Werewolf Movies

The frustrated housewife Leslie visits an animal shop to purchase a flea-collar. Unknowing that the owner is a werewolf, she accepts his invitation to lunch and later in his apartment. Through a bite in her toe he starts her slow transformation in a werewolf. Home again, she desperately tries to hide the often disgusting process from her family, but her daughter Jennifer and her – from horror magazines well educated – friend recognize what’s going on, and help to kill the non-human.

Howling V: The Rebirth is a 1989 direct-to-video horror sequel to The Howling. It was directed by Neal Sundstrom from the screenplay by Freddie Rowe and Clive Turner, and filmed in Budapest, Hungary.

Like most of the other The Howling films, it is only loosely based on “The Howling” series of novels by Gary Brandner. While the plot of this film seems largely derivative of The Beast Must Die, the setting of a large castle (rather than that film’s mansion) and the castle’s backstory are taken from the narrative of the original The Howling novel, where it served as the backstory of a town named Dradja.

It stars Phil Davis, Victoria Catlin, Elizabeth She, Ben Cole, and William Shockley. 96 minutes, rated R. The movie was released to DVD as a double feature with Howling VI: The Freaks in 2003 by Artisan Home Entertainment.

After being shuttered for over 500 years following a horrific, intentionally staged family massacre, a mysterious Hungarian castle opens it doors with the apparent intention of attracting tourist business. A diverse group of people from different parts of the globe is assembled at the eerie dwelling after having been chosen at random (or have they?) when they applied for a visa. But once they arrive some begin to wonder if there is more going on than meets the eye. First they hear terrible stories about savage packs of wolves that used to roam the area and then people begin to disappear, only some of whom are found later with their throats torn out. It soon becomes clear that a murderer is among them, and the culprit may only partially be human.

However, as the story progresses and the ultimate truth is revealed, ties between predator, prey and the very castle itself will be fatally exposed.

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is a 1988 direct-to-video horror sequel to The Howling. It was directed by John Hough from the screenplay by Freddie Rowe and Clive Turner.

It stars Romy Windsor, Michael T. Weiss, Antony Hamilton, Susanne Severeid, and Lamya Derval. 94 minutes, rated R. International Video Entertainment (IVE) released this film directly to home video in 1988. Platinum Disc Corporation released it to DVD in 2004. It was filmed on location in South Africa.

Marie Adams, a successful author, visits the scenic woodland town of Drago with her husband Richard to find respite from constant nightmare visions involving werewolves and a mysterious nun. Marie’s stay in the village does nothing to dispel the visions, which increase in frequency and seem to suggest strange portents of evil events to come…and a warning to get out of town before the next full moon.

Teen Wolf Too (1987) is an American comedy film first released on November 20, 1987. The film was directed by Christopher Leitch based on a script by R. Timothy Kring, Jeph Loeb, Bret Granville, and Matthew Weisman. The film is a sequel to Teen Wolf, which featured Michael J. Fox as Scott Howard, a teenage werewolf.

Todd Howard (Jason Bateman), the cousin of Scott Howard (the original Teen Wolf from the first movie) has recently been accepted into Hamilton University on a full athletic scholarship. Having never been much good at sports he soon realizes that he is there for one reason – because werewolves run in the family. At first Todd is certain that Coach Finstock (Paul Sand) has got the wrong guy, but at the first boxing match of the year the wolf in him emerges.

With his new found fame come girls, top grades and even the dean’s car but as the year goes on, Todd realizes that he is losing his friends and self respect. Can he be a winner without the wolf?

Howling III (also known as Howling III: The Marsupials and Marsupials: The Howling III) is a 1987 Australian horror sequel to The Howling, directed by Howling II director Philippe Mora and filmed on location in Sydney, Australia.

Although Gary Brandner approved the director’s purchase of the right to the name The Howling, the film is completely unrelated to Gary Brandner’s “Howling III” novel, published in 1985. It does feature some small amount of similarity in terms of plot and sympathetic view of the werewolf. (This aspect would be revisited in Howling VI: The Freaks).

This film is also the only PG-13 rated entry in the series.

Howling III: The Marsupials is about a scientist involved with a cult of Australian werewolves via his love interest. The plot line is based on the premise of Australian werewolves descended from the now extinct Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger, a marsupial carnivore which was hunted to extinction by Australian farmers to protect their sheep.

