Welcome to Werewolf Winter

The vampire countdown is officially over! While I will definitely still be reviewing and watching more vampire films in the future, 'tis the season for a different type of fanged film star.

With the popularity of the Twilight and Underworld sagas, the rivalry between vampires and werewolves have come back into fashion. I've never really been "into" werewolves myself; I remember reading a novel by Anne Rice's sister about werewolves when I was a teenager and not being overly thrilled. But not too long ago I watched the painfully mediocre Netflix series Hemlock Grove and found myself liking the werewolf story line above all else. It didn't hurt that Eli Roth developed a gruesome, amazing, and horrifying transformation scene:

So, in the season where the weather is cold and frightful (and the fire inside is so delightful), I thought I'd see what film history has given us in the werewolf genre. Once again, I'll be selecting about 20 films, and there are rules.

Like I did with my vampire countdown, I am avoiding all films that have lower than 2 stars on Netflix or imdb, although I am making an exception for the Howling III because it has marsupial werewolves. And that cannot be missed.

I am also avoiding any movie that focuses on monster/werewolf hunters as opposed to the wolf, and any films where the werewolf interacts with vampires, zombies, or other monsters. So, no Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, Van Helsing, or Twilight.

After much research, my tentative list of films is below. I'll be trying to tackle this list in chronological order rather than ranked by quality, just so I can see the progression in films and so I get a clearer "werewolf film history" (*this list is subject to change if I cannot find copies of some of the more obscure movies).

1. The Wolf Man (1941)
2. I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)
3. The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)
4. The Howling (1981)
5. An American Werewolf in London (1981)
6. The Company of Wolves (1984)
7. Teen Wolf (1985)
8. Silver Bullet (1985)
9. The Howling III: The Marsupials (1987)
10. Full Eclipse (1993)
11. Wolf (1994)
12. Bad Moon (1996)
13. An American Werewolf In Paris (1997)
14. The Wolves of Kromer (1998)
15. Ginger Snaps (2000)* Plus sequels?
16. Dog Soldiers (2002)
17. Kibakichi Bakko Yokaiden (2003)
18. Cursed (2005) and/or Skinwalkers (2006)
19. Blood and Chocolate (2007)
20. The Wolf Man (2010)* seems like a fitting end

I look forward to this hair-raising good time! Check back soon for the first Werewolf Winter review!