For 20 years now I have taught summer school at the ALC. First I taught just one summer session, but for the past 15 or so, I have taught both sessions, 8 weeks. For over a decade now, I have had the pleasure of teaching an elective class here on Science Fiction. For the past 10 years, I have even been able to teach a second term class called Science Fiction II.
In this second class, I have been able to branch out into the realm of horror literature. So we now examine some of the major monsters of literature and film: werewolves, vampires, zombies, and - if time allows - witches.
So far this second session, we have focused on my personal favorite monster, the werewolf. We read Tannish Lee's great "The Werewolf," from the collection Curse of the Full Moon. In addition to that we also read the classic Saki story, "Gabriel-Ernest." In addition to those stories we watched the 2010 remake of the original The Wolfman as well as the 2020 film The Wolf of Snow Hollow, and we are finishing up with the recent film The Cursed.
We talked early on how the concept of the werewolf is really a metaphor for the duality of human nature, which is a concept as old as humans have been around. The werewolf is just one metaphor that is useful for illustrating that. Here is an excellent podcast, Lore, that explore this very concept in the episode called "Trees and Shadows."
Why is the werewolf my all-time favorite monster? I think it goes back to a very early memory of mine. My mother used to clean some homes as a part time job. She brought me to one of her friend's houses when I was young (probably four or so). While she cleaned, I naturally wandered around and explored. In one of the kids' rooms I found a poster of Disney's The Three Little Pigs.
I couldn't find a poster on the internet that matched what I saw in that bedroom, but this was the wolf from it for sure -
In the poster I saw, he was chasing the three little pigs. There was just something sinister about how this wolf was running on two legs and how eager he was to catch - and devour - the little pigs. I was terrified by the image and dashed out of the room. However, my imagination kept drawing me back there. What was this wolf's story? Why did it run on two legs? What did it have against these three pigs? How was it going to catch them and eat them?
The more I answered those questions with my mind, the more frightened I became. The more frightened I became, the more I found myself drawn back to that poster!
I would linger for a few moments staring at that poster only to dash back out, afraid that the wolf would come out of the closet after me. Then I'd be drawn back into the room, avoiding the poster at all costs until the urge to look at it was too strong. Then I'd linger a few moment longer staring at the Big Bad Wolf before racing back out . . .
I realized something now that I didn't quite understand then: I enjoyed being scared.
I experienced the same thing a few years later when my brother, Kevin, turned to HBO (my father would never spend money for a subscription, but when HBO would have a trial where you could get it free for a week, we were all over that). What was on but John Landis' iconic horror/comedy An American Werewolf in London.
I was drawn in as the two poor Americans hitch hiked their way across England only to wind up being kicked out of a small bar on the night of a full moon. They ventured out into the night, heeding the advice "Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors. Beware the moon, lads." Of course, the two hear a creature howling - though at the time in sounded like no howling I had ever heard of, and they take off running, leaving the road well behind them.
Soon the howling/roaring is circling them. The main character, David Kessler (played by David Naughton - of Dr. Pepper fame - and who would go on to play a bit role in a Seinfeld episode as Elaine's boyfriend in The Red Dot episode) falls into a small hole while running. As we get a moment of comic relief as his best friend, Jack Goodman (played by Griffin Dunne), laughs and helps him up, only to be pounced on by the werewolf and ripped to pieces.
It was at this moment that not only did David take off running, but so did I. I flew out of the living room, through the dining room, and into the kitchen - the well lighted kitchen - where Mom and Dad sat at the kitchen table.
I stayed there for several minutes before - just as with the Big Bad Wolf poster - I was drawn back to see what was going on with David and the werewolf. I returned just in time to see a nude David running through the woods and leap upon a deer and rip into its throat.
Well, that did it, and I was back in the kitchen.
I never finished the film . . . until a few days later when I had fallen asleep on the couch and Kevin came home late. He was sitting on the other couch eating on one of Mom's TV trays while he watched TV. When I checked what was on, I realized it was again An American Werewolf in London.
Yes! Now was my chance to finish it. I made it through the attack on the moors and was just to the part where David painfully transforms into the werewolf after having been bitten himself on the moors only to have Dad wake up and come out of the bedroom to see what was going on.
