Werewolf Wednesday: Eight Essential Howlers for a Full-Moon Marathon
- Adam Williams
- 11 hours ago
- 3 min read
Honestly, you can’t beat a great werewolf flick (well for me anyway). There’s something primal about them that never quite loses its bite. Maybe it’s the clash between civility and savagery, or the way these films weaponise isolation, transformation, and the terror of losing control. Whatever it is, Werewolf Wednesday feels like the perfect excuse to lock the doors, dim the lights, and let the moon do its worst.
Here are eight film suggestions (in no particular order) with each bringing its own flavour of fur, fangs, and full-moon fury.
An American Werewolf in London
(John Landis, 1981)
By Matt Ryan Tobin
Few films balance horror and dark comedy as effortlessly as this one. What begins as a backpacking trip turns into a waking nightmare, complete with one of the most iconic transformation scenes ever put to screen. It’s grotesque, tragic, and oddly funny all at once – like watching your worst fears unfold with a smirk.
The Wolf Man
(George Waggner, 1941)
By Nicolas Delort
Ah, the original. This film set the bar and sorted acted as the blueprint to what came after. Moody fog, cursed bloodlines, and a deeply tragic monster – this film didn’t just define the werewolf mythos, it cemented it. The sense of inevitability is what lingers: once the curse takes hold, there’s no escaping the beast within.
Howl
(Paul Hyett, 2015)
A late-night train journey derails into claustrophobic terror when something starts picking off passengers in the dark. What makes this one work is its tight setting and relentless pacing – there’s no escape, no help, just the growing realisation that something very hungry is circling. Not to mention a pretty unique and cool design for the werewolves.
The Howling
(Joe Dante, 1981)
By Sophie Bland
If An American Werewolf gave us pathos, this one delivered nightmares. It leans harder into psychological horror, with a creeping sense that the line between human and beast is thinner than anyone wants to admit. And those transformation effects? Still unsettling decades later. People always say American Werewolf or The Howling… why not both?
The Curse of the Werewolf
(Terence Fisher, 1961)
By elvisdead
Gothic horror at its most tragic. This film dives deep into the origins of monstrosity, painting the werewolf not just as a creature of violence, but as a victim of circumstance. It’s melancholic, atmospheric, and soaked in old-school dread. Unfortunately to date, this is Hammer’s only forte into this glorious sub-genre.
We went into a lot of detail on this one in our podcast series Hooked On Hammer.
Dog Soldiers
(Neil Marshall, 2002)
By Vojislav Jankovic
Pure adrenaline. A group of soldiers on a training exercise find themselves under siege in the Scottish Highlands, and what follows is a brutal, fast-paced survival story. The werewolves here aren’t cursed souls – they’re relentless, tactical predators. It’s loud, bloody, and wildly entertaining. An easy argument for one of the best werewolf films ever made.
The Wolfman
(Joe Johnston, 2010)
Werewolf Wednesday: Eight Essential Howlers for a Full-Moon Marathon
A modern reimagining that with atmosphere, gothic spectacle and great monster movie moments. Fog-drenched landscapes, crumbling estates, and a heavy sense of doom run throughout. While divisive and the odd dodgy looking CGI moment, it’s hard to deny the film’s commitment to classic horror aesthetics and visceral transformation scenes. When practical SFX are used, it’s easy to see why Rick Baker is still regarded as highly as he is. I’d put this one amongst the better horror remakes.
Silver Bullet
(Daniel Attias, 1985)
Small-town horror with a Stephen King touch. A series of grisly murders shakes a quiet community, and it falls to a young boy in a wheelchair to uncover the truth. It’s less about spectacle and more about suspicion – the creeping dread that the monster could be someone you know.
Werewolf films thrive on duality: man versus beast, reason versus instinct, safety versus the unknown. These eight entries each explore that tension in different ways – some tragic, some terrifying, some unexpectedly fun.
So this Wednesday, when the moon hangs just a little too bright, you know what to do. Dim the lights, grab some snacks (maybe a beer), lock the doors, put one of these on… and maybe don’t trust what’s scratching at your kitchen door
