Werewolves

Howl

Werewolves Within

When it comes to horror icons, the werewolf is undoubtedly one of the OGs. But in the movies, werewolves have often taken a backseat to vampires, who are afforded all of the glory and intrigue. Werewolves are typically depicted as vicious, hairy, gargantuan beasts with only a few human distinctions, which make these creatures difficult to sexualize or sympathize with—the apparent goal of stories where man and beast are intertwined. Vampires and even zombies require less makeup and effects, so ultimately a smaller budget, and even though stories of shapeshifters and skin-walkers exist in numerous cultures, werewolves are harder to capture on screen. Despite all the odds being against them, and despite having some of the worst cover art of any horror sub-genre, there have been some incredible werewolf movies throughout film history. The Wolfman, the film that essentially birthed the Western canon of werewolf narratives, is featured in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and exists alongside Universal’s other iconic monsters that sparked the horror film industry. An American Werewolf in London is chilling, not only due to its history-making, award-winning makeup and visual effects, but because of its creatively horrifying story as well. Wolf, Mike Nichols’ 1994 thriller starring Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer, was a favorite of mine as a child, along with Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman. Wes Craven’s Cursed was a recent watch of mine—a wolfman whodunit (a typical werewolf set up) as told through a hopelessly early 2000s script with a randomly great cast. And who could forget the 2011 classic, with an appalling 10% on Rotten Tomatoes, Red Riding Hood. A sexy, twisted take on the nursery rhyme, featuring one of Hollywood’s brightest young actresses, and two men who are markedly hotter than the men from Twilight whom they were trying to emulate? Can you blame this film for thinking it would succeed? If you’re like me, you just want a werewolf movie to be scary. But if scary isn’t the goal, then there’d better be something equally as interesting going on. Josh Ruben’s Werewolves Within was an adaptation of the game by the same name, wherein a small town is plagued by a murderous wolf. Mishna Wolff’s script was unassuming, imaginative, and hilarious—qualities that I’ve come to expect from a Josh Ruben production. His first film, Scare Me, which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in, was an oddly self aware, genre-bending horror-comedy that really took me by pleasant surprise. Werewolves Within embodied the same sincere insincerity, with its dramatic editing, combined with its playful tone and cast of unabashed weirdos. Sam Richardson was the perfect hero for this story: uninformed but dedicated, terrified but persistent, he keeps the energy of this movie up consistently. Lily the AT&T girl, aka Milana Vayntrub, was delightful, and Michaela Watkins was operating on a comedic frequency throughout this movie that just made me laugh harder than anyone else could. Cheyenne Jackson, Harvey Guillén, Catherine Curtis, Michael Chernus, George Basil, and Sarah Burns were the most deranged but charming ensemble cast—and certainly belong among the ranks of such whodunnit casts as Clue. Werewolves Within was fun but also unpredictable, going far beyond what was expected or even required of a goofy, spooky movie—and for this reason, I loved it. Very intentionally spooky but quite unintentionally goofy, the 2015 British film Howl told quite a different tale of werewolves, one where the mystery is secondary, and survival is the main objective. Howl follows Joe, a train employee who’s had a terrible day, as he heads into his night shift. Aboard the train are a myriad of annoying and over the top passengers, almost none of whom you feel bad for when the train comes to a stop in the woods, right in the middle of werewolf country. Said werewolves were completely and utterly terrifying, which was especially gratifying for a monster that can often be scarier in its conception than it is in execution. The effort in this film was not placed into its dialogue or character-building, but into its designing of these creatures, who were, rightfully, really, really fucking scary. There were just a couple of weird things about this movie, that made it hard to believe—and I’m not referring to the werewolves. The main character is a ridiculously chiseled, conventionally attractive, definitively beautiful man, and not only do we see him get rejected by his crush, he is shit on by the entire train of passengers for most of the movie. Maybe I’m just not one to take my frustrations out on public transit or service workers, but if they were this hot? I would simply flirt with him and not pretend like he’s ugly, the way these characters were doing. Even though it made me laugh out loud multiple times, never times where they intended me to, Howl was a gem: a suspenseful, thrilling, thoroughly scary werewolf flick—which can be hard to come by.