Of course, he sent me upstairs to my room to sleep while he left Kevin to finish the film.
Again, I was terrified. I covered my head with the pillow but I was certain I could hear the werewolf howling from downstairs as well as the screams of its victims.
I was frightened . . . and I liked it.
And that might have been the end of it until one day Mom, Dad, and I were over visiting my sister's husband's family at the dairy farm. Usually I hung around his brothers and we tore around on their three wheelers or leaped from the bales in the hayloft, but for some reason we were gathered around the TV in the living room while his parents and mine sat and played cards at the kitchen table.
We watched the Saturday afternoon movie, which just happened to be The Howling, the other iconic werewolf film of 1981. I figured here was my chance to make up for the disastrous attempts to watch American Werewolf in London.
But I was wrong. This was even more terrifying than American Werewolf in London. By far. These werewolves looked far more sinister and evil. Their transformations were more horrible than the ones in American Werewolf in London. In American Werewolf in London, the murders were never fully shown. They were just hinted at. In The Howling, even if it was just on regular TV, the killings were on fully display. You got to see the werewolves sink their teeth into their victims and rip them apart! Worse still, in American Werewolf in London, there was only ONE werewolf. But in The Howling, the whole damn town was full of them!
This film still has me in its grip. If it were on TV - and for awhile it was available for free on Amazon Prime - I don't know if I could watch it.
Of course, that didn't keep me from reading the book that it was based on, The Howling by Gary Brandner, when I found it in our little RLF library.
After that, I was hooked on werewolves. It would be several more years before a fledgling network called Fox would debut a series called Werewolf, which also terrified me. Unfortunately, it only lasted a season or two and then was cancelled just as the plot was finally getting really interesting. Then I read Stephen King's The Cycle of the Werewolf and watched my first full werewolf movie, Silver Bullet, based off King's book, at my friend Simon Geller's house one night in 1987.
But that all pales in comparison to the ultimate werewolf experience: Cry Wolf by Alan B Chorister, which must be a pseudonym for I have never found anything else written by this author, and the novel ends with one of the best set ups for a sequel ever too!
Up to this point, I had read my fair share of werewolf books, but when I got a copy of this from Pamida, I was hooked and terrified. This did for me what the film, The Howling did for me. This was truly horrifying stuff - there is an entire family at a vacation cabin that draws the attention of a pack of werewolves. They immediately transform and begin racing toward the cabin while the father ushers his family inside and they begin to shoot (no silver bullets though) at the werewolves. They are all wiped out in a truly horrifying scene. As a 8th grade, this was the best thing ever! I was hooked deeply now by my favorite monster, the werewolf.
Which in a very roundabout way brings me back to the current focus on Science Fiction II at the ALC, and some lists I decided to devise for anyone interested in delving in more to werewolves.
Best werewolf short stories -
10. "Gabriel-Ernest" by Saki. This is a short classic. So much irony and a creepy werewolf tale with some excellent description.
9. "The Werewolf" by Tannith Lee. Don't let the boring title fool you. This is excellent. Plus, it has one of the great chase scenes I've read in along while.
8. "The White Wolf of Kostopchin" by Sir Gilbert Campbell. As improbable as the appearance of this werewolf is, there is an amazing scene where the main character finds the remains of a hermit in the middle of the swamp who has been victim of the white wolf. It's creepy all the way around with some of the most pitiful child characters you have ever read. This one is on an audio book that the kids and I often listen to if we are stuck in the car.
7. "Dissertation" Chuck Palahniuk. He is more famous (or notorious) for his epic Fight Club, but this werewolf tale is one of the most original I've read. This is part horror story, part social commentary. A young research suspects that lycanthropy is evident in Native American tribal genes. She has evidence of a young girl from a tribe who was traveling on an airplane and transformed on the flight, causing it to crash and bringing news crews trying to make sense of the disaster. She seeks to meet with members of the tribe - and finds the brother of the girl how died on the plane. She is seeking to get them protective rights for their genetic anomaly. Finally, the brother agrees to take her to the tribe to interview them. Of course, is he leading her to her death as the tribe will want to bury their secret as they have for centuries or will they use her as an advocate for their rights?
