Howling at the Moon: The Origin Story in Werewolf Cinema

During the 1930s and 40s, Universal Studios created the classic “big four” film monsters: Dracula, Frankenstein's creature, the Mummy, and the Wolfman. Of the group, it is the latter that presents what may be the most intriguing passage from the printed page to the screen. The literary origins for Count Dracula and Doctor Frankenstein's monster are well established via the novels by Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley. Likewise, the Mummy's genesis can be traced to a variety of fictional short stories and novellas as well as real-life events, such as the opening of King Tutankhamen's tomb. On the other hand, werewolf literature has received neither the attention nor the widespread distribution accorded Stoker's and Shelley's fantastic beings. This checkered literary history may partially account for the fact that the werewolf is the last of the “big four” to have made its way into production for the filmgoing audience. In The Essential Guide to Werewolf Literature, Brian J. Frost tells us a werewolf “is a man or woman who, either voluntarily or involuntarily, is supematurally transformed into the shape of a wolf and endowed with all the physical characteristics of that animal—a shaggy covering of fur, glowing eyes, long canine teeth, and razor-sharp claws” (6). One key in Frost's definition lies in recognizing that the transformation may occur either voluntarily or involuntarily, depending upon the narrative tropes constructed by each publication's author. The mythology that posits that some people may change into animals appears as old as humankind itself, originating with the proposition that men and women share common ancestry with the wolf. According to Bill Pronzini in the introduction to his werewolf anthology, however, “The origin of the werewolf superstition is lost in antiquity” (xiv). As time passed, existing myths were augmented by new tales suggesting that werewolves were a hybrid resulting from the natural evolution that took place as man developed from the animals. These origin stories presented differing motifs suggesting the evolution may not have been completed, with isolated werewolf colonies developing in out-of-the- way settings. Frost feels that the most credible theory lies with “… exaggerated accounts of nocturnal attacks on Stone Age settlements by bands of fur-clad warriors masquerading as wolves” (4). As tales of werewolves became more widespread, many narratives found their way into fictional accounts via short stories and novels. Of particular interest is 1839's “The Werewolf,” a sidebar to the full-length novel, The Phantom Ship, by Frederick Marryat, in which a female werewolf graces the printed page for the first time. A love story that finds the lead character falling in love with, and marrying, a young woman who turns out to be a shapeshifter, this short story “established a pattern for werewolf stories for the remainder of the nineteenth century” (Frost 61). By the 1840s, the first full-length novel to focus upon a werewolf character was released in serialized form before being published as a book in 1857. Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf, by George W. M. Reynolds, is described by Frost as “a sprawling, Gothic melodrama … based on the Faust legend” (63) that is ultimately “interminably long and padded out with various subplots and other digressions” (64). Following the First World War, a large number of werewolf titles found their way onto the pages of pulp magazines. With the fantasy-focused Weird Tales leading the way as a major publisher of werewolf fiction, these stories were snapped up by a large audience that found the pulps more amenable to their pocketbooks than traditional hardbound novels. As happens with many genres, werewolf and fantasy tales rode a roller coaster of popularity beginning with World War II until the 1970s. From the seventies on, however, the lure of horror fiction and films caused a scramble by publishers and producers for material that would feed the public's seemingly insatiable appetite for fantasy material. The 1980s also initiated a trend toward increasingly graphic depictions of violence, language, and sexuality that has continued through the present in both written fantasy fiction and films. Experts in fantasy literature generally consider Guy Endore's The Werewolf of Paris (1933) the most influential werewolf novel ever published. Indeed, many view Endore's work as rivaling Bram Stoker's Dracula as the seminal work in its field. The Werewolf of Paris has rarely been out of print, but, while Frost touts it as “the only modem werewolf text of any literary quality” (145), it has also failed to meet the widespread recognition accorded Stoker's vampire tale. Frost also claims that most extant werewolf stories, regardless of length, fall short of the literary quality Endore penned. The printed werewolf tale appears to have experienced a checkered history as far as quality goes, with a large number of short stories and novels featuring the character falling short regarding both their narrative construction and standard of writing. The shapeshifter also proved an intriguing concept for the silver screen, and several films released during cinema's developing years