Haunted Honeymoon is a 1986 comedy movie starring Gene Wilder, Gilda Radner, Dom Deluise, and Jonathan Pryce. Wilder also served as the film’s writer and director. This is also known as the last production Gilda Radner starred in before she died of ovarian cancer.

Larry Abbot (Wilder) and Vickie Pearle (Radner) are radio stars in the Manhattan Mystery Theater who decide to get married. Larry has been plagued with on-air panic attacks and speech impediments lately since he proposed to Vickie. Vickie thinks it’s just pre-wedding jitters, but his affliction could get them both fired. Larry’s uncle, Dr. Paul Abbot, decides that Larry needs to be cured of his neurotic speech defect and exaggerated panic attacks. Paul decides to treat him with a form of shock therapy to “scare him to death” in much the same way someone might try to startle someone out of hiccups. Larry chooses the castle-like mansion located in rural upstate New York in which he grew up as the site for their wedding. There, Vickie gets to meet Larry’s eccentric family.

The head of the family is Great-Aunt Kate (Deluise), who plans to leave all her money to Larry. Larry’s cousins are Charles, Nora, Susan, cross-dressing Francis Jr. , Uncle Francis Sr., and the estate’s butler Pfister and his wife Rachel. Joining them is Sylvia, Larry’s old girlfriend who is currently dating Charles, and Montego the Magnificent, Susan’s magician husband. Paul decides this is the perfect opportunity to set his plan to “cure” Larry in motion and he gets the other family members in on the plan. Unfortunately for all of them, something else more sinister and unexpected is lurking at the Abbot Estates. The pre-wedding party becomes a real life version of Larry and Vickie’s radio murder mysteries.

Many elements of Haunted Honeymoon parody James Whale’s 1932 horror film The Old Dark House.

Silver Bullet is a 1985 film based on the Stephen King novella Cycle of the Werewolf. It stars Gary Busey, Everett McGill, Megan Follows, Corey Haim, Terry O’Quinn, Lawrence Tierney, Bill Smitrovich, Kent Broadhurst, David Hart, and James Gammon. The film is directed by Dan Attias and produced by Dino De Laurentiis.

The film opens in a small rural town, Tarker’s Mills, Maine that is set upon by a death of a railroad worker, Arnie Westrum (Gammon). Although he is murdered by a werewolf, the county coroner concludes that Arnie passed out on the railroad tracks and was run over by a train.

Later on, a woman, Stella Randolph (Wendy Walker), is slaughtered in her bedroom. This murder goes unsolved and the town’s concerns grow.

The narrator of the film is the older sister, Jane (Follows), of a family of four. Her narration centers around her relationship with her younger, paraplegic brother Marty (Haim). Immediately upon their introduction, the story depicts the rocky affair between the ‘handicapped’ little brother and the over burdened ‘older sister’, their relationship strained from the start. The next victim, Milt Sturmfuller (James A. Baffico), is a drunken redneck who hears someone destroying his flower pots in a shed not far from his house. Believing it is mischievous teens, Sturmfuller plans to go ward them off with a shotgun. After arriving in the shed, he is killed by the werewolf.

It isn’t until the brutal slaying of a teenage male, Brady Kincaid (Joe Wright), that townsfolks are at the verge of abandoning local authorities and seeking their own kind of ‘private justice’. In the middle of the melee is a Baptist Reverend, Lester Lowe (McGill), who initially parades as a concerned member of the community attempting to prevent the townfolks from invoking further bloodshed.

The citizens go to hunt the werewolf and several of them are attacked and killed by the monster, including Owen Knopfler (Tierney), although the survivors of the encounter later deny seeing anything unusual.

The nicest surprise in the film comes in the form of the alcoholic Uncle Red (Busey). His ‘no care in the world’ approach to life is a large contrast to the prudish demeanor of the people in this town of Tarker’s Mills. The uncle concocts a wheelchair/motorcycle for his nephew’s birthday – that is the vehicle by which the nephew sets upon in the middle of the night along a small bridge to light up fireworks. At this moment he is confronted by a werewolf and barely escapes with his life if not for the launching of a firerocket into the left eye of the creature.