6. "The Lame Priest" by S. Carleton. A werewolf tale set in the prairie as a lone woodsman is kind to a traveling, lame priest, who is cursed as a werewolf. Though the wolf is driven to seek human prey, he tries his best to avoid the woodsman's home . . . until he is driven there one full moon night.
5. "Cell" David Case. This one is creepy as it unfolds on you. A bachelor inherits and old house in the country from an eccentric aunt. When he arrives to explore it, he finds her husband's journal. In it, he discovers the cause of her eccentricity - her husband was cursed to transform into a werewolf on the nights of the full moon. In order to help him, they construct a cement cell in the basement. One day he notices a van leaving the house before he gets home. Then he discovers that his wife had a worker drill a peep hole into the cell so she can see the type of beast he turns into. This is when she finally decides to never let him out of the cell. But there is more to the story, and I don't want to wreck it for you.
4. "The Quiet Boy" by Nick Antosca. This is technically not a werewolf story so much as it is about a Wendigo, but close enough for me. It's short and terrifying, especially the elementary school who sacrifices everything (literally) to protect this strange little quiet boy in her class.
3. "Twilight at the Towers" by Clive Barker. If it's by Barker, you know it is excellent. In this tale Barker examines what would happen if during the Cold War both sides used werewolves as secret agents.
2 "The Skin Trade" by George RR Martin. This might be the greatest werewolf tale ever. It's The Maltese Falcon meets The Howling with a little bit of The Hound of the Baskerville's thrown in for good measure. And it's a wild ride that you won't forget. In fact, I just re-listened to it mowing the lawn the other day. Still as sharp and scary as ever!
1 "The Gentleman's Hotel" by Joe R. Lansdale - amazing. This features one of his constant heroes, Jebidiah Mercer, who is a minister who is cursed by God to travel the Wild West and kill all things evil . . . including a town ravaged by a pack of werewolves every night.
Best werewolf novels
10. Cycle of the Werewolf - Stephen King - A graphic novel that takes some liberties with all the key holidays falling on the night of the full moon, but it is classic King, which means it doesn't pull up on any of the attacks.
9. Mark of the Werewolf - Jeffrey Strand - This has one of the best endings imaginable for a werewolf story. This is the tale of an ancient werewolf, who has been looked after by a group of gypsies for as long as anyone can remember. However, when the man falls into the hands of some neo-Nazis, they use hypnosis to dig into his past, which is thousands of years old. He is cursed to live forever. He manages to pass the curse along with another man, who survives for thousands of years into the future. Which is where the amazing ending comes in - the man is on a space ship traveling through the galaxy, seeking refuge from the moon and death. However, he unfortunately arrives on a planet that has dozens of moons . . . with a full one appearing every hour! Classic!
8. The Wolfman - Nicholas Pekearo - What if a private investigator was a werewolf? Here is that tale.
7. The Wolf's Hour - Robert R. McCammon - Building off of Barker's concept with "Twilight at the Towers," the British powers use a lycanthrope as a soldier and undercover agent in WWII.
6. Breed - Chase Novak - This is the story of a young yuppy couple desperate to have a baby. Unfortunately, the rouge doctor they find after all their attempts with other doctors fails has a method that does indeed make them pregnant, but it also turns them into werewolves . . . with a fierce desire to eat their young. The opening of this novel, where the parents rationally lock their children away inside their apartment, knowing they will be blood thirsty monsters just a few hours later, is as chilling as it gets.
5. Mongrels - Stephen Jones - One of the best modern werewolf books I have read. Jones examines the werewolf myth with fresh eyes and explores many issues that most books and tales never explore. For example, what happens when a woman gives birth to a werewolf? Hint - it kills her.
4. Darker Than You Think - Jack Willamson - A classic tale of shape shifts and an insidious plot to bring them back to the glory days when they ruled over humans tens of thousands of years ago.
3. Those Across the River - Christopher Buehlman - This one I'm just finishing now, and it's excellent. Hint - "those across the river" are werewolves.
