There are funny memes that circulate on the Internet these days about the dark content that kids consumed in the 1980s. As one of those kids, I can vouch for the fact that we were exposed to a lot of “kid friendly” content that definitely wouldn’t be considered kid friendly today.
One of the first things I remember being truly terrified by was the music video for Michael Jackson’s song, “Thriller.” This John Landis-directed short film with a song and dance number sandwiched in between is most remembered for its zombie dance. The lead up to this dance number with the zombies crawling out of their graves and the eerie music building until Jackson himself becomes one of them and leads the pack with his iconic red suit and moves used to literally make me cry out in terror.
But way before the music video gets to that part, it opens with a dream sequence in which Michael and his date play a 1950s couple walking home in the dark. On the way, Michael reveals to the unsuspecting, innocent girl that he’s a werewolf by transforming into one right in front of her.
This moment to me was shocking yet fascinating. Like a bad car accident, I couldn’t look away.
This was my introduction to werewolves. Over the years, I’ve consumed a lot of werewolf content. Below are 8 great things about werewolves and how they are one of the scariest creatures in the horror world.
Werewolf origins
Unlike Dracula, Frankenstein, or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, there’s no classic novel called The Werewolf. Werewolves are the stuff of legend and folklore, a blend of ideas that has turned into a fully fledged character that can be interpreted many different ways with different strengths, weaknesses, and rules that are followed throughout its story.
There are ancient stories of humans shapeshifting into animals throughout the world. Some go as far back as 2,100 B.C. in The Epic of Gilgamesh. However, there’s no specific starting point as to when werewolf tales began. There’s no definitive story to follow and beats to hit. So, they are open to a wide range of interpretations and variations.
In China, humans turn into tigers, in Japan, foxes, and in Russia, bears. But the werewolf, turned through a disease called lycanthropy, is the most common western version, and it has been made famous through oral, written, and visual stories throughout the years.
Whether born a werewolf or made one through various methods, lycanthropy is thought of as a disease. It turns normal people abnormal. Not only does it change them physically, but it also often changes them psychologically, and that idea of losing control over your own psyche is one of the scariest concepts in horror to me.
Its dual relationship with natural elements
There’s a duality between purity and impurity when it comes to werewolves. Their victims are often pure humans who are completely unsuspecting and happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. They go from mild mannered and happy go lucky to vicious and monstrous.
It’s a great metaphor for people who are plagued by mental illness, substance abuse, or even enduring hard times. It can alter their persona, pretty much against their will, and it’s an internal struggle to regain that control that they’ve lost, usually to no avail. And that’s when they become responsible for what that irrational part of their mind has done.
Typically, a werewolf’s surviving victim suffers a bite which essentially poisons them, making them impure. That impurity rears its ugly head in the form of shapeshifting into a murderous, primal beast. It acts strictly on violent urges. It attacks often without consuming, as if it feeds on violence and not sustenance.
The moon
Western stories also utilize the full moon as a major plot point of werewolf stories. A victim’s bite may heal, sometimes leaving a mark, but it’s not until the full moon comes out that they actually transform.
Many times, cloud cover can tame the wolf temporarily, but when it’s out and shining bright, it not only makes for a great, scary visual, but it also brings the werewolf to full power. A knowing werewolf will to detain themselves before the full moon hits, but good storytelling can always get them out in the open or make them impervious to any human cage that they try to hold themselves in.
Humans’ primitive beliefs about psychology contained an idea that a full moon could trigger “lunacy.” Something about its ghostly light being the only thing that can illuminate the darkness gives it a power that could easily attribute it to other events, particularly those that are supernatural.
Yet, the darkness can still provide excellent cover for devious and inhumane behavior. It can also cast shadows made to resemble horrible beasts that lurk in the night.
Wolfsbane
Wolfsbane, or aconitum, is often associated with werewolves. Its relationship to werewolves also has a duality to it. The werewolf changes during a full moon, but legend has it that blooming wolfsbane can also cause shapeshifting. The flowers can be purple or white which are two contrasting colors and harken back to this dark versus light quality.
