The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves (23 page)

The Curse of the Werewolf
was released in 1961, written by Guy Endore (see Chapter 10) and Anthony Hinds. The film was set in eighteenth century Spain and starred Oliver Reed as the lead character, Leon Corledo. It remains the only werewolf movie ever to be made by the legendary horror film company, Hammer Studios.

 

Leon Corledo, the film’s main character, was born on Christmas Day in Spain to a mute servant girl (the jailer’s daughter) who was raped by a wandering vagabond who had been put in jail. The woman died giving birth to Leon, who was adopted by the nobleman she had served, Don Alfredo. As Leon grew, however, it became painfully clear to him that he was a werewolf.

 

Don Alfredo took the young Leon on his first hunting trip, and the boy transformed into a werewolf shortly after they returned. Leon did his best to control his savage urges, but ultimately failed to contain the beast within him. When Leon grew up, he took a job at a wine cellar and fell in love with the owner’s daughter. Unfortunately, his love for her couldn’t stifle the beast inside him, and Leon again transformed into a werewolf. He went on a wild rampage through the town until he was ultimately brought down.

Director Joe Dante’s
The Howling
was one of the first werewolf films in modern cinema. Very much done in homage to the werewolf films of the past, this new treatment made use of new technologies in special effects. For example, this film was the first to use animatronics and full-body costumes in order to create a more realistic-looking werewolf. The film starred Dee Wallace as Karen White and Patrick Macnee as New Age therapist Dr. George Waggner.

 

The movie is mainly about the female journalist Karen White’s journey into lycanthropy. At first, Karen was contacted by a serial killer who refused to communicate with anyone but her. When she tried to assist the police in catching the killer (referred to as Eddie) by meeting him at a local video store, he attacked her and was shot down by police. The experience traumatized Karen, and she sought psychiatric care from an unorthodox therapist named Dr. George Waggner. Dr. Waggner suggested that Karen and her husband, Bill, spend some time at his private retreat called The Colony.

The night after Karen and Bill came to The Colony, they began to hear loud and unusual howling coming from the woods around their cabin. While they were there, a couple of Karen’s fellow journalists, named Chris and Terry, began a background investigation on Eddie’s life and turned up nothing. They went to the medical examiner and learned that Eddie’s body had disappeared from the morgue. They went through Eddie’s personal effects and found a number of strange drawings that depicted creatures resembling werewolves. The pair then went to a local occult store to study up on werewolf lore. The store’s owner had long had a set of custom-made silver bullets, made for a customer who never returned to pay for them. He sold the bullets to Chris and Terry.

 

Back at The Colony, Bill decided to join the other men in the group for a hunting trip. Dr. Waggner organized the hunt when several of his livestock were found mauled to death, and Karen told him about the nightly howling. All they killed, however, was a rabbit that Bill shot. He took the rabbit to fellow Colony-member Marsha, a nymphomaniac. She came on to Bill, but he refused and headed back to his cabin. On the way, Bill was attacked and bitten by what he convinced himself was a giant wolf.

 

That night, Bill couldn’t sleep and wandered out into the moonlight. He discovered Marsha, and the two had sex as they both transformed into werewolves. As days passed, Karen began to suspect something changed in her husband and felt that her life was in danger. At the same time, Chris and Terry realized the truth about Eddie. He was alive … and he wasn’t human. Unfortunately, they didn’t figure this out in time to keep Terry from being killed. Chris rushed from the scene and headed for The Colony to meet up with Karen and tell her what had happened.

 

When Chris arrived, he found Karen and they tried to leave. Their path, however, was cut off by all the inhabitants of The Colony. As it turned out, they were a pack of werewolves led by an alpha male … Dr. Waggner. Chris was killed, and Karen was bitten and forced to become a werewolf.

An American Werewolf in London,
written and directed by John Landis, is considered by many to be a modern werewolf cinema classic. The movie, released in 1981 (the same year as
The Howling
), also capitalized on new advancements in special effects. The film starred David Naughton as college student David Kessler.

