# A question about werewolves **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369 "2010-10-26T01:35:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/21 "2010-10-28T20:49:47Z")
> [@Dan\_Norder](#): > > You forgot the all-important word _allegedly_ in that description. Good point. And here I am, the great defender of Elizabeth Bathory from the scurrilous charges of vampirism when all she was really guilty of, according to contemporary account, was sadistic torture. I do presume Grenier, at least, to be a legit practitioner, since his punishment was confinement to a monastery–hardly what you’d expect if the people were looking for a scapegoat. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/22 "2010-10-28T20:57:52Z")
Dog Soldiers have very creepy (and very big) bi-pedal werewolves. One of the best WW movies out there IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/23 "2010-10-28T21:45:48Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > I always thought the sort of half man half wolf was scarier than just turning into a wolf. Sure, the idea of turning into an animal is scary, but it’s not THAT scary. Wolves are pretty badass. And wolves can be dangerous but the idea of seeing an attacking wolf in a movie doesn’t chill me. But something that’s not quite wolf, not quite human…maybe it’s more uncanny valley for me? Watching the change scene in American Werewolf as a little kid really skeeved me. And the werewolf in Ginger Snaps really creeped me out. Turning into a wolf would be kind of neat–turning into a weird wolf creature…blech. Genuinely frightening for me. I think that’s partly an effect of your modern viewpoint, which has been shaped by a major re-evaluation of man’s relationship to nature. To us, wolves are majestic, endangered animals that pose no particular threat to humans. Back in the Middle Ages, wolves were seen as hell-spawned monsters who actively and malevolently preyed on humans. To people of the time, the idea of a wolf that was as smart as a human would have been particularly chilling. ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/24 "2010-10-28T23:03:47Z")
And yet, various woodcuts from that era depict bipedal werewolves from time to time. Maybe it depended on the local lore as to how they were depicted. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/25 "2010-10-28T23:52:54Z")
Well, if you’re assuming that humans turn into wolves and back, then there has to be some intermediate form, even if it’s only transitional. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/26 "2010-10-29T03:23:09Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > I think that’s partly an effect of your modern viewpoint, which has been shaped by a major re-evaluation of man’s relationship to nature. To us, wolves are majestic, endangered animals that pose no particular threat to humans. Back in the Middle Ages, wolves were seen as hell-spawned monsters who actively and malevolently preyed on humans. To people of the time, the idea of a wolf that was as smart as a human would have been particularly chilling. I guess that’s true. Whenever I read Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books (Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie, etc.), they describe the mountain lions (or panthers) and wolves and bears as being so horribly scary. Not that I’d want to encounter a bear or wolf on a dark night, but I guess I also think of it in terms of all the horrible things we’ve done to them and how in the long run, they’re much less of a threat to us than they are to us. I suppose back then, they really were a lot more threatening. ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/27 "2010-10-29T12:43:57Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Dog Soldiers have very creepy (and very big) bi-pedal werewolves. One of the best WW movies out there IMHO. awesome flick, that one. just re-watched it the other day ago. the earliest film i’ve been able to recall from my film student days is ‘werewolf of london,’ 1935 with henry hull and warner oland. for a low-budget production, its suitably creepy. now i’m wondering if there were any \*\*silent \*\*ww films.. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2010, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/28 "2010-10-29T23:58:59Z")
No, “Werewolf of London” basically invented the wolf-man concept, which was refined and put into final form by the 1941 “Wolf Man”. Much of the “ancient lore” was invented out of the whole cloth by Curt Siodmak, the lead writer of the latter movie. Silver bullets? Siodmak. Pentagrams? Siodmak. Wolfbane? Siodmak. Only comes out in the full moon? Siodmak. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/29 "2010-10-30T00:58:44Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > The Howling , also 1981, had wolfie-werewolves as well (if I recall correctly). As did [Wolfen](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083336/) (also 1981. It was a big year for werewolves). But yeah, my recollection is that 1981 is when movies got away from the Wolf _Man_ version of werewolves. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/30 "2010-10-30T01:01:56Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > No, they were evil, hyper-intelligent wolves. I must be mis-remembering. I thought the Indians changed into wolves. No? ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/31 "2010-10-30T02:05:51Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > I must be mis-remembering. I thought the Indians changed into wolves. No? As I remember, the Indian dude communicated with the wolves. Maybe he worshipped them, too. It’s been twenty years. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/32 "2010-10-30T14:42:35Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > No, “Werewolf of London” basically invented the wolf-man concept, which was refined and put into final form by the 1941 “Wolf Man”. Much of the “ancient lore” was invented out of the whole cloth by Curt Siodmak, the lead writer of the latter movie. Silver bullets? Siodmak. Pentagrams? Siodmak. Wolfbane? Siodmak. Only comes out in the full moon? Siodmak. That’s not quite accurate. As examples, old woodcuts did feature wolf-man depictions (as previously mentioned by **Cuckoorex** and which can be confirmed quite easily by consulting just about any work on the history of werewolf folklore), and the concept that silver, and even silver bullets specifically, had special power over humans who changed shape into animals predates 1941. Siodmak put various pieces together in a new way and invented up some of the details, but the film historians and authors who give him the credit for the whole shebang didn’t do a thorough job of checking into the earlier references. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2010, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369/33 "2010-10-30T21:13:27Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > And yet, various woodcuts from that era depict bipedal werewolves from time to time. Maybe it depended on the local lore as to how they were depicted. I didn’t mean to suggest that the bipedal wolves were a modern invention, I was just giving a possible explanation for why the “smart wolf” would have been a more frightening concept in pre-modern times. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-about-werewolves/558369.md?page=1)