Are you familiar with the concept of convergent evolution? To put it simply, it’s when species develop similar adaptations to their environment despite being separated either geographically or temporally. An example would be how sharks (fish), ichthyosaurs (reptiles), and dolphins (mammals) all evolved similar body shapes and methods of locomotion best suited for living in the ocean independently of each other and millions of years apart.
Something similar occasionally happens in the movie industry when two movies with shockingly similar concepts are released in the same year purely by coincidence. Some of the most famous examples include Dante’s Peak and Volcano (two disaster movies about volcanoes released in 1997), Deep Impact and Armageddon (two movies about apocalyptic comets/asteroids heading towards Earth released in 1998), and Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down (two action movies about terrorists invading the White House released in 2013). Before anyone says anything, Skyline and Battle: Los Angeles (two movies about aliens invading Los Angeles released four months apart) don’t count because the filmmakers behind Skyline also did some visual effects work for Battle: Los Angeles. I’m not saying there was any funny business going on, but Sony certainly thought there was.
One of the most incredible examples of this kind of parallel release occurred in 1981 with the theatrical releases of The Howling, An American Werewolf in London, Wolfen, and Full Moon High. That’s right. In one calendar year we saw the debut of three of the most critically acclaimed werewolf movies ever made and Full Moon High (sorry, Larry).
I know. I just spent the last four weeks writing about werewolves, but it’s a full moon tonight at the time of me writing this. How could I resist? Besides, I have already established that everyone agrees that werewolves are cool. With that said, let’s take a look at each of these werewolf movies and what they brought to the table.
The Howling
Release Date: April 3, 1981
Budget: $1.5 million
Box Office: $17.9 million
The Howling was the first of this batch of werewolf movies to hit the big screen in 1981. Directed by Joe Dante and based on the novel of the same name, The Howling tells the story of a television news anchor named Karen (played by Dee Wallace) who goes to a secluded New Age treatment resort with her husband following a traumatic encounter with a serial killer that had been stalking her. Unfortunately for Karen, this resort happens to be filled with werewolves.
The Howling kicks off the Year of the Werewolf with quite a bang. Dee Wallace is terrific as Karen, and the colorful supporting cast (especially Robert Picardo as Eddie Quist) really elevates the material.
The film also stands out from other horror movies at the time by having it set in a world where people are familiar with werewolves in pop culture. There is a B plot where two of Karen’s friends and colleagues (played by Dennis Dugan and Belinda Balaski) are investigating the details around the serial killer she encounters in the opening of the film that sets them on a quest to learn the lore about werewolves. This includes a scene where they are watching The Wolf Man (1941) on a television in their motel room. This acknowledgment of the most famous and influential werewolf movie at the time gives the characters a certain level of awareness not normally found in monster movies from that era.
Where The Howling really shines is with its impressive practical effects. Despite its tiny budget of only $1.5M, it boasts some of the best looking werewolves ever put on screen thanks to special effects guru Rob Bottin. These werewolves are hulking bipedal beasts (normally a person in a suit) with pronounced snouts and teeth that are much more lupine in appearance than the traditional look made famous in The Wolf Man. The costumes also sported excellent articulation and movement in the face that makes the monsters feel more real.
Bottin’s crowning achievement in The Howling is the werewolf transformation sequence. Gone is the traditional time lapse style that had been used in werewolf films dating back to the 1940s. In its place is a mix of prosthetics, makeup, animatronics, and air bladders that brought elements of realism and body horror that had never before been seen in a werewolf movie.
This was far and away the most impressive werewolf transformation ever depicted, but it would only hold that distinction for a little less than three weeks.
The solid box office numbers for The Howling compared with its fairly minuscule budget led to the film becoming a franchise that has produced a whopping seven sequels (the most recent being The Howling: Reborn in 2011) with a remake reportedly in the works.
An American Werewolf in London
Release Date: April 21, 1981
Budget: $5.8 million
Box Office: $62 million
An American Werewolf in London hit cinemas a mere eighteen days after The Howling. Directed by John Landis, the film is about two young American men backpacking across Europe when they are viciously attacked by a werewolf while in rural England. One is killed while the other (David, played by David Naughton) slowly recuperates in London now cursed with lycanthropy. As David begins having vivid nightmares about being a werewolf, his recently mauled-to-death-by-a-werewolf friend (Jack, played by Griffin Dunne) starts appearing before him in progressively worse states of decay imploring David to kill himself and sever the curse of the werewolf before more people are killed (who then become trapped in a liminal space between life and death for eternity or until the werewolf bloodline ends).
An American Werewolf in London is probably the most popular and well known werewolf movie since The Wolf Man. Much like The Howling, the characters in An American Werewolf in London also exist in a world where werewolves are a fixture in pop culture. At one point David even summarizes the entire plot of The Wolf Man along with naming actors involved (shout out to Lon Chaney, Jr. and Bela Lugosi). That meta commentary extends to the soundtrack which is composed entirely of popular songs that feature the word “moon” in the title or lyrics. The film also leans into the comedy chops of director John Landis by injecting plenty of humor into the proceedings that makes the horror all the more horrific when it happens.
Much like The Howling before it, the thing that turned An American Werewolf in London into an instant classic was its astounding special effects by Rick Baker. Baker’s makeup and prosthetics work were so impressive that it earned the film the Oscar for Best Makeup that year. The gore effects for the slowly decomposing Jack were especially impressive. Early in the film his wounds are fresh and gruesome, but by the end he looks like a rotting corpse. It’s both disturbing and darkly comedic.
