Monsters
Through the Cinematic Ages The Werewolf by Mark L. Miller
Looking at the nightly news is proof positive that human beings are
capable of beastly things under certain stressors. Maybe that’s why, out of all of the monsters in cinema, the werewolf is the one that hits closest to home. Be it a cautionary fable of the big bad wolf, man’s never ending fight between id and ego, or an example of primal instincts grabbing hold and taking control, the being less than human but more than common beast has been a staple of horror cinema since the beginning. Centuries-old fables like “The Three Little Pigs,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Peter & the Wolf” all cast the wolf as a villain to be wary of. With the invention of cinema, it was just a matter of time before the wolf blew in the theater doors. Shot by Henry MacRae and
since considered a lost film, THE WEREWOLF (1913) is often called the first werewolf film. It focuses on a vengeful Native American woman who becomes a werewolf to kill the white settlers who killed her husband. Another silent classic, WOLF BLOOD (1925), centers on a wronged lumberjack who requires a blood transfusion after an altercation with rivals. When no donors are available, a doctor uses the blood of a wolf to nurse him back to health. Though scientifically implausible, the story introduces a medical rather than mystical cause for lycanthropy. Like WOLF BLOOD, THE WEREWOLF (1956), is one of the few films to cast the werewolf as a creature made from science
gone wrong, rather than being of occult origin. Universal began its bid to make
the definitive werewolf movie with WEREWOLF OF LONDON, released in 1935. Considered the first Hollywood-made werewolf film, it featured Henry Hull as a botanist bitten by a wolf while searching for a rare plant in Tibet. Later, he returns to London and stalks the gothic streets as a top hat and cloak-wearing man-monster, more reminiscent of Dr. Jekyll’s alter ego Mr. Hyde than the typical wolf man. Universal’s next attempt was a much bigger success: 1941’s THE WOLF MAN starring Lon Chaney Jr. Chaney became the face of the werewolf after this iconic performance, and reprised his role in numerous films such as FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN, HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, HOUSE OF DRACULA, and ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. The film also became the template from which most werewolf films were cast, even to this day.
Hammer took a stab at
the scandalous and overtly sexual nature of all things wolfy with THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF in 1961, an epic film with a sordid take on the werewolf mythos. A somewhat brutal film for its time, THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF starred Oliver Reed playing the son of a
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