Time to get in the mood for Halloween! While werewolves predate Greek mythology, the story of Lycaon is still one of the earliest examples of a man shapeshifting into an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature. If you recall, Lycaon was transformed into a wolf after eating human flesh. Skip ahead to our times and shapeshifters abound on big and small screens everywhere. Here are seven you need to know.
1. Wilfred Glendon
Werewolf of London, released in 1935, is one of the first werewolf movies and one of the first depiction of werewolves as we know them now: bipedal monsters who are affected by the moon. While in Tibet searching for a mysterious plant, Wilfred Glendon (Henry Hull), a botanist, is attacked by a werewolf. All the basic werewolf mythology is there. Glendon turns into a wolf under the full moon and becomes a vicious killer. However, in this version, lycanthropy can be temporary cured by the same plant he happened to gather in Tibet. Convenient, eh? The wolf designs are basic and don’t do much to obscure the human features, but makeup artist Jack Pierce’s look became the foundation for all subsequent werewolf depictions on the big and smalls screen.
2. Larry Talbot
Six years later, Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.) is bitten by a werewolf (Bela Lugosi) while killing it with a silver walking stick in The Wolf Man. It was the first time that silver was used as a weapon against werewolves. The wolf makeup, also done by Jack Pierce, evolved a bit, creating a less human, hairier monster. Although Talbot dies in the original, the wolf man appears in a few other films, including Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, where Talbot is desperate to find and kill Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula. And in the land of denial, the 2010 remake doesn’t exist.
3. David Kessler
An American Werewolf in London features David Kessler and his friend Jack, American tourists in England. After they’re attacked, Jack dies and David is turned into a werewolf. That doesn’t stop Jack from coming to David, begging him to off himself in order to stop him from killing people. David ignores the warnings, transforms, murders a bunch of people and then is shot down. Not bad for a John Landis helmed horror comedy. Unlike the Wolf Man before him, Kessler’s transformation looks more wolf than man.
Hairy fact: Rick Baker’s special effect makeup designs were the first to ever win the Academy Award for Best Makeup.
4. Scott Howard
From the frightening to the ridiculous… Teen Wolf’s Scott Howard (Michael J. Fox?) uses his genetically-inherited lycanthropy to pick up chicks and win basketball games. Is it a metaphor for puberty? A lesson about accepting who you are no matter what? A way to capitalize on the success of the Back to the Future star? The werewolf design is really just a hairy Michael J. Fox in basketball shorts. Scott Howard made way for other cheesy werewolf underdog stories like in the Canadian TV series, Big Wolf on Campus.
5. Daniel “Oz” Osbourne
In a town filled with vampires, demons and praying mantis creatures, the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was no stranger to mythical creatures with bad special effects makeup. But at least the second season addition, Oz (Seth Green) was free from much of the angst that has plagued movie werewolves. His blasé attitude toward his curse and anything else that came his way was Oz’s key character trait. Unlike many other teenage werewolf depictions, Oz was cool (he played in a band) and got the girl without ever having to take his shirt off. Todd McIntosh’s werewolf design changed from season to season, going from full wolf to a man-faced hybrid.
Hairy fact: The part of the werewolf was never actually played by Green, but rather a rotation of stunt men.
6. Remus Lupin
What werewolf list would be complete without including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’s Remus Lupin, the poor, weary Defense against the Dark Arts teacher? In the Harry Potter universe, werewolves are common knowledge but there is a stigma to the curse. The supernatural elitism makes it difficult for Lupin to find work, even getting him fired from his teaching post. The Wolfsbane Potion helps prohibit some of the full moon side effects, much like the plant in Werewolf of London. The film’s depiction of the werewolf is CGI.
7. Bigby Wolf
In the comic book Fables, fairy tale characters come to New York City to live in their own society. Their sheriff is Bigby Wolf, formerly The Big Bad Wolf. Opposed to the normal werewolf mythology, Bigby is a wolf who’s transformed into a human, using a lycanthropy-stained knife. He doesn’t need a full moon to transform. In wolf form, he’s bigger and stronger than any opponent, although silver is a weakness. Bigby’s hair grows so often that he is forced to shave multiple times a day. His supernatural senses are so intense that he must chain smoke in order to down them out.
Oh yeah, and he’s in love with Snow White.
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What about Sargeant Angua Von Uberwald?
Tim
posted by Tim on 10-25-2010 at 9:43 am
Don’t forget my cousin, Quintin Collins.
posted by Barnabas on 10-25-2010 at 10:15 am
Hey, you totally missed Alcide Herveaux in HBO’s True Blood.
posted by Carole on 10-25-2010 at 10:17 am
@Carole.. Ditto! I love Alcide!
