STACK's Ultimate Monster Guide

Werewolves

“Even a man who’s pure in heart and says his prayers at night, can become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the autumn moon is bright.” - TheWolf Man

TheWolf Man (1941) The beast is unleashed. In the Universal classic, Lon Chaney Jr. gets bitten by old gypsy Bela Lugosi and a new horror film icon is born. One of the all time greats.

IWas aTeenage Werewolf (1957)

The Howling (1981)

Long before Little House on the Prairie , Michael Landon was a rebel without claws... until a bit of regressive hypnosis transforms him into the ultimate juvenile delinquent.

Joe Dante’s love letter to the werewolf cycle is a quirky, in-joke laden romp with eye-popping FX from Rob Bottin. Inspired no end of abysmal sequels. The original and the best.

An AmericanWerewolf in London (1981) Stick to the roads. Stay off the moors. And beware the moon! John Landis’s classic horror comedy subverted audience expectations and rewrote established werewolf lore. It also revolutionised special makeup FX, elevating the art from novelty to Oscar-worthy.

The Company ofWolves (1984) Director Neil J/ordan reimagines ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ as a lurid, bizarre fairytale awash in nightmarish imagery and eroticism – and a refusal to make a great deal of sense.

Silver Bullet (1985)

TeenWolf (1985) Growing pains for teenager Michael J. Fox – who sprouts hair in places his mother never told him – in this moronic but harmless high school comedy. Followed by a sequel and animated series.

Wolf (1994) Mike Nichols’ supposedly

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Over earnest but bloody adaptation of Stephen King’s novella Cycle of the Werewolf is a guilty pleasure. Notable for a bloated Gary Busey and the screen debut of the late, great Corey Haim.

Ingeniously linking adolescent angst with animal agro, this dark, estrogen-fuelled independent gem spilled fresh blood into a genre facing extinction from too many lousy Howling sequels.

sophisticated and intelligent take on lycanthropy was an

interminable snoozefest not even Jack Nicholson could salvage. Woof.