Author: Angela Quinton

Angela Quinton is a writer, designer and web developer from Canada. She's also a colossal werewolf nerd who wrote her first werewolf story on her mom's typewriter at age 11. When not writing code or geeking out over werewolf stuff, Angela runs trails, spots trains, and throws rocks at the Pacific Ocean. She lives near Vancouver, Canada, with their lovely and tolerant wife, three feline malcontents and an increasingly terrible dachshund.

Indie slasher film “Bonehill Road” is out

When I posted about crowdsourced werewolf movie Bonehill Road last year, I had the usual mix of high hopes and low expectations. Now it’s out, and according to Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB reviews it’s… actually pretty good!

To be fair, most of the positive reviews are from people who were hoping for low-budget indie schlock featuring lots of gore and a guy in a werewolf suit, and most of the negative ones are from people who apparently don’t know that’s basically writer/director Todd Sheets’s whole thing.

My policy for movies that lean into the low-budget thing is to cut them some slack if they’re upfront about what they’re making, and everyone seems to be having fun. If you’re making a 90-minute tax write-off where everyone’s miserable, we can tell. But I’ve watched the official trailer below a few times, and yeah, it’s cheesy, and sure, there’s a guy (and maybe a gal?) in a bespoke werewolf suit, but that transformation shot, the synthy score and the slasher title splash at the end get me every time.

You can buy Bonehill Road on Amazon, in Walmarts and other physical goods retailers around America, and also directly from Todd himself, who says:

In addition to DVDs I have a few Blu-rays left and two or three VHS is left from the original Indiegogo. All items purchased from me are autographed by members of the cast and crew as well.

You can reach him through the Bonehill Road Facebook page.

Nov. 16th 2018

Be kind to the new girl – an untitled werewolf comic

This comic by Alex and Sidney  (Ollioxn and squidpicture on Twitter) is making its way around Tumblr. I absolutely love the gentle artwork and the unapologetic use of red. It has no title, but I would like to suggest “New Girl”, after the Long Winters song of the same title (and, given the impressionistic lyrics, potentially a similar theme).

https://foreign-shores.tumblr.com/post/179672745455/untitled-comic-written-and-sketched-by-alex

Nov. 15th 2018

After 9 years, World of Warcraft’s Worgen are getting a fresh new look

From Blizzard Watch, Wowhead, and a bunch of other sites that cover breaking video game news comes some worgen-related excitement today. Blizzard’s annual gaming convention BlizzCon kicked off today with a bunch of announcements, one of which promises a fresh new look for World of Warcraft’s werewolf-like player race. Says Blizzard Watch:

One of the most requested features in WoW is an update for the Cataclysm-era goblin and worgen models. At the BlizzCon What’s Next panel, Blizzard announced that both races would finally receive model updates in patch 8.2.5 — immediately invalidating about 80% of the questions for tomorrow’s Q&A panel.

Given that these are among the least popular races in the game and still among the newer ones, a model update was low on Blizzard’s priority list. But it was sorely needed, especially for Worgen, who never turned out quite right. Even back in Cataclysm, players were unhappy with how the Worgen looked.

I was pretty happy with how the Worgen looked when Cataclysm came out over nine years ago, but these updated models are even better. Have a look at these screengrabs from the BlizzCon stream, courtesy of Wowhead.

Note that these updated models won’t likely arrive until sometime in early 2019.

Pose details for the updated male Worgen model

Head details for the updated male Worgen model

Pose details for the updated female Worgen model

Head details for the updated female Worgen model

 

Nov. 2nd 2018

Rick Baker’s daughters Rebecca and Veronica become a new American Werewolf & her victim for Halloween

Every Halloween, monster maker / creature effects legend Rick Baker transforms his entire family with a themed range of makeup that he spends days preparing. In 2015 he and his two daughters became variations of the Joker, in 2016 he re-created the doctor, nurse, and patient from the Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder”, and last year he turned his daughters into characters from The Strain.