Like Bottin’s claim to fame in The Howling, Baker’s crowning achievement in An American Werewolf in London is the werewolf transformation sequence. The sequence takes place as David is alone in his girlfriend’s apartment when the full moon rises in the London sky. The thing that really separates this transformation sequence from those before it is the way it captures the excruciating pain and anguish that David undergoes as his body stretches and contorts itself into its lupine form as “Blue Moon” by Sam Cooke plays.
This sequence, done entirely with practical effects, has never been topped in my estimation. It’s one of the best examples of body horror ever put to film, and it still holds up to this day.
The werewolf itself is also quite the achievement. Unlike The Howling that predominantly used men in suits, the creature in An American Werewolf in London is a combination of a suit and puppet. This creature is more wolf than man, and it walks on all fours like a wolf does. The primary suit only extends to the waist with a person inside controlling the front limbs with his arms while people behind him push him forward almost like a wheelbarrow. It’s a pretty clever design, and it has an instantly recognizable look since it’s so unique.
An American Werewolf in London was a massive hit. It sported a higher budget than The Howling ($5.8M versus the $1.5M budget of The Howling), but it raked in a staggering $62M at the box office. This financial success coming less than three weeks after another werewolf movie had done fairly well at the box office may have doomed the next werewolf film to be released in 1981. This is just speculation on my part, but it would not surprise me if the general public had simply gotten their fill of werewolf movies by this point.
Wolfen
Release Date: July 24, 1981
Budget: $17 million
Box Office: $10.6 million
Wolfen is arguably the most ambitious of the werewolf films released in 1981. Like The Howling, Wolfen is based on a novel. It is a combination horror film and crime thriller directed by Michael Wadleigh. It tells the story of a police officer named Dewey Wilson (played by Albert Finney) who is investigating a series of grisly murders that appear to be targeting wealthy individuals with connections to a massive construction project taking place in New York City. The nature of the murders seem to have more in common with animal attacks than what one would come to expect from a human attacker (I bet you can guess why). During his investigation, Dewey comes across a group of Native Americans who suggest there might be a mystical nature to what is happening.
As I previously mentioned, Wolfen is a much more ambitious film than the previous two films that debuted in 1981. It attempts to tackle issues relating to capitalism, gentrification, settler colonialism, and the dispossession of indigenous peoples of their land. It also has a significantly longer runtime at 114 minutes compared with The Howling (91 minutes) and An American Werewolf in London (97 minutes).
While the previous two films made names for themselves with incredible practical effects, Wolfen takes a different approach. We frequently see the murders take place through the eyes of the killers themselves in a kind of “wolf vision” that is reminiscent of what would be used in Predator several years later.
The other key difference is that these killers are not traditional werewolves. The creatures in Wolfen are wolf spirits known as Wolfen (I guess that explains the name of the movie). These creatures are not portrayed by men in suits or animatronics. The filmmakers instead chose to use real trained wolves when they appear on screen. It certainly adds a level of authenticity when the actors on screen are reacting to real snarling wolves.
The film is incredibly effective as both a hard boiled crime thriller and blood soaked horror movie. The cast is also incredible with actors like Diane Venora, Edward James Olmos, Gregory Hines, and Tom Noonan filling out the supporting roles around Albert Finney.
Although it received mostly positive reviews from critics, the film did not perform well at the box office. Despite its much larger budget than the previous two werewolf films released in 1981 ($17M for Wolfen versus $1.5M for The Howling and $5.8M for An American Werewolf in London), it made a paltry $10.6M during its theatrical run. This lack of success at the time seems to have followed it into present day. While The Howling and An American Werewolf in London are held up by horror fans as classics of the werewolf subgenre, Wolfen rarely seems to get mentioned. It’s a shame because Wolfen is a very well made film that deserves to be seen and appreciated by horror fans.
Full Moon High
Release Date: October 9, 1981
Budget: ???
Box Office: ???
Directed by Larry Cohen, Full Moon High is the kind of joke-a-minute screwball teen comedy that was ubiquitous in the 1980s. It tells the story of a high school football player named Tony Walker (played by Adam Arkin) who gets bit by a werewolf while on a trip to Romania with his father (played by Ed McMahon). He then returns to America attempting to adjust to life as an immortal teenage werewolf. Hijinks ensue.
I watched Full Moon High for the first time in preparation for this piece. Perhaps seeing it at a younger age would have instilled some nostalgia in me, but it really fell flat for me seeing it as an adult. Larry Cohen has written and directed plenty of films that I enjoy (It’s Alive, Q, The Stuff, and Maniac Cop just to name a few), but this one just didn’t work for me.
It was also shockingly difficult to find much information about the film despite it streaming on numerous platforms. I scoured the internet looking for its budget and box office figures, but they were nowhere to be found. Even finding reviews was challenging. Rotten Tomatoes has aggregated only two reviews from critics at the time that I’m writing this (one positive and one negative). It’s so strange to see a film with an established director and loaded cast (Adam Arkin, Ed McMahon, Alan Arkin, Roz Kelly, Mary Elizabeth Hartman, and Bob Saget all appear) barely have a footprint online.
While not my cup of tea, it certainly should not be discounted for helping set the stage for werewolf-themed comedies to come later. Teen Wolf would hit cinemas just four years later in 1985 and become a box office hit while playing with very similar themes and plot points explored in Full Moon High. I also learned that comic book writer Jeph Loeb wrote Teen Wolf which is absolutely blowing my mind, but that’s a subject for another time.
Thus concludes the Year of the Werewolf. As a bit of a strange coincidence, I actually saw all four of these films in the order they were released (just many years later considering I hadn’t been born yet in 1981). This also concludes my five week streak of writing about werewolves. I promise that next week will feature a different topic. See you then.