Marty enlists the help of Jane in looking for a town regular with a missing left eye. She conducts this search through a bottle drive, so as not to arouse suspicion. She finds it in the form of the Reverend Lowe. That ignites a cat and mouse chase between the siblings threatening to disclose of the Reverend’s true lunar transformations. Lowe, in turn, using Judeo-Christian morale to rationalize the murders of sinners – in order to prevent them from eternal damnation in hell – sets out to kill Marty. It is implied that Lowe is now completely insane. Finally, the courageous sibling duo manage to convince Red that things smell afoul with Lowe. Uncle Red then convinces local Sheriff Joe Haller (O’Quinn) to investigate Reverend Lowe. That night, Haller, skeptical about Lowe at first but desperate to find a killer, is shocked to discover evidence that at least some of Marty’s story may be factual. Haller then finds Lowe, who has locked himself in his garage, but before he can arrest him, Lowe transforms and kills Haller.

At the end of the film, Red, Marty, and Jane have a final showdown with the big bad wolf. The only thing that stands between their survival or horrific demise: a silver bullet. Marty shoots the werewolf in the right eye, killing him. Afterwards, Marty and Jane share a tender moment together following their ordeal. The brother/sister bond between them is forever strengthened.

Howling II: Stirba – Werewolf Bitch (also known as Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf) is a 1985 horror sequel to The Howling directed by Philippe Mora.

Although he co-wrote the screenplay, the film “Howling II” is largely unrelated to Gary Brandner’s “Howling II” novel (a.k.a. “Return Of The Howling”) from 1979, though like that book it was the first in its series to introduce Eastern European customs and Gypsies into it’s werewolf mythology.

It was marketed with the tagline “The rocking, shocking new wave of horror!”

Ben White attends the funeral of his sister, journalist Karen White. Presumably the funeral of Karen’s husband Bill Neil (who also became a werewolf and died in the first movie) has already taken place. Ben meets both Jenny Templeton, one of Karen’s colleagues, and Stefan Crosscoe, a mysterious interloper who claims the slain reporter was a werewolf. Providing videotaped evidence of the transformation — and turning up to destroy Karen as her undead body rises from the grave — Crosscoe convinces Ben and Jenny to accompany him to Transylvania to battle Stirba, an immortal werewolf queen. Along the way, the do-gooders encounter Mariana, another lusty werewolf siren, and her minion Erle.

Arriving in the Balkans, Ben and company wander through an ethnic folk festival, unaware that Stirba is off in her castle having sex with other werewolves and plotting their downfall. Eventually, the adventurers do battle with Stirba in an assault that involves disguised dwarves, mutilated priests, supernatural parasites, and surprise revelations.

Teen Wolf (first released on August 23, 1985, by Atlantic Releasing Corporation) is an American film starring Michael J. Fox as Scott Howard, a high school student who discovers that his family has an unusual heritage when he finds himself transforming into a werewolf. The film was directed by Rod Daniel based on a script co-written by Jeph Loeb and Matthew Weisman.

High school student Scott Howard is 17 years old, sick of being average and wishes he were special. His father runs a local hardware store. Scott’s a mediocre basketball player on a losing team. The girl of his dreams, Pamela Wells (Lorie Griffin), is dating Mick, a jerk from an opposing team. After one of the team’s losses, Scott begins to notice strange changes to his body. While at a party, Scott keeps undergoing changes and eventually he returns home and undergoes a complete change and becomes The Wolf. Although he is initially keen to hide his condition from his father, Harold reveals that he too is a werewolf. Harold never told his son about the condition because “sometimes it skips a generation” and he was hoping it wouldn’t happen to Scott. Scott first reveals his transformation to the public at one his basketball games. After momentarily stunning the crowd with The Wolf, Scott goes on to wow them with his basketball skills and he finishes the game with a quadruple double (double digits in points, rebounds, blocks and steals).

Scott subsequently learns to use his family “curse” to gain popularity at school, becoming the team’s star basketball player. He is able to transform at will between his normal self and The Wolf. His basketball team goes from last to first, and Scott begins spending most of his school time as The Wolf. Scott also wins the heart of Pamela while ignoring the affections of his best friend, Boof (Susan Ursitti), who has loved him since childhood.

Meanwhile, Scott’s best friend ‘Stiles’ (Jerry Levine), a party animal with an entrepreneurial streak, quickly cashes in on Scott’s new-found popularity, selling Teen Wolf T-shirts and other merchandise. Stiles’ “wolfmania” reaches such extremes that he trades in his own vehicle for a stepvan dubbed “The Wolfmobile”.