This year, with the help of his daughters, Baker revisited the work that won him the first Academy Award for Best Makeup in 1981 – a little film called “An American Werewolf in London”.

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Here’s his daughter Veronica as Jack (Jackie?) “Meatloaf” Goodman, who went to work today like all good and industrious werewolf murder victims do:

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And here’s his daughter Rebecca as David (Danielle?) Kessler. She stayed home from work today, but I hope she went to the mall (or Piccadilly Circus) so people can get a look at this incredible work:

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Now we know why Baker was revisiting some of his “American Werewolf” work last week!

Oct. 31st 2018

A deep dive into the Colony with “The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film”

“The Howling: Studies in the Horror Film” by Lee Gambin looks like a must-have book for anyone interested in the seminal 1981 werewolf movie.

Author and editor Lee Gambin has written the definitive story of the making of The Howling, complete with an insightful plot synopsis and complete critical analysis, behind the scenes information, and a slew of interviews with cast and crew. Rounding out the book are nearly 150 stills of the movie, ranging from individual frame enlargements to rare, never-before-published behind the scenes photographs.

Over 350 pages, this handsome sewn paperback offers everything you need to know about one of the 1980’s greatest horror films, and is a welcome addition of the Centipede Press Studies in the Horror Film series.

I’ve been squinting at the text visible in some of these spreads and I’ve already learned things I never knew about a film as old as I am.

Eddie Quist’s sketches depicting other residents of the Colony were actually done by Richard Hescox

More supplemental artwork by Richard Hescox

You can order this book today from Centipede Press.

Oct. 31st 2018

Former Dimension exec confirms that the original cut of Wes Craven’s “Cursed” exists & should be seen

Here’s an exclusive from Bloody Disgusting that’s got me ready to head to the Miramax offices in New York City and start searching in closets and storage rooms: Cary Granat, who was COO of Dimension (a label within Miramax) from 1995 to 2000, has confirmed that there’s an original cut of Wes Craven’s 2005 werewolf movie Cursed, and that it’s good enough that it should be released.

“Yes, yes, yes, 100%,” Granat told us when we asked about the Craven cut of Cursed in a phone interview promoting his new movie, Welcome to Mercy.

Since Cursed came after Granat’s tenure at Dimension, he’s not sure where to find the original cut, only that it’s got to be somewhere.

“It still exists,” Granat said. “I just don’t know if it went with The Weinstein Company. I left in 2000 to start Walden so it was in development after that.”

For context: Cursed was shot in 2003, with an R-rated script, Wes Craven’s direction, and werewolf effects by Rick Baker, but then spent two years in development hell as Dimension execs Bob and Harvey Weinstein (yeah, that Harvey Weinstein) proceeded to ruin it. Massive reshoots cut it down to a disjointed PG-13 mess that radically mangled the plot, omitted many actors, changed the ending twice, relied heavily on KNB for CG for werewolf effects (although I still like the werewolf design), and was ultimately disavowed by Craven.

There’s no telling what state this original cut is in, although it’s probably not complete – Wikipedia claims that only 90% of the original script was shot, leaving some gaps that wouldn’t be covered by the “three films worth” of footage they got during the film’s time in purgatory. I’d be glad to see it in any state, though, especially with some Rick Baker werewolf effects.

Oct. 30th 2018

SciShow’s “Werewolf Myths” video doesn’t disappoint

YouTube channel SciShow recently published a short video on the origin of werewolf myths. A number of people sent me the link – thank you! – and I only just had a chance to watch it.

It gets off to a bad start. Within the first 30 seconds, host Michael Aranda makes a Twilight reference, which would have been tedious a decade ago, and then asserts that werewolves aren’t real, which, okay, granted, but that doesn’t set a fun tone. Your writer and producer better have some good stuff planned to make the next four and a half minutes worth my time, you buzzkill.

