Riffing off of my last post: a request

[trinityvixen]

moonlightalice and I had an interesting, if depressing conversation following our viewing of The Wolfman about werewolves in movies. She, like me, prefers the psychology and pathos of the werewolf/wolfman story to that of the vampire narrative. There is something so much more relatable in the story of the werewolf/wolfman. For one thing, the werewolf is, quite aside from a few days in the year, human. Increasingly, the werewolf's unnatural strength and superhuman senses carry over to the human side, but for the most part, a werewolf is a human with a problem. Versus a vampire who is another creature entirely and is no longer human at all. It is easier to relate to someone who suffers a curse beyond his/her control than it is to relate to an undead creature that stays beautiful and powerful forever.

And yet the vampire story is the more successful one, especially in film. We wracked our brains trying to think of one well-done, well-told, interesting werewolf/wolfman movie. Wolf happens to be a favorite of mine, with the idea that you have to be literally cutthroat to make it ahead in business. But it's barely a werewolf movie for all that posturing. I've seen plenty of werewolf movies, but none of them have been very good or taken the werewolf pathology to a very interesting end. (Books have done better, and Buffy did all right--at first--with its werewolf character.) Werewolf movies of late have depended on a sort of rivalry with vampires to sell them--Twilight, the Underworld series. Where are the examinations of man versus monster, the recognition that man is the monster and that being a werewolf is just something that allows him an outlet for his monstrosity? Why, oh why, did we get An American Werewolf in Paris instead?

Maybe I'm missing out on something good. So here comes the request: I would like anyone who has a suggestion for a good werewolf/wolfman movie to send that title my way. I'm happy to try any and everything. (I am the person who stocks her Netflix queue off of lists of the the worst movies that others can think of, so clearly I am not picky.) Send him here. I'll take 'em all.

Comments

[lnbw.livejournal.com]

It's not a movie, but I think the BBC show Being Human does all right by its werewolf. (It also has a vampire, but no vampire/werewolf rivalry.)

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I keep hearing exciting things about the series. I've definitely got to check it out.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Being Human is excellent, and well worth watching. And yes, a good take on the werewolf.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

I have the first series and the pilots, but haven't watched them yet... They could be yours too!

[lnbw.livejournal.com]

You should! It's very good. It's also kind of an odd series; I mean, the premise sounds like a punchline ("a werewolf, a vampire, and a ghost walk into a bar live together") and it does have its funny moments, but it's also dark dark dark. There's something very British about that combination, I think.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I was just about to comment recommending that! Though I'd say, if you haven't seen it before, watch the first few eps first, not the pilot. I fell in love with the pilot and have never gotten comfortable with the recasting.

Also, if you're missing uber-angst since Torchwood isn't on...Being Human's the place to go.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

It's not strictly a "werewolf" movie/book, but the Harry Potter series did a very nice job with its werewolf subplots, with both the major villain and the major hero.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I think the movies gave Lupin seriously short shrift. What bothers me about the books is that Rowling never delivered on her setup with werewolves. Grayback never really did much, and absolutely nothing came of a very juicy setup wherein the friend who betrayed the Marauders, the last survivor of which was a werewolf, ended up with a silver hand. You had two people who used to be friends and ended up enemies with the bad one having the one thing that could kill the good one literally right at hand...and nothing. Lupin dies offscreen. Pettigrew strangles himself with his silver hand. You just can't do that in fiction. The gun, introduced, never goes off for that story. Such a disappointment.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

That sums Rowling up in a nutshell--never delivers on her setup, does things you should never do in fiction, very disappointing.

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

I completely agree! WTF was up with that? Lame Rowling, lame.

Also lame that his son is non-wolf.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

I assume you've seen both Wolfen and American Werewolf in London? I'm in the same boat you are--I really like the werewolf as a concept/legend/monster, but rarely see a good take on it. Plenty of crappy ones, of course. And don't even get me started on the RPG version--ecoterrorists in fur!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I have not seen either. I'm keen to see An American Werewolf in London, if only for the clever effects they used (no matter how bad they might actually look). Wolfen I'd not heard of. I'll add it.

I just wish it were more important to the story that the person underneath be interesting than that they transform onscreen, you know? It's the same problem with superhero movies: if I don't know the person under the mask, I can't care about their problems.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

An American Werewolf in London and Ginger Snaps.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I am one of few people unimpressed by Ginger Snaps. Liked the makeup all right (up until the end), and the allegory was fine, but something was just...off about it. I couldn't really, har har, sink my teeth into the film. Perhaps it deserves a re-watch, since it's so heavily favored by many people with good taste.