Scott tires of The Wolf persona after a while, and wishes to be himself. During the final basketball game, Scott refuses to “wolf out” and insists on winning the game on his own. Coach Bobby Finstock tells Scott that the team is doomed to fail without The Wolf, but Scott is able to prove him wrong. In a dramatic ending set to the tones of musician Mark Safan, Scott is able to rally the team back to within a point as time is expiring. Scott is fouled by Mick on the final play and given two shots. In a clear violation of the rules, Mick is able to stand underneath the basket as Scott attempts his foul shots. Despite having to jump to complete the free throws, Scott makes them both and the Beavers win the game. During the after game celebration following Scott and Boof’s kiss, one of the extras in the bleachers is clearly visible as he tries to cover up the fact that his pants are unzipped.

Ladyhawke is a 1985 fantasy film directed by Richard Donner, and starring Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer. It was novelized by Joan D. Vinge.

The film is set in medieval Europe. Phillipe “The Mouse” Gaston, a peasant thief, is imprisoned in the dungeons of Aquila and set for execution for his petty crimes — but he escapes by crawling through the prison sewers to freedom. He flees into the countryside away from the city.

His escape comes to the attention of the evil Bishop of Aquila, who rules over his portion of Italy (despite characters with French names) with an iron grip. The dungeons of Aquila are considered to be inescapable and so the Bishop fears that news of Phillipe’s escape could “ignite the flames of rebellion”. The Bishop sends his captain of the guard, Marquet, into the country to find Phillipe and kill him. Phillipe uses his cunning to survive for awhile, but is soon found by Marquet and several of the Bishop’s guards. As he is about to be killed, Phillipe is saved by a strange knight in black, who is identified as Etienne Navarre: one of the guards recognizes him and asks “Captain Navarre?” Navarre replies, saying the guard’s name. Marquet promptly kills the guard. Navarre battles and defeats all the soldiers present, riding away with Phillipe. Marquet returns to Aquila and warns the Bishop of Navarre’s “return.” At some point we see that the bishop’s crozier is a weapon: the lower end bears a spearpoint, covered by a metal cap.

Navarre, a quiet man who travels with a companion hawk, tells Phillipe that he intends to ride back to Aquila and use Phillipe’s unique knowledge to get inside the city. Once inside, Navarre intends to kill the Bishop. Navarre reveals very little about his background or motivation.

On the way back to Aquila, Phillipe starts to notice that Navarre disappears at night, while a wolf seems to always be prowling in his absence. He also notices that the hawk disappears at nightfall, and a beautiful woman manifests out of nowhere each evening. The party stays in a peasant’s barn, and the peasant tries to kill and rob them but is killed by a large black wolf. Phillipe refuses to return, but agrees only after Navarre implicitly threatens to kill him if he should decide otherwise.

As the pair begin to take the long journey, Marquet’s men capture Phillipe one night and use him to find Navarre. They battle and Navarre manages to defeat the Bishop’s guards, but both he and the hawk are wounded by crossbow bolts. As the hawk barely clings to life, Navarre seems broken. Navarre looks to the sunset and orders Phillipe to travel down a nearby road to a ruined abbey, where an old monk named Imperius will “know what to do.” Phillipe finds Imperius, who heals the beautiful woman who has suddenly replaced the wounded hawk. Imperius then tells Phillipe a story that confirms what he already suspects, and informs Phillipe that the name of the woman is Isabeau. Two years prior, Isabeau, a young French beauty, fell in love with Navarre, the captain of the Bishop’s guard: they were secretly married by the priest Imperius. The Bishop saw Isabeau and fell in love with her but Isabeau “sensed his wickedness” and rejected his advances. Imperius says that in a drunken confession it was he who had informed the Bishop of Isabeau’s love for Navarre. Enraged with jealousy, the Bishop made a pact with the Devil to place a transformation curse upon both the lovers, swearing that “if he could not have her, then no man would”. With the curse in effect, Isabeau becomes a hawk during the daytime while Navarre becomes a wolf during the night. The curse would last “for as long as there is day and night, and as long as they both shall live.” They are eternally apart and only see each other for the briefest of moments during sunset and sunrise, and even then they do not have time to touch. They also have no memory of what they did while in their other form (Isabeau doesn’t know what she did while she was a hawk, and Navarre doesn’t know what he did as a wolf ). Navarre later laments that while hawks and wolves mate for life, the Bishop did not even leave them that option.

