10 Horror Films To Watch If You Love The Wolf Man | ScreenRant – Screen Rant

Many werewolf films have spawned from The Wolf Man. Some were hits, some flew under the radar, but all pay homage to the Universal classic.

Universal Studios classic 1941 horror film The Wolf Man ushered in Hollywood's fascination with the werewolf film. Lycanthrope horror became a fixture of horror,recharging in1981's with the one/two punch of The Howling and An American Werewolf in London. Both films put a humorous modern spin on the werewolf film and broke new ground with state of the art makeup effects. Werewolf films would never be the same.

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Over the decades, many werewolf films have spawned from The Wolf Man. Some were hits, some flew under the radar, but all pay homage to the Universal classic that started it all.

Silver Bullet was Stephen King's self-penned adaptation of his own werewolf tale.The film stars Corey Haim as a young paraplegic who fears that a local priest is actually a werewolf who is responsible for murders in his small town. Gary Busey is his good ole' boy uncle and genre favorite Everett McGill is the priest.

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The film is an entertaining King adaptation with a smart screenplay and good characters. Although the werewolf isn't as scary as it should have been, the film works and finds some good scares within some tense moments.

In the unique horror film The Beast Must Die, one of the most underrated werewolf films ever made, agroup of eight people is invited as guests for a weekend dinner party at an old English mansion. The reason for the dinner? One of them is a werewolf and they mustuncover who it is to stop the killings.

Peter Cushing and Calvin Lockhart head a game cast in a film that is both lycanthrope horror and Agatha Christie-type murder mystery. The film is fun and frightening in equal measure.

Ahorror film that was ahead of its time, 1935's Werewolf of Londonstars Henry Hull as a botanist who becomes a murderous werewolf. As he tries to find a potion that will cure him, the killings begin to overtake his conscience.

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Full of extremely creepy atmosphere, excellent makeup effects, and great performances, this is a well made and undersung classic lycanthrope film. This was the inspiration for Warren Zevon's hit 1970s song "Werewolves of London".

The director of The Graduate andSilkwood may not have been the obvious choice to helm a horror film but the director scored a unique gem with 1994's Wolf. Nichols used the story of apublisher whois bitten by a werewolf to symbolize the cutthroat "dog eat dog) world of big business.

Jack Nicholson stars as the doomed publisher while Michelle Pfieffer is a love interest and James Spader is a workplace rivalwho stops at nothing to fight back against Nicholson's character. The film has dark humor, potent horror, great makeup design, and a fun and dedicated performance from Jack Nicholson.

Lon Chaney Jr. reprised his legendary role of The Wolf Man for 1943's Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, an exciting monster mashup between two of Universal's biggest creatures. A mad doctor helps Chaney Jr.'s Lawrence Talbot find a cure for his lycanthropy while secretly resurrecting Frankenstein's monster.Bela Lugosi played the monster and had dialogue but those scenes were cut from the film which lessened his screen time.

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The film is great fun and has the classic Universal monster tone. The sets are classic horror film designs and the performances are great. The story holds enough weight to allow the screenplay's creepiness to shine through. This was the first time that two Universal monsters shared the screen in the same film.

Hammer Studios had great success with their updates of classic monster films. Their Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee pairings made films such as Horror of Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, and The Mummy big hits with horror fans around the world. By 1961, the studio made its first werewolf film, Curse of the Werewolf, one of the studio's most undervalued efforts.Oliver Reed is an 18th century Spaniard who becomes a werewolf.

While not as scary as other werewolf films of its type, the film is effective due to its commitment to old-style horror techniques and state of the art werewolf makeup. Director Terence Fisher makes the film a class act through gorgeous set design and graceful camerawork.

While not a full werewolf film, Mike Dougherty's modern Halloween classic Trick r Treat weaves together five tales that all connect in various ways. One story involves Anna Paquin and her friends who are planning a special party on Halloween night; they are all celebrating Paquin's first time turning into a werewolf and feeding on her first victim.

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The film has fun with its werewolves. They are all young women who like to party and the screenplay playfully uses their dialogue to trick the audience into thinking that Paquin is planning to lose her virginity.A fun Halloween season film all around, thewerewolf segment's use of werewolf lore and creature design pays homage to Universal's Wolf Man.

For 1944's House of Frankenstein, all of Universal's biggies came together on the big screen to terrify audiences. The film is the story of a mad scientist who resurrects The Wolf Man, Frankenstein's monster, and Dracula to seek revenge on his enemies.

This film was a big hit and received great notice from critics. Everything here seemed to catch fire, as the film was a spooky, exciting, and wildly entertaining horror classic that is considered one of the best from its era.

Joe Dante's The Howling was one of two instant classic werewolf films from 1981. Dante told his tale of a community of werewolves who terrorize a news reporter, played with gusto by Dee Wallace, with a dark sense of humor and an old-fashioned style that purposely referend 1941's The Wolf Man from scene to scene.

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Rob Bottin created the groundbreaking transformation effects that shocked audiences. The film is full-on horror entertainment with a twisted sense of humor and jolts of pure horror.

John Landis' An American Werewolf In London was released four months after Joe Dante's The Howlingbutthis film was the one that pushed the boundaries of the werewolf film even further. David Naughton and Griffin Dunne star as two college men who are backpacking through England. On the moors, they are attacked by a werewolf. Dunne is killed and comes back to haunt Naughton to warn him he will turn into a monster at the next full moon.

The script is fast and funny, achieving effective frights while weaving in the comedy. Rick Baker didtheFX makeup and the transformation scene is done in full light so the audience sees everything. Baker's effects were so extraordinary that the academy inaugurated the first makeup effects Oscar to give the craftsman the award.

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10 Horror Films To Watch If You Love The Wolf Man | ScreenRant - Screen Rant