“Werewolf”: werewolves, present in the cinema for 92 years!

Lycanthropes have been part of the cinematic landscape for almost a century. And with the upcoming release of a brand new Werewolfit’s the perfect time to examine what ancient Greece, the Oscars and Universal Studios have in common…

The first legends of werewolves appear from the pen of the historian Herodotus in the 5th^e century BC Very widespread in the Middle Ages, then in the 16th century^e century as well as in the 17th^e century, before falling into disuse in the 18th^ewerewolf stories experienced renewed fervor thanks to the invention of cinema.

The very first appearance of a werewolf on a celluloid reel dates back to 1913, The Werewolf telling the – silent – ​​story of a Native American woman who teaches her daughter to transform into a wolf in order to take revenge on her father who abandoned them. Distributed by Universal Studios, which still holds the rights to these monsters today, the 18-minute short film was unfortunately destroyed in a fire in 1924 and no copies survive.

In the mid-1930s, after the emergence – and success – of Dracula, The mummy, Frankenstein or The invisible manfeature film skillfully mixing legends, science fiction and horror (for the time), Werewolf of London (The monster of London, in French version) arrived on the screens in 1935, followed by The Wolf Man in 1941 with Claude Rains and Lon Chaney Jr. The latter spent hours in the chair of the makeup team, who transformed him into a credible werewolf. This representation (at the time, the hairs were those of a yak) is forever fixed on the screen and in the popular imagination. The studios then compete in imagination to entertain moviegoers and even release Frankenstein meets the werewolf in 1943!

Delirium…and technology

The atomic age begins a turning point, Hollywood seizing everything that can scare people. The horror films of yesteryear then become B-series entertainment. The Werewolfreleased in 1955, scientists transform an accident victim into a werewolf. And, two years later, I Was a Teenage Werewolfwhich stars… Michael Landon, future Charles Ingalls of Little House on the Prairiethe actor becomes a lycanthrope because of a mad scientist!

Cinema evolves at the rhythm of popular culture, werewolf films are now aimed at an audience of adolescents, who enjoy watching Night of the Werewolf British, by Terence Fisher, released in 1961, and in which a man becomes a bloodthirsty beast on full moon evenings. And the 1970s were marked by the release of around ten feature films devoted to these beasts from European folklore.

With the development of special effects in the 1980s, werewolf films became an opportunity for studios to show what their teams were capable of. The Werewolf of London, by John Landis, arrived in theaters in 1981 and created an event. The lycanthrope, the work of makeup artist Rick Baker, won the Oscar for best makeup as soon as the category was created by the Academy (Michael Jackson also hired John Landis for the music video for Thriller). And the following years were filled with feature films of the genre, including forgettable classics, including Teen Wolf (a comedy with Michael J. Fox!), released in 1985.

If the end of the millennium did not give pride of place to werewolves, they made a comeback in CGI in the 2000s. Sony studios are working hard on its Underworld franchise, started in 2003 and created by Len Wiseman. Led by Kate Beckinsale, the saga of five feature films brings in, year after year, some $539.34 million at the worldwide box office.

Universal Studios was not to be outdone, resurrecting The Wolf Man in 2010, and director Joe Johnston cast him as Benicio Del Toro, whom he reunited with Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt. Despite a dazzling cast, the film was a failure, with international revenues of $139.78 million not covering the production budget of $150 million.

But that doesn’t matter, since the years have passed, it’s time to get back on track! Werewolfin theaters on January 17, is intended to be a true horror thriller. Directed by Leigh Whannell (Decadence), the storyline follows a father (Christopher Abbott) who, while trying to protect his family from an unspeakable beast, gradually transforms into a monster.