Werewolf links, news, and reviews
If you think a fog machine and a CD of scary sounds is a big Halloween production, you need to meet Michael Shears and his neighbours Billy, Doug and Clay. Not only are they putting together a Halloween Spookfest for their neighbourhood in Stratford, Ontario, they’re building the costumes, props and special effects themselves. One of the costume creatures at this event is the Warwulf, a werewolf built on a shoestring budget using household items, ingenuity and a lot of heart. (more…)
The Spoof has an amusing article about the latest issue to rock Europe’s financial markets: England’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, is a werewolf. “Whilst being a werewolf does not lend itself naturally to managing the country’s economy,” The Spoof reports, “it has proven a good move in terms of security on Downing Street.”
The Young Werewolves are a band who blend the styles of rockabilly, psychobilly, surf, punk, garage and pop music into an infectious mix. They’re releasing their second recording, entitled Cheat The Devil, with cult film star Sid Haig as executive producer.
The actor, legendary for playing the hulking menace in many low-budget exploitation and high-priced action films, stands in as the title character on the CD’s artwork and transforms sonically into the role of ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ halfway through the program of music. Sid has enjoyed a recent resurgence portraying the character ‘Captain Spaulding’ in Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects.
Producer Andy Kravitz, who was also behind the board on the trio’s debut recording, crafted a listening experience that ranges from the depths of a mad scientist’s laboratory to the far reaches of outer space.
Cheat The Devil follows the Philadelphia-based trio’s self-titled debut released in 2004. Check them out at www.theyoungwerewolves.com and myspace.com/youngwerewolves.
It’s October! Time for Halloween, tick-or-treating, lurking werewolves and skeletal trees with the full moon looming overhead. As you can see, artist Steel knows a thing or two about what October’s all about, and she’s combined them in this week’s featured piece of Werewolf Art, “Trick or Treat“. This image has a playful, storybook-picture feel that belies the ominous situation it illustrates. If this werewolf shows up at your door this Halloween, I recommend you give him something good, and save your raisins and apples for someone who won’t eat your face.
You can check out more of Steel’s art at her DeviantART page.
Episode 4.03 of The CW’s Supernatural, entitled “Monster Movie”, features a number of “classic” movie monsters, including a werewolf. Here’s the rundown, courtesy of the episode’s web page:
Dean and Sam investigate several murders at Oktoberfest. The first victim was found with bite marks on her neck, much like a vampire would leave, while the second victim has wounds that look like a werewolf attack.
And here’s a teaser!
Leave it to Fox to option a TV show with a title like Bitches. Us snobby werewolf fans ought not to roll our eyes, though! As reported by Fangoria, writer and director Michael Dougherty is bringing a series about werewolves to the small screen in 2009. The show’s called Bitches, and it’s about four female werewolves living in New York. Says Dougherty:
It’s Sex & The City with werewolves! They seduce people, then they eat them! The series will answer the questions: how do they feed, where do they work… It’s very funny.
Not much else is known about the series at this time, but you can keep an eye on Dougherty’s site for updates… and you know anything juicy will get posted here at Werewolf News too!
I, for one, feel that vampires have always garnered way too much attention in the world of video games, and werewolves have subsequently been given the short end of the joystick. Alex and Mark of Diehard GameFAN agree with me, and have posted an article where they ask: Where Are All the Werewolves? They discuss six games that give lycanthropes their due, ranging from Altered Beast to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Can anyone out there think of any other games where you play a werewolf?
Thanks to ArcLight for the link.
Ryan Rotten at ShockTillYouDrop.com has posted some photos he took of promotional banners for The Wolfman. The banners are up at Universal Studios Hollywood, and you can see them as part of the Terror Tram tour I mentioned a few days back. The banners are fairly teaser-ish, and the photos are blown out by the flash, but you can certainly see that some care has gone into promoting this film. I’m looking forward to seeing what sort of marketing campaign Universal puts together for The Wolfman as the release date (April 3rd 2009) draws closer.
This week, a generous chunk of Ron Martin column A Fool’s Utopia is dedicated to werewolves he has known and loved. He feels that werewolves don’t get the exposure they deserve, particularly during the Halloween season:
While never completely ignored, I’ve always felt that the werewolf was a little underappreciated during the Halloween festivities. That’s what I’m here for. Are you ready? Let’s take a look at some werewolves who have invaded out pop culture in the last oh, 70 years or so.
Most werewolf fans won’t learn anything new, but it’s still certainly worth a read, especially for the editorial comments (yes, Ron, Oz was a lame-looking werewolf). I also need to give Ron some serious kudos for covering two of my favourite 1980s werewolf phenomena: Fruit Brute cereal and the Teen Wolf cartoon. Saturday mornings at their best!