Three of the Bishop’s guards arrive the next day and storm Imperius’ castle. Phillipe manages to get Isabeau away, but they are both trapped by the guards on top of a tower; a second before dawn, Isabeau falls off the tower—and turns into a hawk. A crossbow bolt fells the guard, and Phillippe recognizes Navarre on a nearby peak. Imperius says that he has a found a way to break the curse, explaining that in three days, there will be a “day without a night; A night without a day.” During that brief moment, he and Isabeau will both be in their human forms, and must confront the bishop together as man and woman to break the curse. Navarre refuses to accept Imperius’ suggestion, as the monk had already betrayed Isabeau and Navarre before when he told the Bishop of their love, and he didn’t want it to get any worse. He is determined to kill the bishop.

Meanwhile, the Bishop concocts a plan. As he seems unable to kill Navarre in his human form, he instructs a hunter, Cezar, to trap wolves, hoping to actually kill Navarre during the night when he is in his wolf form. He is instructed to look for a large black wolf and bring in its pelt.

At a village, Isabeau sees the wolf pelts on Cezar’s horse and rides into the forest to save Navarre from Cezar’s deadly traps. She sneaks behind Cezar with a dagger in her hand, but before she can kill him, Navarre enters the scene in his wolf form. Cezar sees the black wolf, but before he can get to Navarre, Isabeau knocks him to the ground and he falls face-first into one of his own traps and is killed.

Phillipe tells Isabeau of Imperius’ plan. Phillipe, Isabeau and Imperius develop a plan to trap Navarre when he is in his wolf form so that they can prevent him from killing the Bishop before the day that Imperius has told him to confront him on, the “day without a night”. Phillipe and Imperius dig a hole to trap the wolf in while Isabeau tries to summon him, but before Navarre can reach the trap he falls through the ice crossing the river. Phillipe jumps into the water to save him. The next morning, Isabeau in her human form awakes alongside the wolf in the hole that they had dug to trap him in. The sun rises and Navarre transforms into a human. The two lovers see each other, but before they can reach out to touch one another, Isabeau transforms into a hawk. Navarre learns that Phillipe had saved his life, and he finally seems to agree to follow Imperius’ plan. Navarre has conceived a new plan: Philippe and Imperius put him (as a wolf) in a wooden cage on Imperius’s wagon. Phillipe and Isabeau ride along, with Phillipe concealed under the wagon. Imperius tells a gate-guard that he is bringing the bishop a present: a fine pelt for his wall. He’ll let the Bishop have the opportunity of doing the actual killing himself. The next morning, as an eclipse begins, Imperius tells Navarre that he must confront the bishop now or the curse will never be broken, even though Navarre would rather kill the bishop. Navarre orders Imperius to kill the hawk should he not return by the time the bells ring (signaling the end of mass), for this will likely mean his quest has ended in death and he will then meet Isabeau again in the afterlife. As Phillipe uses the sewers to get into the cathedral and unlock the main door (which has been bolted for the Mass), Navarre rides into Aquila cathedral on his horse. After a series of jousts and battles in the cathedral, a window is broken, and through it Navarre sees the solar eclipse, the “day without a night, a night without a day”. Unfortunately one of the soldiers rings the bell before Navarre can stop him, and Navarre knows that Imperius will have heard that and will probably kill Isabeau. He tries to get to Imperius to tell him to stop, but Marquet jumps him and forces him to fight. Navarre defeats Marquet in combat in the process, desecrating the cathedral and just as he is about to kill the defenseless bishop in revenge, Isabeau walks in appearing in human form. Everyone present is awestruck. By looking at both Isabeau and Navarre, the Bishop breaks the curse and the lovers are freed. The enraged Bishop’s anger begins to show and he uncaps the spearpoint on his crozier, preparing to kill Isabeau. Before he can strike, however, Navarre throws his sword at him like a javelin, mortally wounding the corrupt Bishop and pinning him to his altar. Navarre and Isabeau embrace in the cathedral, while Phillipe and Imperius feel proud of their part in the adventure. Phillipe promises to meet Imperius at the Pearly Gates, even if he has to pick the lock.