The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves

by Brown Robert

  One night, Bannister was attacked by loggers from the rival camp. They beat him severely and left him for dead. The badly bloodied Bannister was discovered and rushed back to the logging camp. The visiting young surgeon realized that Bannister had lost far too much blood and asked for volunteers to begin a transfusion. The superstitious loggers, however, all refused to take part.

  Having no other option, the surgeon used the blood of a wolf to do the transfusion. By doing so, he managed to save Bannister’s life. The logging boss’s problems, however, were far from over. Bannister began having strange dreams in which he was running through the forest with a pack of ghostly wolves. In one dream, he and the pack slaughtered the men from the rival logging camp.

  It was soon discovered that the men from the rival camp appeared to have been attacked and killed by a number of wild animals. The other lumberjacks also learned about Bannister’s violent and similar wolf dreams. A large majority of the loggers decided that Bannister was a werewolf and organized a lynch mob to destroy him.

  Werewolf of London (1935)

  Based on a story by Robert Harris and adapted for the screen by John Colton, Werewolf of London was one of the first talking pictures to deal with the subject of lycanthropy. The film was directed by Stuart Walker and starred Henry Hull as Dr. Wilfred Glendon, a brilliant young botanist whose studies led him on an expedition to Tibet.

  While traveling through Tibet in search of rare and exotic plant life, Dr. Wilfred Glendon sought out and found the amazing mariphasa plant, the flowers of which only bloom under the light of the moon. During the expedition, however, he was attacked and bitten by what he believed to be a wild animal. In truth, it was a werewolf. After performing some initial lab tests, Dr. Glendon hypothesized that the flower bore a number of special properties that could benefit the medical and scientific communities. Ignoring the warnings of his local guide about the bite he had received (namely that werewolves seek to destroy the thing they love most—in this case, Glendon’s wife), the young botanist returned to London with the rare flower for further experimentation.

  On the next full moon, Dr. Glendon transformed into a werewolf. Horrified by what he had done, he sought to find a cure through his experiments with the mariphasa flower. At first he was able to create a temporary antidote from the flower’s extract. Dr. Glendon’s experiments with the flower came to the attention of a strange Tibetan physician by the name of Dr. Yogami. It later turned out that Yogami was the werewolf who bit him back in Tibet.

  Police later came to Dr. Glendon’s home while he was fighting Yogami (with both men in their werewolf states), and the officers opened fire on both of them. Yogami and Glendon were both killed and returned to their human forms. The police came to the conclusion that Yogami was responsible for the recent slew of murders committed by Glendon while under the influence of his werewolf state. The authorities deemed Dr. Glendon’s death to be an unfortunate case of mistaken identity and believed that he was fighting with a murderer to protect his family.

  The Wolf Man (1941)

  The Wolf Man was one of the first widely popular werewolf films. Released in 1941, the movie was directed by George Waggner and the screenplay written by Curt Siodmak. The Wolf Man starred Claude Rains as Sir John Talbot and Lon Chaney Jr. as the tragic lead character, Lawrence “Larry” Talbot. The film also starred horror movie icon Bela Lugosi as Bela, a gypsy cursed with lycanthropy.

  For 18 years, the very level-headed Larry Talbot had lived in America. When his older brother was killed in a hunting accident, however, Larry returned home to his family’s estate in England. When he arrived, he was met by his grief stricken father, Sir John Talbot, who begged Larry to forgive him for always neglecting him and lavishing attention on his brother. Father and son made amends, but all did not remain peaceful. That night, while looking through his father’s telescope, Larry set eyes on the beautiful Gwen Conliffe, the daughter of a store owner in town.

  The next day, Larry went into town and visited the store of Gwen’s father. While there, he purchased an unusual cane, the silver head decorated with the head of a wolf and a pentagram. Gwen even told Larry that the pentagram was a sign of the werewolf, but he laughed this off as superstition and bought it anyway. He also learned, with some disappointment, that Gwen was engaged to Frank Andrews, the game keeper for his father’s estate. Nonetheless, Gwen invited Larry to join her later that evening, along with her friend Jenny, to visit a local gypsy camp to have their fortunes read by a man named Bela.

  That night they went to the camp, and Bela the gypsy, upon seeing Jenny’s hand, said that she bore the werewolf’s mark on her palm. As the group walked away, disconcerted by his behavior, they soon heard howling coming from the woods. Jenny was suddenly attacked by a large wolf. Larry did his best to fend off the beast by beating it with his wolf-head cane, and he received a bite during the struggle that caused him to drop it. In the end, however, Larry was unable to save Jenny’s life. He and Gwen fled from the scene.

