"The way you walked was thorny, through no fault of your own..."-Maleva

"Whoever is bitten by a werewolf and lives becomes a werewolf himself." Somewhere in the dark part of my being, where evil is kept, and nurtured, I envy Larry Talbot. The werewolf has always been my favorite type of movie "monster". Lon Chaney Jr., who starred in the original is still the best wolf man character in my mind. Even when I first saw the movie way back when, I knew it was supposed to be scary. It never was to me. It has it's moments of terror, but that's a different emotion to me than scary. The foggy outdoor scenes in the countryside at night are a little frightening and in my childhood they made me a bit more than jittery, but to tell the truth, The Wolf Man always made me sad. Also, like I said, a little bit jealous.



Jealous? You may ask. Well, yeah a little bit. Maybe it's the man bored of normal everyday life that seeks escapism. Maybe it's the dark part of me that frightens me, even if just a little bit. Is the power that turns a man into a blood thirsty monster magic, or is it a curse? Lycanthropy, like the stories of the zombies I spoke about earlier, is deeply buried in ancient folklore. German folklore speaks of shape shifters. It is also mentioned in ancient Greek writings, though not always in wolf form, the stories all involve someone turning into a hybrid of man (meaning mankind, women are not immune) and an animal form. When we first meet Larry Talbot he is a nice man returning home to reconcile with his father. While trying to save a woman from a wolf attack, he is bitten. Later, he finds out that the wolf wasn't a regular wolf but a werewolf. The old gypsy woman Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya) reveals to Talbot that the curse has been passed on to him and he will soon become the beast.

I guess the appeal of the "Wolf Man" for me lies in the humanity beneath the horror. Larry Talbot was tormented with the knowledge that he became a savage beast with a lust to kill; he is the quintessential reluctant monster. Only death could set him free. Until it was time to make another movie, that is. The "reluctant" monster is depicted in several different versions. Frankenstein's monster is another example as well as the Bride of Frankenstein. I didn't have a kinship with the Frankenstein monsters (although I do feel sorry for them) I guess it is the fact of being a monster only half of the time. Years ago there was a show on TV called Love and Curses (in England, where it was first made, it was called She Wolf of London) in it a mythology professor meets a female student who survived a werewolf attacked on the Moors. While searching for a cure, the professor becomes the girls keeper during the full moon phases. He keeps her safely locked up in the basement when the full moon nears. Somehow, she is able to carry on a near "normal" life.

After hitting the billboard charts in 1979 with the title song from the sitcom Makin' It, David Naughton starred in An American Werewolf in London. Quite possible my second favorite portrayal of the werewolf legend. Unlike the werewolf films The Howling and Wolfen that also came out in 1981, AAWL portrayed the character as a reluctant monster. Unlike the other two where the werewolf characters not only willingly seek victims but seek to make their type of being a master race.

Those type of werewolf movies, although some done quite well, Dog Soldiers being a recent one that quickly comes to mind, are not my favorite types. I guess it's the cursed, unwilling creatures I have a soft place in my fur for. They don't want to kill, but they cannot control the beastly urges. Wolfen was the influence Metallica used to write the song "Of Wolf and Man". The werewolf legend is everywhere, although not easily seen. Little Red Riding Hood is terrorized by a large talking wolf, some interpretation could lead to it being a werewolf. In the Harry Potter series (1997-2007), the werewolf Remus Lupin is one of the most sympathetic and popular of all characters, in both the book and film versions. However, the series also includes a werewolf villain Fenrir Greyback, who fits more with the older image of werewolves. The Potter books essentially use werewolves as a metaphor for marginalised and discriminated against groups in modern society.

Today the werewolf is both feared and romanticized. Depending on who is telling the tale and what the point of their story is. So is it a curse or is it a blessing? Be they hero or villain? Are they beasts with a touch of humanity or human with a little beast added for flavor? In the movie Monster Squad one of the main child characters is told to kick the wolf man in the "nards". "The Wolf Man has Nards?" he asks. I could have told him that they most certainly do.