find the word “werewolf’ in their titles. None of these productions resonated with filmgoers, however, as the lycanthrope in question was as likely as not to be a narrative red herring. Thus, it fell upon Universal Studios to popularize cinematic lycanthropy to the degree the company had already succeeded with Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Mummy. Universal's initial offering in the field is not the widely acclaimed chiller starring Lon Chaney, Jr., however, but rather the lesser known Werewolf of London released in 1935. Starring Henry Hull as Dr. Wilfred Glendon and Warner Oland as Dr. Yogami, Werewolf of London initiates the use of the plot device wherein the focal character becomes a werewolf when bitten by an existing one. As will take place continually in future werewolf films, the presence of the already existing werewolf is to be taken for granted by the audience instead of being established via a back story. Released during the 1940s, Universal's more popular werewolf films featuring Lon Chaney, Jr.'s turn as Larry Talbot, also find the focal lupine coming into existence as the result of a bite from another lycanthrope. In The Wolf Man the extant shapeshifter is the gypsy fortuneteller Bela (Bela Lugosi), who passes on his affliction when he bites Talbot, who has the bad grace to interrupt the hirsute gypsy's attack on a woman from the local village. The Wolf Man was such a popular monster that Lon Chaney, Jr. returned in four other releases. In each, Larry Talbot shakes off his apparent demise in the previous film to once again face his nocturnal problems. Are the Universal films, including Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and the horror/comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, indicative of the most-utilized narrative device in werewolf cinema, or are there other recognizable tropes recurring throughout these productions? On the other hand, is the use of an origin story ignored more often than it is used in werewolf films, with the existence of such creatures merely taken for granted and no explanation provided for their existence? Since it would appear that the use of a tale depicting a monster's origin might help establish the rules of the game for the narrative and provide richness to the plotline, it behooves us to take a look at how such background information is presented in werewolf cinema. In establishing the foundation for this survey, I have decided to focus upon what I consider “serious, mainline” werewolf productions. Thus, the list of films for review contains titles released by major studios in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, with a few inclusions from the so-called “Poverty Row” studios of the 1930s and ’40s. Additionally, I have decided to delete counting sequels for this study, since the focus here is upon original stories. For example, since the Universal sequels featuring the Wolf Man all hark back to Bela the Gypsy's attack on Larry Talbot in the 1941 release, they are not addressed individually. I have also arbitrarily decided to delete werewolf films from countries such as Spain, Mexico, and Italy. As Donald F. Glut notes in Classic Movies Monsters, these titles tend to either repeat the plotlines found in the Universal series or exhibit convoluted narratives requiring “… little in the way of actual dramatics but a maximum of grimacing, snarling, crouching, running, leaping and attacking…” (48). Astute horror fans will also note that the list does not include any direct-to-video or made-for-cable titles. Films such as the Teen Wolf series have also been excluded, as I consider these productions to be primarily comedies that fail the “serious” criterion. With these guidelines in place, we find nineteen films for study. Of the group, thirteen spin their story relying on an existing werewolf who usually bites the film's main character and turns him/her into a lycanthrope. In the films following this narrative device, the main character's travails resulting from the bite become fodder for the ensuing conflict(s) she/he is forced to face. Such titles as Werewolf of London, The Wolf Man, The Howling, Wolf, Ginger Snaps, and Cursed all exhibit variations of this plotline. The remaining six films present the focal werewolf s origin as a primary narrative focus, with the werewolfery generally resulting from either a curse or the machinations of another—usually a scientist who has strayed from the straight and narrow. What leads to a more specific analysis of a production's utilization of the origin story, however, is examining how each film's focal lycanthrope succumbs to being a shapeshifter. As noted above, only six of the films in question tell us how that production's major werewolf became so. The remaining thirteen films forego this explanatory material by assuming the existence of one or more werewolves who pass on their condition to the film's focal character. The question here thus becomes how one of the film's major character's lycanthrophobia comes to be, rather than whether or not we are told how werewolfery in general originates in the first place. Although this survey studies nineteen films, we discover only three general methods by which the focal character becomes a werewolf. In essence, these films