With autumn setting in and Halloween creeping closer, there’s nothing like an evening at home with snacks, drinks, good movies, and good company! Themed movie nights are the perfect way to celebrate Halloween’s swift and spooky approach.
Werewolves, also known as lycanthropes, have been on the back burner in horror movies for the last while, but they’re clawing their way back to the big screen with movies like The Wolfman and the Twilight and Underworld series. Still, they’re one of the horror movie monsters that has been least successfully portrayed on screen – here are some quality movies to watch if you’re going to throw a werewolf themed Halloween movie night.
The Wolfman (2010)
If you haven’t already watched the 1941 Lon Chaney Jr. original, you should definitely start there. And after you’ve seen where it all began, sit down with the 2010 remake, starring Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, and Sir Anthony Hopkins. The premise is essentially the same – Lawrence Talbot (Del Toro) returns to his ancestral hometown upon hearing of his brother’s death. When he arrives, he is attacked and bitten by a strange creature, and from that moment on, he starts to undergo some serious changes.
The Wolfman is a very well made remake. It stays sufficiently true to the original story, but makes it much darker. The special effects, though sometimes over the top, are overall enjoyable and this version of the film is much more action packed.
Dog Soldiers (2002)
Dog Soldiers is a werewolf movie that never made it big, but really should have. Written and directed by Neil Marshall (The Descent, Centurion), it follows a troop of British soldiers who are sent to the Scottish Highlands for training. They wrongly ignore the rumours they’ve heard about the area, and soon they find themselves being hunted down and attacked by werewolves.
Starring Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting, Grey’s Anatomy) as Private Cooper and Emma Cleasby as Megan, the zoologist the soldiers encounter in the Highlands, Dog Soldiers is the perfect combination of horror and b-horror. The special effects are somewhat tacky, but somehow they work brilliantly within the film, along with the terrible werewolf puns that arise every once in a while. This one’s not to be missed.
Ginger Snaps (2000) and Ginger Snaps 2 (2004)
These Canadian werewolf movies have become cult hits for all fans of lycanthropy. Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and her sister Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) are not your run-of-the-mill teenage girls. They like things dark and mysterious. They like to take photographs of their own staged death scenes. They’ve even made a pact to die together one day. But things become even darker for them when Ginger gets attacked and bitten by a werewolf on the day of her first period.
Playing with lycanthropy as a sort of metaphor for puberty, Ginger Snaps is an incredibly well made, low budget film with excellent acting and a unique storyline. It’s well worth a watch – it’ll change your opinions on werewolves, and it will also leave you valuing cinema that doesn’t rely on CGI for all of its special effects.
Have a howling good time with these films!
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Andrea Beca - Andrea has a BA (distinction) in English and Creative Writing from the University of Alberta, and an MLitt (distinction) in Dramaturgy and ...
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