Wolfsbane is also planted to detract werewolves, giving the impression that it’s a deterrent to the fully formed wolf. That makes it a very contradictory element to the werewolf story.
In reality, wolfsbane is also poisonous to humans. Arrowhead points used to be dipped in a wolfsbane solution to pack an even more deadly punch when it punctured its intended target. And if you eat it, it can be deadly.
The cure
Some stories utilize a silver as a werewolf’s only potential weakness. Silver is considered a “pure” metal. So, it makes sense that it can be used to destroy an impure organism. However, it isn’t always effective which illustrates the power of the werewolf curse.
In the 2004 film Van Helsing, a liquid cure was developed by Dracula which could cure a werewolf’s condition if needed. The fact that a powerful vampire needed a backup plan to control another supernatural being speaks to the werewolf’s physical strength and feral nature that can’t be reasoned with.
Their design
The blending of two beings is a fun and challenging creative process. In the case of a wolf and a human, what percentage do you decide to make human and what percentage will be wolf?
Will they walk on two legs or four? How hairy will you make them? Will they retain their clothing or revert back to their human form naked and bloody?
Personally, I like there to be more human than wolf in order to keep them looking like just a big wolf. Standing on two legs gives them the added threat of having two arms to grab and slice at you on top of their large teeth.
Retaining some human features can also mean retaining some human intellect, giving them added cunning and making them harder to outsmart. But the wolf side will give them increased speed, strength, and viciousness. The rational side is removed, making them even more dangerous than an animal which isn’t out to kill just to kill but rather to eat.
Similar to zombies, the werewolf usually has no rhyme or reason for its viciousness. It’s not out to attack to survive. It’s just there to kill and convert the unlucky survivors into one of its own.
The transformations
One of the scariest and most fascinating aspects of a werewolf story is how they transform. Whether described in print or depicted on stage or screen, they can go from quick and painless to slow and agonizing.
It’s a great special effects challenge to be able to pull off a new and unique transformation scene in a werewolf movie. Makeup artist Rick Baker lived up to that challenge in the three-minute transformation scene in 1981’s An American Werewolf in London.
There’s an almost comically suspenseful buildup for the audience of An American Werewolf in London who knows that the transformation is coming, but the protagonist, David, does not. It hits him like train, completely calm, though antsy, one minute and writhing in agony the next as if he has just been lit on fire.
What follows is a bone-cracking, hair growing, snout elongating sequence in which we see our hero transform into a monster right before our eyes. CGI has never been able to pack the same punch because, ultimately, we know we’re looking at a cartoon and not physical prosthetics full of contraptions made to look like they are manipulating this man’s body from man to wolf.
At the same time, watching a human transform into a creature puts you in their skin, so to speak. Even if the transformation is not physically painful, which it’s likely to be, knowing that you are changing and can’t stop it has to be a terrifying moment. It’s hard to know how conscious you will be for what’s to come, how long it will last, and if you, and your loved ones, will survive it.
Tragic characters
Werewolves’ surviving prey are often characterized as likeable and unassuming characters. They are typically young with their whole lives ahead of them and with a lot to lose. It’s tough to see good people fall, particularly for no reason.
When werewolves revert back to human form after a rampage, they’re typically horrified by the carnage they’ve unleashed on their surroundings, whether they can remember it or not. And once they are made aware of their kills, they live in fear of transforming again.
The knowledge of what these characters have done often leaves them suicidal. But unlike suicidal humans who you root for to overcome their urges to end their life, you can understand why an infected human would resort to this mindset. Because for most werewolves, death is the only solution, but it’s still not an easy one.
Even if a werewolf can find a way to live with their new condition, they’re still isolated from society and often have to leave the life they knew behind. When I used to write for Horrorscreams Videovault, I reviewed a collection of werewolf novels called The Hybrid Series.