tell us that a person may turn into a werewolf when bitten by an existing lupine, as the result of a family curse, or because another character somehow causes the protagonist to transform into a werewolf. In ten films spanning the seventy years from 1935 through 2005, the featured shapeshifter is bitten—usually during the plot's expository stage. These films follow the classic formula established in the Universal releases discussed above. Additionally, these narratives mirror the form alluded to previously in which the audience is asked to accept as a narrative precondition the premise that werewolves exist. If not, how could the lead player become infected? This “classic” plot element is present in films from multiple generations that include Werewolf of London, The Wolf Man, An American Werewolf in London, Wolf, An American Werewolf in Paris, the Canadian release, Ginger Snaps, and Wes Craven's contribution to the genre, Cursed. The latter two titles are particularly significant because, unlike the conventional template for such productions, the primary werewolf in each is a female. The bite is slightly less evident in Joe Dante's The Howling, until the scene midway through the film in which the werewolf colony's resident nymphomaniac has sex in the woods with the heroine's vegetarian boyfriend. As evidence of this film's unique sense of humor, the boyfriend wakes up in the morning with a newly found appetite for meat. Somewhat along the same line as infection by the bite are the transformations that take place in Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers (2002). Here, one focal werewolf (Special Operations Captain Ryan) is not merely bitten but clawed to within inches of death when the local family of lycanthropes attacks the special operations unit he is commanding during the group's search and seizure assignment in a remote area of Scotland. Also suffering this fate is Sergeant Wells (Sean Pertwee), when he leads the men of his unit through the forest to escape the wolf pack only to be graphically disemboweled by them. What stands out in Marshall's film is the lack of any origin story telling us how the werewolf family came into being. In something of a twist, we find the werewolves are immortal when transformed and hunt together as a pack during the full moon, focused only on the kill. However, as often encountered in other werewolf fictions, silver also plays a part in dispatching the family in Dog Soldiers. Private Cooper (Kevin McKidd), the surviving unit member, discovers during the film's climax that penetration by the metal removes the werewolves’ immortality. This find permits him to kill the remaining wolf with nothing more exotic than a standard bullet. Stephen Sommers’ Van Helsing (2004), the director's attempt to create a contemporary Universal “monster rally,” once again finds a major character, Velkan Valerious (Will Kemp), being bitten by an extant werewolf. In this multiple storyline potboiler that elevates scene chewing to new heights, the film's initial wolf man is unleashed upon the countryside by Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) for the vampire king's own nefarious purposes. Velkan eventually passes his condition onto the film's title hero (Hugh Jackman), biting the monster hunter during one of the director's typical special effects-dominated fight scenes. Doubling as the film's scriptwriter, Sommers’ contributions to werewolf lore include two original conceits. The first lies with the unwieldy suggestion that the werewolf is only hirsute when the rays of the full moon are unencumbered by clouds or other such atmospheric phenomena. Thus, several scenes depict Velkan and Van Helsing painfully alternating between being themselves or their werewolf incarnations, depending on whether the full moon is obscured at any particular moment. In addition to this revisionist folklore, we are also told that it takes a werewolf to defeat Count Dracula, a plot device that comes into play during the film's climax when the newly lycanthropic Van Helsing and the Count confront each other. Another four films (The Curse of the Werewolf Silver Bullet, The Undying Monster, and Cry of the Werewolf) find a main character the victim of a curse that results in the person becoming a werewolf during his or The Curse of the Werewolf in his as was by a for years by the who rules the According to the local is to the of his and the young man is to become a werewolf as he also into play in The Undying Monster, which is more of a tale featuring a werewolf is only during the film's Cry of the Werewolf finds a who werewolf curse from This film two from standard werewolf of the in that character into a wolf along with the that the werewolf is female. the werewolf in Silver from Stephen of the Werewolf) finds its lycanthrope in the form of the local who is by the film's female to be this all the the of affliction is by the that to new regarding werewolf the most appears to fall into the of the The remaining releases find their werewolves to the machinations of another character in the story. 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Brian J. Frost's that werewolf literature from a lack of and may also be to contemporary werewolf cinema. 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