  Larry escorted Gwen home and then returned to Talbot Castle. He was greeted there by the local magistrate, Colonel Paul Montford, who was also an old childhood friend of his. Colonel Montford explained that he had recently come from the gypsy camp, where Jenny’s mauled remains were found. He also explained that a man named Bela was found beaten to death nearby. Next to the man’s body, he explained, Larry’s wolf-head cane had been found. Larry tried to explain that they were not attacked by a man but by a wolf. He then held out his hand to show Colonel Montford the bite, which had mysteriously disappeared.

  That night, Larry went back to the gypsy camp with Gwen and her fiancé, Frank, at his side. There they met Bela’s mother, a gypsy matriarch named Maleva. She asked Larry if he had been bitten. When he told her he had, she explained that her son Bela was cursed with lycanthropy. She also told Larry that anyone who is bitten by a werewolf and lives will also bear the curse of lycanthropy. Larry did his best to dismiss what she told him as the ravings of a superstitious old woman. Regardless, the encounter shook him up a bit.

  That night, Larry watched his mirrored reflection in horror as he transformed into a werewolf. Under the influence of his wolf-state, he ran howling into the night. He came upon a local grave digger named Richardson and killed the man. Later, the scene was inspected by Colonel Montford and a local physician, Dr. Lloyd. They discovered wolf tracks leading away from Richardson’s corpse.

  In the morning, Larry woke up and discovered a trail of wolf tracks that lead from the window to his bedside. Larry went down for breakfast with his father and asked him about the werewolf legend. Sir Talbot told his son that the werewolf legend is a metaphor for the inner struggle between good and evil within a man’s own soul.

  In the meantime, Colonel Montford and Frank Andrews spent the day setting traps for what they believed was a man-eating wolf. That night, when Larry transformed into his wolf-state and ran wild, he was caught in one of the traps. Maleva found him and, once he returned to his human form, freed him from the trap. Larry couldn’t remember how he got there and was extremely disturbed.

  Larry rushed back to town to find Gwen and tell her that he must leave immediately. She confessed her feelings for him and offered to run away with him. When Larry caught a glimpse of her palm, unfortunately he saw the mark of the werewolf on it. He told her that she couldn’t join him and returned to Talbot Castle. He tried to confess what had happened to his father, who concluded that his son had gone insane. Just in case, however, he tied Larry to a chair. He then locked his son in his room. Larry told his father to find the silver wolf-head cane and keep it with him. Believing it best to humor his deranged son, Sir Talbot took the cane.

  Sir Talbot arrived at the outskirts of town and discovered that all the hunters in the area had gathered to bring down the man-eating wolf they believed killed Richardson. He encountered Maleva, who told him that his son was indeed a werewolf but that as long as he possessed the silver cane he would be protected. While all this was going on,
Larry transformed, broke free of his bonds, and took off into the woods.

  Sir Talbot went into the woods ahead of the hunting party, leaving Maleva behind. Gwen then showed up looking for Larry and followed Sir Talbot, despite Maleva’s warnings that to do so would end her life. Maleva then went into the woods as well.

  In the woods, Gwen was attacked by the werewolf. Sir Talbot came running, wielding his silver cane, and began trying to beat the beast off of her. Sir Talbot killed the beast, saving Gwen but taking the life of his own son. The werewolf transformed back into Larry’s human form just as the hunting party arrived with Colonel Montford. The magistrate concluded that a normal wolf had attacked Gwen and that Larry, judging from his torn clothes, must have been killed trying to save her. Overcome by the truth, Gwen fainted and was caught by the arms of Frank.

  The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

  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.

  The Savage Truth

  The Curse of the Werewolf screenplay was heavily based on elements from Guy Endore’s werewolf story The Werewolf of Paris. For example, both characters were the product of rape. Both characters were also born around Christmas, though Caillet on Christmas Eve and Corledo on Christmas Day.

  The Howling (1981)

  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 Savage Truth

  The name of the character Dr. George Waggner was chosen in order to pay homage to the real-life George Waggner, who was the director of the 1941 film The Wolf Man.

  The Savage Truth

  After the success of The Howling, a number of attempts were made to produce sequels. They were box office flops. After the terrible failures of the second and third films, the rest have been horribly done B-movies, created solely as straight-to-video releases.

  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 (1981)

  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.

  The Savage Truth

  In 1997, a similarly styled film, An American Werewolf in Paris, was released. In many ways, this film pays homage to the original. With only a few differences in setting and plot, however, many consider these two movies to be identical.

  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.

  Silver Bullet (1985)

  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 in
sane 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 (1985)

  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.