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About.com has got a breakdown of the 25 best werewolf horror movies (in the author’s opinon, of course), including what submitter ArcLight quite rightly describes as “a few surprises”. I consider myself well-versed in werewolf films, but there were a few titles in there that I’d never heard of! Check it out. What’s your favourite werewolf movie?
Ugh. Silver Bullet #2? Bad Moon in the top five? Those are better than The Company of Wolves? I like to think my favorite werewolf movie hasn’t been made yet. Maybe the Wolf Man remake will clinch the spot. But it’s certainly not Dog Soldiers.
zockereinstein
I agree with the movies, but the order is simply ridiculous… the two best werewolf movies are The Howling and AAWIL, and if you look at the post on every werewolf-related forum, the tastes of everyone goes between that two (well, and sometimes ginger snaps or dog soldiers).
Mmm I wonder if somebody has ever redacted a list about short werewolf movies… I recognize that some of them has impressed me for having better effects and TF’s that these other “higher-budget” movies. In most cases, a slap on the face of some hollywood studios ;-) that have spent thousands of dollars in horrible ape-like costumes or terribly bad CGI…
Overall, I like that list a lot, though the actual numerical placement of a few titles has me scratching my head. I’m glad to see Naschy represented (since so often he gets left out of these “best” lists), and I agree that BAD MOON is much underrated. Also, it’s nice to WILD COUNTRY earn some kudos, and BLOOD MOON is sadly still relegated to the bargain bins. Still, I wouldn’t have ranked SILVER BULLET so highly.
Roukwolf
I agree that the movie rankings here are a bit off. Underworld above AWIL? Anyone older than fourteen will understand my surprise.
Regardless, this list got me thinking of why some of these lesser known werewolf movies captured my heart (or at least part of it) and ignited my sense of terror. Most of Bad Moon was pretty average, but do you remember the part where Ted jokes with his overly curious sister when she discovers his lycanthropic secret and he slowly becomes animal? The transformative sound effects (better than AWIL’s, in my opinion) and the subtle change of Ted’s appearance and voice were amazing; it was a scene I had to rewind and watch several times, my terror and fascination growing exponentially with each viewing.
Additionally, I remember thinking that Jack Nicholson (due to his awesome feral frolics in “Wolf”) was practically made by God to play a werewolf, and that Romasanta in “Werewolf Hunter” was a surprisingly tragic and touching werewolf. Finally, although “Silver Bullet” was more campy than anything else, it does come close to redeeming itself when the lycanthropic Rev. Lowe discovers a suspicious cop snooping around his shed. As Lowe begins to change, he softly reminisces on how he became a werewolf (freaking out the cop, obviously) and then roars out a soul-rending “It wasn’t…my…FAULT!” as he really begins to go wolfy.
So yes, lots of these movies have a brief moment or two where they redeem themselves or come close to something like sublimity (remember the tragically adorable female werewolf at the end of “The Howling,” and how she wept?) But in general, I would definitely like to rearrange the ranking here, and probably axe some of these movies as well.
