Werewolves movies are a more difficult monster to portray on screen than hungry vampires or the walking zombie. Other legendary animals do not require the audience to feel compassion for the injured. Turning into a werewolf is a curse that transforms into a war between the human and the monster within.
The story of the film becomes irrelevant if the werewolf does not appear to be right. Placing the werewolf in a unique plot, on the other hand, has its own set of difficulties. Here are seven most essential werewolves films of all time.
1. An American Werewolf In London (1981)
Director- John Landis
David and Jack, two American friends, are on a walking holiday in Northern England when they are attacked by a werewolf. David survives but is severely damaged, while Jack is ripped to shreds. He wakes up a week later in a London hospital, distraught about the death of his pals. He starts having dreams and visions of running around in the woods. David develops a strong bond with one of the nurses, Alex, and when he is discharged, he moves in with her in her London flat. David starts to receive visits from his deceased friend Jack, who tells him that he will turn into a werewolf at the next full moon and must commit suicide. He dismisses all of Jack’s warnings, believing he’s insane. He morphs into a homicidal rampage through London when the moon is full, as predicted.
2. The Curse Of The Werewolf (1961)
Director- Terence Fisher
A beggar comes to a cruel marquee’s castle in Spain on his wedding day to beg for food, and the marquee puts him in his dungeon, where he is forgotten, in the eighteenth century. Over the years, the jailer’s mute daughter feeds him. When she grows up, the widower marquee tries unsuccessfully to shag her and incarcerates the servant with the beggar who rapes her in the dungeons. She kills the marquee and flees to the forest after being released. Don Alfredo discovers her living in the woods like an animal and brings her home. Teresa, his servant, soon discovers she is expecting a child. She dies shortly after giving birth to a son on Christmas Day, and Don Alfredo and Teresa raise Leon. After learning of the boy’s curse a few years later, the local priest urges them to raise him with love.
3. The Company Of Wolves (1984)
Director- Neil Jordan
Rosaleen is a modern-day adolescent living with her family in a country manor in England, and she is having a nightmare about wolves and werewolves in the Middle Ages. Her boring sister is dead in her dream, and she lives with her father and mother but spends a lot of time with her wonderful grandmother. Granny tells her many werewolf legends and advises her to “never stray from the forests’ path, never eat a windfall apple, and never trust a guy whose eyebrows meet.” Rosaleen encounters a lovely man on her way to see her grandmother one day and bets who will arrive first at her grandma’s place. She soon discovers who he is.
4. The Howling (1981)
Director- Joe Dante
Karen White, a reporter in a red light district, gets bugged by cops who are pursuing serial killer Eddie Quist, who has been assaulting her over the phone. Karen becomes emotionally upset and loses her memory after police officers discover them in a peep-show cabin and shoot Eddie. She travels to the Colony, a remote hideaway where the eerie residents are all too ready to make her feel at home, in the hopes of conquering her inner demons. Eddie Quist too appears to have a strange link to this ostensibly safe refuge. Karen travels into the forest after nights of being plagued by eerie cries and uncovers a horrifying discovery.
5. Wolf (1994)
Director- Nathalie Biancheri
Will Randall, a suave middle-aged editor-in-chief, is bitten by a clever black wolf in an empty stretch of road in snow-capped Vermont under a full moon. Will gradually realises that his once-tired body has become the host of a new set of talents and abilities, as his heightened sensory perception marks the beginning of an inexplicable and nearly beastly change, as the mysterious but deadly illness spreads. No one, not even Will’s much younger backstabbing protégé, Stewart, or the publishing firm’s new wealthy owner, Raymond Alden, can equal the fresh and lupine Will in the cutthroat publishing world.
6. Ginger Snaps (2000)
Director- John Fawcett
Ginger is 16, edgy, tough, and likes staging and documenting death scenarios with her younger sister. They’ve made an agreement to die together. A werewolf bites Ginger in early October, on the night of her first period, which also happens to be a full moon night. Her body and disposition undergo significant changes within a few days. Brigitte, her 15-year-old sister, enlists the support of Sam, a local doper, in her quest for a cure. As Brigitte races against the clock as Halloween and another full moon approach, Ginger becomes more terrifying, and neighbourhood dogs aren’t the only ones who perish.
7. Werewolves Within (2021)
Director- Josh Ruben
Finn Wheeler, a thoughtful US Forest Ranger, walks into the snow-covered town of Beaverfield not knowing what to expect. He has no idea that the proposed installation of a gas pipeline has thrown the little settlement into disarray and divided its inhabitants. Indeed, as a severe blizzard seals the dysfunctional residents, as well as the joyful new mail carrier Cecily Moore, in the local lodge, seething animosity ratchets up the frenzy, and the term lycanthrope begins to show up. Now it’s up to Finn to keep everyone from killing one other, as someone, or better yet, something, is tracking them down one by one.
