The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves (22 page)

Without any humans to attack when in his violent werewolf state, however, Remus’s bloodlust would always overtake him. This caused the poor young man to bite and scratch himself, resulting in terribly painful wounds. Remus’s screams of pain and anguish were so loud that they reached the ears of nearby Hogsmeade residents, who soon came to the conclusion that the place was haunted by violent spirits. The shack was eventually dubbed the “Shrieking Shack,” and people kept their distance (which was probably a good thing, since the screams were coming from a blood-mad werewolf).

 

Eventually, however, Remus’s close friends James Potter (Harry’s father), Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew discovered the truth about his condition. They could not stand the idea of their friend being alone during such a horrible ordeal. In order to join him, they learned to transform into animals (according to Rowling’s story, werewolves only bite humans). James could become a stag, Sirius a black dog, and Peter a rat. The four young men became the best of friends, and their bond helped Remus to cope with his difficult condition.

 

Chapter 11

Werewolves in Film

The werewolf is undoubtedly one of the most popular monsters in the history of cinema. From the horror genre to comedy, werewolves have captivated filmmakers for decades. There exists a multitude of werewolf films. Some are classics … others successes … while a good many have also turned out to be total flops. To discuss every werewolf movie ever made would probably require a book itself. What follows is a sampling of the many portrayals of werewolves in cinema.

Released in December 1925,
Wolf Blood
was one of the first werewolf films in the history of cinema. Released as a silent film, it was written by Cliff Hill. The movie was directed by George Chesebro, who also starred in the tragic lead role of the lumberjack-turned-werewolf, Dick Bannister.

 

The movie began at a Canadian logging camp being overseen by boss Dick Bannister. Bannister’s logging enterprise had recently entered into a small but violent conflict with a rival logging company. Things grew more complicated when Bannister’s chief investor, a wealthy woman, came to visit and inspect the camp with her soon-to-be husband, a young and rather brilliant practicing surgeon.

 

One night, Bannister was attacked by loggers from the rival camp. They beat him severely and left him for dead. The badly bloodied Bannister was discovered and rushed back to the logging camp. The visiting young surgeon realized that Bannister had lost far too much blood and asked for volunteers to begin a transfusion. The superstitious loggers, however, all refused to take part.

 

Having no other option, the surgeon used the blood of a wolf to do the transfusion. By doing so, he managed to save Bannister’s life. The logging boss’s problems, however, were far from over. Bannister began having strange dreams in which he was running through the forest with a pack of ghostly wolves. In one dream, he and the pack slaughtered the men from the rival logging camp.

It was soon discovered that the men from the rival camp appeared to have been attacked and killed by a number of wild animals. The other lumberjacks also learned about Bannister’s violent and similar wolf dreams. A large majority of the loggers decided that Bannister was a werewolf and organized a lynch mob to destroy him.

Based on a story by Robert Harris and adapted for the screen by John Colton,
Werewolf of London
was one of the first talking pictures to deal with the subject of lycanthropy. The film was directed by Stuart Walker and starred Henry Hull as Dr. Wilfred Glendon, a brilliant young botanist whose studies led him on an expedition to Tibet.

 

While traveling through Tibet in search of rare and exotic plant life, Dr. Wilfred Glendon sought out and found the amazing mariphasa plant, the flowers of which only bloom under the light of the moon. During the expedition, however, he was attacked and bitten by what he believed to be a wild animal. In truth, it was a werewolf. After performing some initial lab tests, Dr. Glendon hypothesized that the flower bore a number of special properties that could benefit the medical and scientific communities. Ignoring the warnings of his local guide about the bite he had received (namely that werewolves seek to destroy the thing they love most—in this case, Glendon’s wife), the young botanist returned to London with the rare flower for further experimentation.

 

On the next full moon, Dr. Glendon transformed into a werewolf. Horrified by what he had done, he sought to find a cure through his experiments with the mariphasa flower. At first he was able to create a temporary antidote from the flower’s extract. Dr. Glendon’s experiments with the flower came to the attention of a strange Tibetan physician by the name of Dr. Yogami. It later turned out that Yogami was the werewolf who bit him back in Tibet.

 

Police later came to Dr. Glendon’s home while he was fighting Yogami (with both men in their werewolf states), and the officers opened fire on both of them. Yogami and Glendon were both killed and returned to their human forms. The police came to the conclusion that Yogami was responsible for the recent slew of murders committed by Glendon while under the influence of his werewolf state. The authorities deemed Dr. Glendon’s death to be an unfortunate case of mistaken identity and believed that he was fighting with a murderer to protect his family.

The Wolf Man
was one of the first widely popular werewolf films. Released in 1941, the movie was directed by George Waggner and the screenplay written by Curt Siodmak.
The Wolf Man
starred Claude Rains as Sir John Talbot and Lon Chaney Jr. as the tragic lead character, Lawrence “Larry” Talbot. The film also starred horror movie icon Bela Lugosi as Bela, a gypsy cursed with lycanthropy.