The series features a teenager named Nick who is bitten by a werewolf while coming home from the movies one night. Once he transforms, his life is turned upside down, and he is forced to abandon his already rocky home life for a supernatural existence that not only transforms our hero physically but also emotionally from a selfish teen into a revered anti-hero. And it’s his time as a werewolf that gives him the experience to grow up and change his worldview. In a way, it gives his life more purpose, but it’s still not one that he likely would have chosen for himself.
Henchmen for other supernatural creatures
It’s difficult to center a movie around a beastly character that usually can’t talk, can’t think for itself, and is often one-dimensional when in its monster form. Because of this, werewolves often get paired up with other supernatural creatures. However, due to their condition, they are often reverted to a henchman.
In 1987’s The Monster Squad, the Wolf Man is the muscle of the group. Dracula keeps him subdued with medication and then lets him off the leash when he’s needed to bust down a wall or attack the humans who get in their way.
In 1943’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, a mad scientist promises a cure for the Wolf Man’s alter ego, Larry Talbot. However, he’s manipulated into doing his bidding so that the mad scientist can resurrect the Frankenstein monster. So, in his desperation, he is fooled into empty promises that never come to light for him.
While not fun for the character, the fun of the audience is watching to see what will happen when the werewolf snaps. Manipulation is the only tool in the other characters’ back pockets. So, when they lose that hand, they must hold on for dear life as this vicious, near indestructible creature unleashes its wrath on them.
Let’s talk about Lon Cheney
There have been many famous actors who have played werewolves over the years, but one of the top performances that still comes to mind is that of Lon Cheney Jr. Even if you haven’t seen a Lon Cheney Wolf Man performance, you have probably seen an image of him with yak hair glued to his face, a curly mop of hair on his head, and wearing a button-down shirt and pants with no shoes.
It’s a primitive look compared to what has been done since, but it’s also a tentpole Universal film that helped to shape the look of all of our classic monsters. The son of a famous silent movie star who adopted his father’s name rather than was given it, Cheney played Lawrence Talbot in Universal’s 1941 film. He’s bitten in the woods after taking the girl he’s been spying on with his giant telescope for a palm reading by a traveling gypsy.
Cheney tried his hand at multiple universal monsters throughout his career, including Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster, but whenever Universal needed The Wolf Man, they called him and only him. Cheney plays Talbot as that mild mannered, good natured man turned tragic monster. And despite seeming to be killed off in every incarnation, they always find a way to bring him back.
There’s a continuity to the Universal Monster movies’ plots. But the continuity of Cheney cements his legacy as the Wolf Man. And that says a lot about the legacy he left as a classic movie star, despite his personal demons which somewhat mirrors the storyline that he brought to life.
The target audience
Every demographic can relate to werewolves. For teenagers, there’s a way of linking it to puberty and the changes that your body goes through which are painful, embarrassing, and out of your control. We see this in movies like I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Dark Shadows, and the various incarnations of Teen Wolf.
These werewolves still keep their autonomy so that they are still relatable teens. They just have a more exaggerated change in physical appearance that makes them relatable as teenage characters just trying to fit in with their peers and finding it more difficult than the overage teen.
For many cisgender females of a certain age group, we too follow a cycle similar to the moon that can alter our moods, make us feel sick, and keep us waiting for the blood and gore that will inevitably arrive. There’s a tendency to make light of hormonal surges, cravings, and remedies that women go through each month, but the werewolf story can make this situation relatable for those who have to go through it and more understandable for those who don’t.
And even if you don’t fall into either of the two above categories, werewolf stories have a lot to say about being human. Sometimes our feral side takes over, and we do stupid, and even unforgiveable things. But we can make it right by making the right choices when we do have our wits about us. And that ability for rational thought is what makes us human and separates us from the real wolves.
What are your favorite werewolf tropes? Leave your answers in the comments below!
Also, check out similar posts about supernatural creatures including:
Buy it!
Buy a copy of The Man-Wolf and Other Tales here, and help support local bookstores! This is an affiliate link, and I will earn a commission on any sales.
Pin it!
