Well, we recently had a thread about good (and bad) vampire movies, so it got me thinking today: Are there any good werewolf movies?
Of course, An American Werewolf in London is probably the absolute best example of such a film. The visual effects are incredible, even by todays standards (they’re a shitload better than the crappy CGI garbage in An American Werewolf in Paris). It was a great story, the acting was good, it had an interesting twist on the whole thing from what I could see, and it was overall just a really good movie. Did I mention the special effects were great?
The next on the list of “good” werewolf movies is The Wolf Man. You know, the original staring Lon Channey Jr. The big introduction into Hollywood of the genre, and a really good movie. The make up was good, the acting was great, and it was a good plot for a classic horror movie. Unfortunately, I didn’t care too much for Frankenstein vs. the Wolfman or Abbot and Costello Meet the Wolfman.
But that’s pretty much it as far as I can tell. I honestly can’t think of many horror movies. I’ve seen about three different Howling movies, but never really paid much attention to which ones because I hated them all. Silver Bullet was alright, but I liked the book a bit better (as a kid, it was my first look at really graphic comic book type artwork…it was GREAT!). Wolfen was pretty good, but I don’t know if I’d consider that a werewolf movie. I liked the wolfman in Monster Squad, but that wasn’t really a “werewolf” movie, either, and aside from one or two USA late night movies, I that’s pretty much all the werewolf movies I’ve seen.
I’ve heard good things about Dog Soldiers, but mixed reviews of Ginger Snaps. Anyone seen either of these and have an opinion? And what are some other good, and bad, werewolf movies out there that you may have seen?
I’ve got a friend that keeps telling me I must watch Dog Soldiers and Ginger Snaps, and in fact has given me a copy of Dog Soldiers I’ve not yet watched. He loves them, but then he loves Italian made zombie movies too, so take that for what you will.
If I get snowed in tonight, I’ll watch Dog Soldiers and report in to you.
Elvis, I cannot believe you mentioned The Monster Squad. I had the hugest crush on Ryan Lambert (the bad boy!) when I first saw that movie. I had a picture of him from some Teen Beat-Big Bopper rag taped up in my locker.
On that note, I always had a soft spot for Teen Wolf, mainly because even back when I knew virtually nothing about boys I got the whole puberty connection.
I admit to liking Wolf, especially for James Spade.
I need the right frame of mind to watch Ginger Snaps. It was on cable a few months ago and I never found the right time, so I’ll probably rent it.
Dog Soldiers was awesome…the effects weren’t spectacular, but they weren’t too bad either, but the suspense was great. Been a long time since I saw a decent werewolf movie.
And did you see the Howling movie that pitted the Wolf against the Vampires? It was a wonderful cheesefest, prompting many great MST3K lines from my gaggle of friends…including the best line I’ve ever heard in my life…
I liked Ginger Snaps if for no other reason than it takes the common werewolf movie theme of “lycanthropy as metaphor for puberty” and turns it on it’s head. You see, as far as I know, the movies with that theme have mainly focused on the male adolescent of the species. Ginger Snaps looks at it from a female perspective.
Also, as Ginger undergoes her slow transformation, she gets progressively hotter looking throughout most of the movie. If there’s one thing I apreciate, it’s a sexy werewolf. (That’s why Wolf is my favorite).
My major complaint about Ginger Snaps is that her final form comes across as way too monsterous a complaint that I have about most werewolf films. I realize that werewolf movies are supposed to be monster movies, but I can’t help but think that it always looks like some actor under a bunch of latex appliances and fake fur.
Now that the CGI tech has progressed to the point it has today, I’d love to see a werewolf movie, where the werewolf in question transforms into something that is a sleek and harmonious hybrid of man and wolf. Bipedal digitgrade legs, tail, body covered in a full rich pelt, wolfish head, moves with a predatory grace, and invokes fear not because it looks ugly, but merely because it’s obviously higher up on the food chain than we are.
Anyway, while we’re on the subject, I just watched a tape called Blood Moon last night (and I understand that it was originally a made for Canadian TV film called Wolf Girl). It’s a B-Grade plot with some big-name stars. Nothing special, not really too scary, and the usual plotholes you can drive a truck though. If you’re a serious werewolf movie buff, it’s worth watching once or twice, but I can’t see adding it to the collection.
Vampires must have better PR people. They’re frickin’ everywhere, and werewolves get squat. 's a damn shame, sez I.
And it doesn’t help that nobody’s yet made one look decent on screen. The majority look like your basic gorilla suit with a wolf mask on top. True, An American Werewolf in London had good effects during the change, but the final creature was just a big wolf! Far better to have a well-done man-wolf hybrid (basically agreeing with SC_Wolf).
But I fear CGI may not be the answer. It’s still not realistic enough to get a quality rendering of fur, fangs & feral ferocity. (hah!) And I’ve yet to see a 3D figure move with lifelike quickness. (Though, yes, Gollum is closest - they still had to do him entirely with motion captures.)
And it’s not as though good stories are difficult to come by. I read When will you Rage?, a collection of stories from WhiteWolf/World of Darkness that were all about the Garou. Plenty of good ideas there.
SC_Wolf, have you seen An American Werewolf in Paris? They used CGI for the werewolves in that, and they looked pretty much just like you described them. The thing is, I’m one of those “purist” types when it comes to special effects…CGI=bad. I admit, it’s come a long way, but compare the werewolves in Paris to London, and the visuals in the earlier film are still far more impressive. Of course, you never really get a good look at the finalized werewolf, and from what I can gather, it was more just a giant wolf, but the transformation sequence was very impressive and a lot more “solid” looking than the transformations in the later.