American college students David Kessler and Jack Goodman were hiking their way across England in order to tour the countryside. One night, however, the pair was attacked by a werewolf. Jack was killed, but David survived with only a bite. The townspeople arrived and killed the beast, which returned to human form, allowing them to deny that it had been a werewolf.

David soon began to experience nightmares about hunting and killing in the form of a wolf. Soon, however, the ghosts of his dead friend Jack and others began appearing to him. In what became a darkly comedic twist, the ghosts insisted that David find a way to kill himself in order to release them from their cursed spectral forms. Because they were killed by an unnatural creature, they explained, their souls would remain trapped between worlds until the line of werewolves that killed them died out. David was now the last of that line. Since this film is a classic and was made in the last 30 years, the ending will be left out here in order to avoid spoiling the movie.

The 1985 werewolf film
Silver Bullet
was written by legendary horror author Stephen King and directed by Daniel Attias. The movie starred a very young Corey Haim as a paralyzed boy named Marty Coslaw, and Gary Busey was the boy’s guardian, Uncle Red. Everett McGill played the creepy Reverend Lowe, a clergyman-turned-howling-creature-of-the-night.

Marty lived with his sister, Jane, and Uncle Red in the quiet rural town of Tarker’s Mill. What he loved more than anything was the souped-up custom wheelchair that his Uncle Red modified for him, making Marty the fastest thing on two wheels. Everything seemed great in the town until people started turning up dead. At first everyone believed that there must be some insane killer on the loose, and lynch mobs formed in order to hunt the murderer down. Marty, however, after a brief encounter with the beast, believed that the killings are being done by a werewolf.

 

Recruiting the assistance of his sister, Jane, Marty went on the hunt to discover the human identity of the werewolf. What they discovered, however, was far more terrifying than anything they could have imagined. Once again, you probably don’t want the ending spoiled for you on this one, so let’s just leave it at that.

Teen Wolf
was a hit when it was released in 1985. The film starred Michael J. Fox as Scott Howard. It was directed by Rob Daniel and written collaboratively by Joseph “Jeph” Loeb and Matthew Weisman. Unlike the more frightening and bloody werewolf films of its time,
Teen Wolf
was meant to offer a lighter, more comedic treatment of lycanthropy.

Scott Howard was an awkward and fairly unpopular teenager at his high school. As he reached the end stages of puberty, however, he began to undergo some unexpected changes (like his eyes glowing red, growing fangs, and growling). When his secret became common knowledge, however, Scott went from outcast to the most popular guy in school. His powers made him the star of the basketball team, which made him the new desire of the hottest girl in school. In the end, however, Scott had to make a choice between being the werewolf that everyone adored … or being the nice guy that his friends and family had always loved.

In 1987, Fox ran a short-lived TV series under the simple title
Werewolf.
Though the show only had a 29-episode run, it has grown to be considered a cult classic of the werewolf genre. In recent years, fans of the show have demanded that it be released on DVD since the only available copies have long been nothing more than poor-quality bootlegs.

 

Graduate student Eric Cord (played by John J. York) didn’t believe it when his roommate claimed that he was a werewolf. However, when the guy transformed and attacked Eric, it made him a believer. During the struggle, Eric killed his roommate. Unfortunately, he still got bitten.

 

The show followed Eric’s long journey to rid himself of the werewolf curse. In order to do so, however, he had to track down and kill the source of his bloodline, whom he believed to be a sadistic figure by the name of Captain Janos Skorzeny (played by Chuck Connors). Unfortunately, Eric’s first transformation left a trail of bodies in its wake, which made him the target of a bounty hunter named “Alamo” Joe Rogan (played by Lance LeGault). Eric hunted Skorzeny and was hunted by Rogan. Could he free himself of this cursed lycanthropy before the bounty hunter catches up to him?