They actually do! This is a show about science, not debunking myths or recounting history, so in short order they get into specifics about neurons and chromosomes in order to discuss three werewolf-adjacent maladies – rabies, congenital hypertrichosis, and delusional misidentification syndromes, of which clinical lycanthropy is an example. The science is quite up-to-date, providing some details I didn’t know about. If you’re interested in the how of things, definitely check this video out.

Oct. 30th 2018

Trash your house and ruin a babysitter’s life as a tiny werewolf in “Where’s Baby?”

Where’s Baby? is an award-winning asymmetrical multiplayer game. Each player assumes the role of a rowdy monster baby or a beleaguered babysitter, and respectively trashes the house while escaping capture or tries to fix all the broken furniture before slam-dunk the kid back in their crib.

One of four playable babysitters attempts to un-trash a bookshelf while a baby werewolf goes buckwild

From the developer’s web site:

Play as a baby critter, wrecking everything in the house and having a blast! Power ups along the way will help amplify your natural toddler abilities, including diaper bombs and a foot-powered pink plastic car (beep beep)! OR play as the baby sitter, and try to keep things together until the parents get home and the round ends! If you are lucky, you’ll be able to find a blanket, put that little guy to bed, and have a little peace!

It’s a Steam Early Access game that you can download for Mac or Windows for less than the cost of a bad cup of coffee. Currently included:

  • Single Player AI Verses!
  • Local Split Screen Multiplayer!
  • Beta-ish Online Multiplayer (via Steam Chat’s Join Me Function)!
  • 4 Power Ups for Both Sitter and Critter!
  • 4 Sitters!
  • 2 Critters!
  • 2 Levels!
  • And a whole lotta love!

All vampires are terrible and this baby is no exception.

One of the two critters is a baby werewolf who seems just as adorable as they are destructive, and the other is a baby vampire who – well, I’m not going to write profanity about a cartoon infant, but you know how I feel about vampires.

Here’s the announcement trailer, which shows some gameplay:

You can check out the game on Steam and follow its development on Twitter at @WellBredRhino.

Oct. 25th 2018

Rick Baker shows off “American Werewolf” head sculpts & behinds the scenes info

Monster maker extraordinaire Rick Baker has been posting videos of his award-winning “An American Werewolf in London” werewolf sculpts on Instagram. The first is a looped zoom on fully-transformed David Kessler’s face, showing off the muzzle and right eye. This head was used on-screen, and after almost 40 years the “foam latex has turned to graham cracker”, but it still looks amazing.

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The second is a longer video in which Rick explains why “Change-o Head #2”, used during David’s first transformation scene, was intentionally sculpted with an asymmetrical face. This is a more recent cast from the original mold. Just think about that – this guy has the ability and desire to just make a new one of these whenever he wants.

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It’s so cool to see the skill and forethought that makes Rick a legend today was already in effect when Jimmy Carter was president.

Oct. 24th 2018

The Wolf Clan of Erin: A Saga of Ireland’s Legendary Tribe of Werewolves

Last month I shared journalist J.D. Thompson’s short film Hunting the Hound of Cold Hollow. Now the novel based in part on the research he did for that documentary is available for pre-order at a nice discount in advance of its October 31st release.

The Wolf Clan of Erin: A Saga of Ireland’s Legendary Tribe of Werewolves

In days when heathen gods were honoured and the old ways were still held in the hearts and minds of the native folk. In a time when fairies, wights and even werewolves were not just the things of fantasy.

Follow Maewyn as he discovers the truth about an ancient tribe said to be shapeshifting “Wolf
Men”. With his faith in the One True god to guide him he embarks on a journey to crush whatever evil he may find, but with his mysterious companion Elcmar by his side he may discover more than he had ever imagined.

Full disclosure: I’ve been sent a copy of this book, which I have not yet read. I enjoyed the documentary, and I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of story Thompson can weave out of his research.

Oct. 24th 2018