And, yes, An American Werewolf in London. Must get to it.

[saturn-shumba.livejournal.com]

An American Werewolf in London is required viewing! DUDES ARE NAKED. Of course there's more to it than that, but full frontal male nudity is so RARE, I can't help but point it out. It's a plus.

Others...The Howling is good, as is Wolfen. Silver Bullet is magnificent in mine eyes, it's probably my favorite werewolf movie of all time.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Silver Bullet is actually in my queue already because I read the synopsis and it's based on a Stephen King story. I like King, I like werewolves, it was a natural fit.

Full frontal male nudity is rare. I will be sure to enjoy it.

[oblvndrgn.livejournal.com]

Caveat: I haven't seen this movie myself so I can't give a personal review, but I've heard good things about Dog Soldiers from multiple other people.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Beggers can't be choosers. And I've shot down enough as is, so I'll look into it. In fact, it already came up when I was adding other movies to Netflix. Did you know that Netflix has a separate category for "werewolves"? True story.

[gryphonrose.livejournal.com]

Dog Soldiers is an excellent gory soldiers movie. It's a decent werewolf flick, though not a great one. Not much character development for most of the weres, but in a few cases you get some. I'd recommend seeing it.

[cbreakr.livejournal.com]

Silver Bullet is great, though the focus isn't on the struggle with being a were wolf, so it might fail your criteria. It's less werewolf movie and more monster-in-the-closet. Creeped the hell out of me as a kid.

An American Werewolf in London is a classic, though I haven't seen it in a loooong time so I couldn't comment on the effects. It was back when Romero-style horror effects were in full swing, though, and I love that stuff. I remember the film being very startling.

Dog Soldiers is gory and kind of stupid, but fun. My friend Grim swears by it, but he's also an accountant with an immense gun collection, so who knows.

Ginger Snaps is fun and people like it, even though I thought it was a little disappointing. Not enough of a balance between the action and the metaphor. This might point to the basic difficulty in telling this sort of story well - there's almost something too human about transformation outside of control and so the supernatural element can be a drag on more basic, tighter storytelling... but I digress.

I've never seen The Howling, though it's supposed to be a classic. Back from the days when horror was horror.

What was that movie we hosted in the "speculative fiction" suite back in the day? I know there was a werewolf one, but I can't for the life of me remember.

I'm kind of curious about this one, too, and it's been a while since I've gorged myself on some horror (At some point I mean to get my hands on Shivers and Suspiria). Let me know if you've got a short stack lined up!

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

The movie we watched was called In the Company of Wolves, I think. If I do any kind of werewolf marathon, I'll let you know!

[equustel.livejournal.com]

I don't have any movies to recommend, just wanted to say how much I agree with you - werewolves have always been way more compelling than vampires to me, yet there's still no be-all-end-all ULTIMATE WEREWOLF STORY I can point to as evidence of their awesomeness. What gives? I even read Shiver, the recent YA novel that's a hit with the Twilight crowd, because I am that desperate for some fresh takes on the myth. (FTR, it wasn't terrible - tons of purple prose and WTF metaphors, but at least the heroine has smarts, and the guy isn't supposed to be some god-like marble statue of perfection. I think Twilight has lowered my standards irrevocably.)

At least Sonata Arctica writes awesome songs about being a werewolf. \o/

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I liked Alice Borchardt's Silver Wolf if only for the fact that it made the wolf/man existence more decidedly dualistic. There was a wolf and a woman in the same body. The wolf found the idea of pointless cruelty to be very human and alien to her, no matter how humans liked to think that brutality is all an animal thing. The stories weren't terrific, but they were fun. I also liked that it was set after the fall of the Roman Empire, which is an interesting period that I hadn't had much interaction with in fiction. It's neat to see the perspective differences.

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

There is also a movie called Skinwalkers, which I not checked out. It uses the Navajo shapeshifter myth.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

There is also a movie called Skinwalkers, which I not checked out.

Here's a suggestion: DON'T.

It was an excruciatingly bad movie. I'd say it's as brutally stupid as something like Dragon Wars: D-War, and it just so happens to feature the same dude. I was embarrassed for everyone in the movie, and this was after I'd seen enough with Rhona Mitra to no longer feel badly about her career. (I'd watch Doomsday a hundred times over before I'd watch Skinwalkers.)

As for the Navajo shapeshifter myth? I think "use" is a suitable word there because it's clearly being used, as opposed to being useful. It's just a bullshit way to justify ZOMG werewolves, with as little of what you could charitably call "sensitivity" to the origin as possible. The fact that all the leads were white save one, maybe two? Yeah, this is an exploitation, not a tribute. Avoid this one.