 

For 18 years, the very level-headed Larry Talbot had lived in America. When his older brother was killed in a hunting accident, however, Larry returned home to his family’s estate in England. When he arrived, he was met by his grief stricken father, Sir John Talbot, who begged Larry to forgive him for always neglecting him and lavishing attention on his brother. Father and son made amends, but all did not remain peaceful. That night, while looking through his father’s telescope, Larry set eyes on the beautiful Gwen Conliffe, the daughter of a store owner in town.

 

The next day, Larry went into town and visited the store of Gwen’s father. While there, he purchased an unusual cane, the silver head decorated with the head of a wolf and a pentagram. Gwen even told Larry that the pentagram was a sign of the werewolf, but he laughed this off as superstition and bought it anyway. He also learned, with some disappointment, that Gwen was engaged to Frank Andrews, the game keeper for his father’s estate. Nonetheless, Gwen invited Larry to join her later that evening, along with her friend Jenny, to visit a local gypsy camp to have their fortunes read by a man named Bela.

 

That night they went to the camp, and Bela the gypsy, upon seeing Jenny’s hand, said that she bore the werewolf’s mark on her palm. As the group walked away, disconcerted by his behavior, they soon heard howling coming from the woods. Jenny was suddenly attacked by a large wolf. Larry did his best to fend off the beast by beating it with his wolf-head cane, and he received a bite during the struggle that caused him to drop it. In the end, however, Larry was unable to save Jenny’s life. He and Gwen fled from the scene.

 

Larry escorted Gwen home and then returned to Talbot Castle. He was greeted there by the local magistrate, Colonel Paul Montford, who was also an old childhood friend of his. Colonel Montford explained that he had recently come from the gypsy camp, where Jenny’s mauled remains were found. He also explained that a man named Bela was found beaten to death nearby. Next to the man’s body, he explained, Larry’s wolf-head cane had been found. Larry tried to explain that they were not attacked by a man but by a wolf. He then held out his hand to show Colonel Montford the bite, which had mysteriously disappeared.

 

That night, Larry went back to the gypsy camp with Gwen and her fiancé, Frank, at his side. There they met Bela’s mother, a gypsy matriarch named Maleva. She asked Larry if he had been bitten. When he told her he had, she explained that her son Bela was cursed with lycanthropy. She also told Larry that anyone who is bitten by a werewolf and lives will also bear the curse of lycanthropy. Larry did his best to dismiss what she told him as the ravings of a superstitious old woman. Regardless, the encounter shook him up a bit.

 

That night, Larry watched his mirrored reflection in horror as he transformed into a werewolf. Under the influence of his wolf-state, he ran howling into the night. He came upon a local grave digger named Richardson and killed the man. Later, the scene was inspected by Colonel Montford and a local physician, Dr. Lloyd. They discovered wolf tracks leading away from Richardson’s corpse.

 

In the morning, Larry woke up and discovered a trail of wolf tracks that lead from the window to his bedside. Larry went down for breakfast with his father and asked him about the werewolf legend. Sir Talbot told his son that the werewolf legend is a metaphor for the inner struggle between good and evil within a man’s own soul.

 

In the meantime, Colonel Montford and Frank Andrews spent the day setting traps for what they believed was a man-eating wolf. That night, when Larry transformed into his wolf-state and ran wild, he was caught in one of the traps. Maleva found him and, once he returned to his human form, freed him from the trap. Larry couldn’t remember how he got there and was extremely disturbed.

 

Larry rushed back to town to find Gwen and tell her that he must leave immediately. She confessed her feelings for him and offered to run away with him. When Larry caught a glimpse of her palm, unfortunately he saw the mark of the werewolf on it. He told her that she couldn’t join him and returned to Talbot Castle. He tried to confess what had happened to his father, who concluded that his son had gone insane. Just in case, however, he tied Larry to a chair. He then locked his son in his room. Larry told his father to find the silver wolf-head cane and keep it with him. Believing it best to humor his deranged son, Sir Talbot took the cane.

 

Sir Talbot arrived at the outskirts of town and discovered that all the hunters in the area had gathered to bring down the man-eating wolf they believed killed Richardson. He encountered Maleva, who told him that his son was indeed a werewolf but that as long as he possessed the silver cane he would be protected. While all this was going on, Larry transformed, broke free of his bonds, and took off into the woods.

 

Sir Talbot went into the woods ahead of the hunting party, leaving Maleva behind. Gwen then showed up looking for Larry and followed Sir Talbot, despite Maleva’s warnings that to do so would end her life. Maleva then went into the woods as well.

 

In the woods, Gwen was attacked by the werewolf. Sir Talbot came running, wielding his silver cane, and began trying to beat the beast off of her. Sir Talbot killed the beast, saving Gwen but taking the life of his own son. The werewolf transformed back into Larry’s human form just as the hunting party arrived with Colonel Montford. The magistrate concluded that a normal wolf had attacked Gwen and that Larry, judging from his torn clothes, must have been killed trying to save her. Overcome by the truth, Gwen fainted and was caught by the arms of Frank.