows, maybe some poor schmuck not granted the gift of taste may like it.
Like Carrie before it, Ginger Snaps uses horror-movie conventions as an inspired metaphor for puberty. When beautiful but reclusive goth teenager Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) is attacked by a monstrous wolf on the eve of her first period, her body starts changing in a big way, as do her suddenly lusty, feral appetites.
Director John Fawcett masterfully balances the expectations of teen horror exploitation (blood, bodies, sex, smart dialogue, and good old-fashioned monster-movie scares) with clever black humor and tender sisterly solidarity. Only devoted sister Brigitte (gloomy Emily Perkins) knows the truth, and even as Ginger's abrupt transformation threatens their once unbreakable friendship, bonds of blood and love keep them together: Brigitte disposes of Ginger's victims while searching for a cure. Mimi Rogers costars as their dotty but unexpectedly sensitive mom, ready to sacrifice all to protect her daughter. Blood and blood ties have never been more evocative.
--Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
(I didn't see it, so I'll take the Amazon.com guy's word for it)
Don’t look at me like that. I had to do it, alright? I HAD to.
Shaggy turns into a werewolf. There’s no need to elaborate any more than that, because it’s Scooby-Doo. Even if you haven’t seen it, you know the movie.
