Halloween countdown: The best werewolf movies

We’re almost at the end of our Halloween countdown! In this edition, we’re sharing our favorite werewolf movies.

Werewolves are a big Halloween monster. But while they are popular this season, they are also cursed with poorly made movies with small budgets and are trapped in the same old stories every decade about the sad werewolf that kills people in a fugue state. This is because, as most monsters are representations of something, werewolves represent the repressed primal side of human nature.

The animal instinct in humans is heavily explored through lycanthropy, the painful transition from man to beast that is then chased away by the “better” of society. Woe is the werewolf.

What makes werewolves special is that they are one of the few movie monsters that shows a difference in gender. Male werewolves are usually sad, in pain or spend all their energy on withholding the transformation, but it’s a whole other story for females. She-wolves usually like the change. They enjoy the power it gives them, usually coming off as being more dangerous than their male counterparts.

The best werewolf movies to stream this Halloween

3. Ginger Snaps

It’s hard finding female werewolves. There are some in the movies Trick ‘r Treat, Blood and Chocolate, American Werewolf in Paris, Cursed, Werewolf Woman from 1976, and the TV show Bitten, but other than that there aren’t many she-wolves out there and the ones we see serve as representations for puberty and/or sexuality.

Ginger Snaps revolves around two death-obsessed sisters that come into conflict with each other after one of them is turned into a werewolf. The film got a sequel in 2004 titled Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed and a prequel also released in 2004, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning.

2. An American Werewolf in London

We have this film to thank for The Lost Boys, Scream, Zombieland, and Fright Night. Before An American Werewolf in London, horror movies and werewolf movies, especially, weren’t very bloody and they certainly weren’t funny.

Two vacationing Americans (David Kessler and Griffen Dunne) backpacking through Europe are attacked by a werewolf, leaving one dead and the other badly mangled. The rest of the film focuses on the unlucky survivor, now haunted by his dead friend, ignoring all the warning signs telling him that he’s now become a werewolf.

1. The Wolf Man

Released in 1941 during the Golden Age of Monster Movies, The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr (son of Lon Chaney a.k.a “The Patron Saint of Horror”) is about a man who becomes a werewolf after he’s bitten by one.

A very simple plot that ended up cementing all the werewolf cliches we know today, creating a standard that’s yet to be broken. Though it’s hardly the place to learn about lycanthropes, The Wolf Man is where everyone basically got their “facts” on werewolves such as their vulnerability to silver, their connection with the moon and for having a hairy hybrid body upon transformation.

The Wolf Man also brought gypsies into the spotlight, creating the once-popular “wise and mystical gypsy” image movies have since distanced themselves from. The mystery of the Romani people paralleled that of werewolves so much so that they were once the metaphorical werewolves of Europe, and the movie touched on that.

What’s your favorite werewolf movie? Will you be watching any of these on Halloween?