P.S. Just a teeny-tiny correction.. Remus Lupin was never fired from his teaching post (Dumbledore would NEVER have fired him!), he resigned due to all the angry letters from parents who didn’t want a werewolf teaching their kids. Maybe this wasn’t made very clear in the movie, but I admit, I am a book snob :)
posted by Laura on 10-25-2010 at 10:53 am
Ginger Fitzgerald?
posted by Dr. Jones on 10-25-2010 at 11:07 am
Yes, some love for Bigby and for Fables! Absolutely fantastic series with complicated characters living in a fantastic, engrossing universe. It’s a bit too thematically mature for kids, but it’s a great series for older teens and all adults. You can get them issue by issue, though for new readers it’s easier to pick them up in trade paperback format (lots of issues bound into a single book; as of this article’s original publication, there are 13 volumes in the series so far). The trade paperbacks run about $15-20 apiece in your local store, and you can probably find them cheaper online. Bill Willingham and his creative team have made something truly worth the time of all readers, those already reading graphic novels as well as those who’ve never set foot in a comic book store.
posted by Eve on 10-25-2010 at 11:11 am
Ok, someone has to say it — Jacob Black?
posted by jenny on 10-25-2010 at 11:13 am
@Tim – that was my first thought too! Of course I’m a huge Discworld junkie. :)
Also, no mention of the Underworld werewolves? I thought the effects for their Change was quite good.
posted by Jina on 10-25-2010 at 11:39 am
I’m sorry. You have to include “Wolf” with Jack Nicholson as Will Randall. I mean, it’s Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer for god’s sake!
posted by Richard on 10-25-2010 at 12:17 pm
I live by three rules…never get less then 12 hours sleep, never play cards with a guy who has the same first name as a city and never marry a lady with a tattoo of a dagger on her body…you stick to that and everything else is cream cheese. Great game today Scotty.
~Coach Bobby Finstock(Teen Wolf)
posted by CJ on 10-25-2010 at 12:47 pm
Yeah we should have seen Jacob Black and Jack Nicholson on here too.
posted by xanderjones on 10-25-2010 at 1:26 pm
don’t forget about George from Being Human. he’s so wonderfully neurotic.
posted by joanne on 10-25-2010 at 1:41 pm
I am partial to Leon Corledo … though I am partial to Hammer Films in general.
posted by Dinosaur on 10-25-2010 at 1:51 pm
I saw this list and realized Jacob Black would inevitably be on here and braced myself for it. I was pretty happy that the whole shirtless “heartthrob” was skipped. Honestly, anything that focuses more on a fifteen-year-old’s lust (and that of some creepy moms) cannot really be expected to be “legendary.”
posted by Lindsay on 10-25-2010 at 3:49 pm
“I’m sorry. You have to include “Wolf” with Jack Nicholson as Will Randall. I mean, it’s Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer for god’s sake!”
That movie was almost as terrible as the recent Wolfman remake.
posted by Dr. Jones on 10-25-2010 at 3:53 pm
No Tommy from Big Wolf On Campus? :(
posted by GH on 10-25-2010 at 8:11 pm
Technically jacob black is not a werewolf, his ancestors were shape shifters who happened to pick wolves.
posted by Jessi on 10-25-2010 at 9:37 pm
“I saw a warewolf drinking a pina colada in Trader Vick’s his hair was perfect”
posted by Kelly on 10-25-2010 at 10:31 pm
Surprised no one has mentioned Michael Landon. =)
posted by lisaj6112 on 10-25-2010 at 10:59 pm
I’m a teacher so I decided to read Harry Potter & the Scorcerer’s Stone to see what all the hoop-lah is about. After reading all three of her Harry Potter novels, it’s easy to see how Rowling’s fascinating books made it to the New York Times Bestseller List and why they are the favorite of children AND adults everywhere! Rowling has done a cosmic job creating Harry, as well as the various other young wizards and witches of the Hogwarts School. The reader can almost feel the sensation as Harry and Ron vanish through the wall to get to platform nine and three-quarters, feel the tickle as a young wizard accidentally walks through Nearly-Headless Nick (one of the many ghosts that resides in Hogwarts), feel the thrill as Harry leads his team to victory in Quidditch, or feel the numbing cold as you-know-who makes an appearance or the dementors come walking by. Peaked your curiousity? I would recommend this book to any parent and child looking for a fun, intellectually-stimulating, imaginative book to read!
posted by Piotr Krzyzek on 11-9-2010 at 2:40 am