2. Background
• 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.
3. Wolf Blood, 1925
• 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.
4. Werewolf of London, 1935
• 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.
5. The Wolf Man, 1941
• 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.
6. I Was A Teenage Werewolf, 1957
• 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.
7. Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, 1965
• 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."
8. The Beast Must Die, 1974
• 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.
9. Teen Wolf, 1985
• 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".
10. Wolf, 1994
• 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).
11. The Wolfman, 2010
• 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.