If they could somehow come up with a good combination of the two, I would love to see it. The werewolf on the back cover of Ginger Snaps looks like a big plastic model, so I completely see the failures of pupeteering, but interaction between people and CGI is still rough. Once they get that fleshed out, I’m hoping someone big makes a fantastic movie.
And I completely forgot about Teen Wolf. That was a great movie, and the cartoon was pretty fun as well. I still have yet to see Teen Wolf Too, but I never was much of a Jason Bateman fan.
And while American Werewolf in London is still the best werewolf movie, the first Howling gets short shrift. Written by John Sayles and directed by Joe Dante, it was doing the self-referential thing long before Scream came along. The endlessly idiotic sequels, sadly, have ruined the reputation of the original.
You’ve not seen Pixar’s Monsters Inc. yet I take it?
And yes El Elvis Rojo, I’ve seen American Werewolf In Paris and it came really close. Didn’t hit it dead on though.
You know what I’d really like to see? A well written not-particularly-for-kids cartoon series, featuring a pack of werewolves. Done in the style of Disney’s Gargoyles, only with an older target audience.
Yes, I saw Monsters, Inc, and while Sully is indeed gorgously rendered, do you really want to see a fuzzy werewolf?
<Boo> KITTY! </Boo>
BTW & FYI, I just read in last weeks EW that there’s going to be some sort of werewolf movie coming to theaters next fall. Anyone know anything about it?
If you’re talking about what I think you’re talking about, it’s Van Helsing. From Stephen Sommers (the guy behind the two Mummy movies), it has the famous vamp-slayer confronting a veritable bevy of supernatural beasties, including Frankenstein’s monster and, yes, a werewolf.
Sigh. Werewolves get no freaking respect. Of course it doesn’t help that most horror films are too insufficiently budgeted to fully realize a convincing werewolf, let alone a good transformation scene. This may change as CG effects continue to drop in cost; we’ll see.
But yeah, after close to twenty years American Werewolf in London is still pretty much the best out there, mainly because they didn’t pull any punches. In my opinion the movie succeds not only on the basis of its effects, but also because of brilliantly funny dialogue (all together, now: “I’m sorry I called you a meatloaf, Jack.”) and excellent pacing. John Landis’ touch was sadly lacking in the sequel. The original Howling is also commendable, both for its humor and effects, and also because it was just about the last role John Carradine acted in which allowed him even a shred of dignity. Wolf also hit a lot of right notes.
Bad Moon, which came out a few years back, was kind of an odd fish. It starred Michael Pare and Mariel Hemingway, and was the first werewolf movie to feature the potential of CG transformation effects. Unfortunately they chose a rather odd, patchwork-style approach where certain features (one eye, a leg, etc.) transform faster than others. I recall reading that the filmmakers chose this approach for reasons of novelty; they reasoned that there was no law stating that transformation has to occur symmetrically, and no other werewolf movie has ever featured asymmetrical transformation.
Note to the filmmakers: That’s because it looks stupid.
Oh yeah, glad this thread came back. I watched Dog Soldiers while stranded at home last Friday. I wasn’t impressed. I liked the accents, that was about it. Normally, I really love movies/books where the hero(es) is trapped in a confined space and has to figure a way out. But really, I found this movie predictable.
Plus, the creatures didn’t have to be werewolves. They could have been any kind of monster and it would have been the same story. For example say the government has developed a supersoldier plan that goes wrong and turns people into zombies. Same deal.
That’s my main beef. I can’t consider this a “werewolf” movie, as much as a “confined space” movie, and that’s not what I was expecting and was thus disappointed.
Isn’t there a movie called Brotherhood of the Wolf (the title is translated from the French on the cover of the DVD)? I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment on whether it’s good or bad. I think it’s a werewolf movie. I may have to splurge and rent some movies this weekend.
Brotherhood isn’t a werewolf movie either, but I do recommend it. If you do rent it, make sure you get the subtitled version, not the dubbed version. (Good luck if you’re going to Blockbuster, home of “we know movie watchers prefer full screen because they are idiots”)
THE WOLF MAN and FRANKENSTEIN MEETS TWM are pure gold- Lon Chaney Jr really brings a right amount of pathos to the Larry Talbot character.
I love the original HOWLING, H II is just campy fun w/ Chris Lee and
SYBIL DANNING TOPLESS MULTIPLE TIMES!!!, and H III has some interesting themes- Australian marsupial werewolves & all of werewolfdom as a persecuted human subspecies- after that, the others are pure crap.
GINGER SNAPS is pretty good- psychological, darkly humorous & ya really do feel for the girl. COMPANY OF WOLVES is too psychological & artsy-fartsy for my tastes. Have not seen BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF yet.
OH! How can we forget Hammer Studio’s CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF with a young Oliver Reed!?!? That really chilled me when I was a little kid & it still held up when I saw it a couple years back.
Oh my god, what a wonderful sight to return to after my long absence from the straight dope message board…I love you for starting this thread, Elvis.
Ok. Despite being obsessed with werewolves, I’ve seen very few werewolf movies…geez and I never even heard of Ginger Snaps. But anyways…I have seen American Werewolf in Paris(disapointing), Brotherhood of the Wolf (decent but sadly devoid of actual werewolves) and Dog Soldiers(horribly disapointing: saddened me considerably with lack of plot and countless other things). I’ve been left unsatisfied, needless to say. I’ll be sure to check out these other movies yall have listed here, methinks.
BUT ANYWAY. My point.
Upcoming werewolf movies?
I went to Yahoo movies and saw something about a movie that apparently will be released in September called Underworldscratches head… I dunno…haven’t heard enough about it to know if its decent.
But I’ve got my sights fixed very muchly on a different movie in the making…Has anyone read the delectable book Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause? Well. It seems there are plans for it to be made into a movie. joyful spasm