2. Wolf Hunt - Jeff Strand - If you read anything by Strand, you know it's going to be hilarious. This is one of the best and wildly original novels I have ever read. It is the story of two gold-hearted thugs who are hired to drive a man in a cage across Florida. As they set out, it is soon revealed that the man in the cage, Ivan, is a supposed werewolf. Strange things happen that cause our thugs, George and Lenny, to suspect that something odd is going on. Sure enough. Ivan is a werewolf. And he escapes. That means George and Lenny have to recapture him. And it's a wild and hilarious ride form there.
1. Cry Wolf - Alan B Chronister - Reading this in the summer of 1987 while listening to Judas Priest's Priest Live is one of the best moments of my youth. It was terrifying, and I didn't want it to end. Chronister is heavy on the attack scenes and the blood and guts. I have re-read it once, and it is just as good. I didn't want to mess with how I remember it, but it stood up to the test of time.
Best werewolf films
10. Silver Bullet - Based off King's The Cycle of the Werewolf. So what if the werewolf looks more like a man in a wolf suit, but this has some serious creepy scenes, such as when the werewolf - in human form - corners the boy who knows his curse on an old covered bridge during the day.
9. Wer - A family is slaughtered while on a camping trip. Their camera footage is the only thing left. But it reveals that the family was attacked and killed by something. That something turns out to be a man who has what seems like hypertrichosis. However, once the doctors begin to poke and prod him, they realize he really is something terrible.
8. Werewolves Within - A film version of the classic role playing game.
7. The Boy Who Cried Werewolf - I caught this campy B movie on TV one afternoon when I was six or seven. Though the werewolf is foolish by today's standards, back in the late 1970's, this werewolf terrified me. It is the tale of a young boy who, while in the woods fishing with his father, is attacked by a werewolf. The father fends it off but is bitten. I found something horrible about living with the person who was supposed to protect you, yet that very same person will be driven to attack and eat you on the nights of the full moon. And that's pretty much the whole plot of the film.
6. The Cursed - This one came out this year. And it's a unique take on the werewolf legend. Lycanthropy is a curse - and it is inflicted by a group of gypsies, who are later murdered, who have in their possession the cursed silver that Judas was paid to betray Jesus. The gypsies cast the silver into teeth, which when buried cause the children of the village to dream of them and drive them to dig them up. The young boy who digs them up is then driven to put them into his mouth. He attacks the first young man he sees. He is bitten and will become a werewolf and spread the curse.
5. Ginger Snaps - This is a fascinating film linking lycanthropy with becoming a young adult. This is the story of two sisters, one who is attacked by a werewolf and - you guessed it - has the curse passed along to her. This curse tests their bond as sisters.
4. The Wolf of Snow Hollow - Another modern film on the werewolf legend. This revolves around a werewolf killing females on the nights of the full moon in the small town of Snow Hollow and the young sheriff, who is battling his own demons, and his quest to save his town.
3. American Werewolf in London - The classic by which all other werewolf films are measured. Part comedy part tragedy and all horror.
2. The Howling- I've written about this previously. I have never made it all the way through after my first initial watch years ago. It is just too damn scary. I've seen the awful sequels and remakes many times, but nothing is going to top the terror that is this.
1. Dog Soldiers - released in 2001 by directed by Neil Marshall, who would go on to direct the classic, The Descent. This is the story of a military exercise in England gone horribly wrong. A unit of soldiers is sent in for a training exercise - of course, their weapons aren't even firing real bullets. Just blanks! What this group doesn't realize is that an evil commander is really using them as bait. To lure in a family of werewolves that have been prowling the countryside for decades. Luckily for the unit, though, the family attacks the commander's unit of elite soldiers instead. The commander is the only survivor. Of course, the test unit finds him - and the slaughtered elite unit - as the sun sets on the second day. They hear howls as the family is coming back to tie up loose ends.
The unit retreats through the woods, only to stumble upon a loan female traveler in a Jeep. They narrowly escape and seek shelter in the nearest farmhouse where they reload and tend to their wounded. Unfortunately, they learn that the werewolves has surrounded them. And they learn that they are actually seeking refuge IN the house of the family of werewolves! They just have to survive until dawn. A classic that deserves a sequel.
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