Phases of the Moon: A Cultural History of the Werewolf Film

273 Pages·8.764 MB·English

by  Craig Ian Mann

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Phases of the Moon
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Phases of the Moon
A Cultural History of the
Werewolf Film
Craig Ian Mann
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For the Monster Squad
Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK.
We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the
humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial
and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more
information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com
© Craig Ian Mann, 2020
© Foreword, Stacey Abbott, 2020
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
The Tun – Holyrood Road
12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry
Edinburgh EH8 8PJ
Typeset in Monotype Ehrhardt by
IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd, and
printed and bound in Great Britain
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 1 4744 4111 7 (hardback)
ISBN 978 1 4744 4113 1 (webready PDF)
ISBN 978 1 4744 4114 8 (epub)
The right of Craig Ian Mann to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and
Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders for the images that appear in
this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publisher will be
pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
Cover image by Mute: www.mutecult.com
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Contents
List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements viii
Foreword: Monsters Everywhere by Stacey Abbott xi
Introduction: Bark at the Moon 1
1 Wolves at the Door 12
2 Dogs of War 39
3 Pack Mentality 62
4 Hounds of Love 86
5 What Big Teeth You Have 109
6 The Better to Eat You With 132
7 Old Dogs and New Tricks 158
8 Shapeshifters 181
Conclusion: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? 208
Notes 218
Bibliography 236
Index 247
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Figures
1.1 A still from the lost film The Werewolf (1913), originally
published in Universal Weekly, in which the she-wolf
Watuma is confronted by men of God 15
1.2 The villainous Dr Yogami, as portrayed by Warner Oland
in Werewolf of London (1935), functions as a xenophobic
embodiment of the ‘yellow peril’ 22
1.3 The Wolf Man shows his heroism as he prepares to do
battle with Frankenstein’s creature at the climax of
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) 34
2.1 Phyllis Allenby fearfully reads up on werewolfery in
She-Wolf of London (1946), before discovering she is
not suffering from the ‘Allenby Curse’ at all 50
2.2 A lobby card produced to promote The Mad Monster (1942),
illustrating the power that Dr Cameron holds over Petro,
his test subject 55
2.3 The atomic mutant as imagined by The Werewolf (1956),
in which Duncan Marsh becomes a monster after he is
injected with irradiated wolf’s blood 60
3.1 The Devil’s Advocates meet a group of satanic monks in
Werewolves on Wheels (1971), creating a striking visual
contrast between the bikers and the devil-worshippers 73
3.2 In The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973), monsters attack
their families; here Robert Bridgestone looms over his
sleeping wife, Sandy 77
3.3 An American theatrical poster for The Werewolf of
Washington (1973), featuring an image and tagline that
both belie its obvious political commentary 81
4.1 The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) features a beggar who
takes on the characteristics of a wolf after years of
imprisonment 90
4.2 An original Italian poster designed to promote Lycanthropus
(1961), which clearly plays on the film’s preoccupation
with sexual violence 98
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FIGURES vii
4.3 At the opening of Werewolf Woman (1976), Daniela
experiences a vision of her ancestor, who celebrates her
sexuality before transforming into a she-wolf 100
5.1 The monstrous ‘new werewolf’ as it appears in The Howling
(1981) – a distinct departure from the wolf-men that had
dominated the werewolf film since the 1930s 110
5.2 David Kessler experiences extreme pain and suffering as he
transforms in An American Werewolf in London (1981) 118
5.3 In Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985), werewolfery
is associated with sexual deviancy; here, Stirba has group
sex with two of her followers 129
6.1 A poster for Silver Bullet (1985), depicting the
baseball bat that functions as a recurring metaphor
throughout the film 139
6.2 During a dream sequence in Silver Bullet (1985), the
citizens of Tarker’s Mills transform into werewolves
during a funeral in an indictment of conservative values 140
6.3 In a satirical comment on Reaganite masculinity, ‘The Wolf’ –
portrayed here by Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf (1985) –
resembles a caveman as much as a wolf-man 155
7.1 The special make-up effects worn by Jack Nicholson in
Wolf (1994) were designed by Rick Baker to recall the
classic wolf-men of the 1930s and 1940s 159
7.2 Having chosen to embrace his werewolfism, Will Randall
fully and irreversibly transforms from human to lupine
form at the conclusion of Wolf (1994) 165
7.3 The werewolf cops central to Full Eclipse (1993) are designed
to recall comic book superheroes such as the X-Men 169
7.4 In Ginger Snaps (2000), the eponymous Ginger Fitzgerald
becomes increasingly monstrous as her behaviour spirals
out of control 175
8.1 When Animals Dream (2014) opens as Marie is enduring an
invasive examination by Dr Larsen, establishing her distaste
for being objectified 189
8.2 In WolfCop (2014), vigilante werewolf Lou Garou fights
crime in his uniform even when transformed, but ultimately
does not represent the establishment 199
8.3 In Howl (2015), werewolves slowly transform into monsters
over a prolonged period of time, giving them a distinctly
human appearance 203
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Acknowledgements
One dark afternoon in the 1990s (when I was nine or ten years old),
a friend invited me to his house to watch horror films, having convinced
his parents to buy a VHS box set containing Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992),
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) and Wolf (1994). We watched the
latter, in which Jack Nicholson turns feral and urinates on James Spader’s
shoes. I borrowed the tape and didn’t give it back for a decade. In the fol-
lowing years, I watched as many werewolf films as I could. So my first
thanks go to Ryan Watson – who sussed the fine art of convincing his
parents to buy horror films for him at an impressively young age.
The seed of this book was planted in my undergraduate dissertation,
written at Sheffield Hallam University in 2010, which was inspired in
equal part by a lifelong love of werewolf fiction and Shelley O’Brien’s
module on the American horror film. I’m grateful to Shelley for think-
ing that writing about werewolf films was a good idea in the first place
and her supervision of both that dissertation and the thesis that formed
the basis of this book. A huge thank you is due to the director of my doc-
toral studies, Sheldon Hall, who has continually challenged me to make
my work better; constantly encouraged me in furthering my professional
development; provided many obscure films; answered my tiresome and
often inane questions at all hours of the day and night (I’m not actually
sure when it is that he sleeps); read first (and sometimes second . . . and
third . . . ) drafts of almost everything I have ever written; and offered a
spellchecking service that money couldn’t buy. I also owe a great deal of
gratitude to Gillian Leslie and Richard Strachan at Edinburgh University
Press for all their help, guidance and, perhaps most importantly, patience.
Writing this monograph would have been considerably more difficult
without the help and support of several individuals who have provided
material that would otherwise have been difficult to obtain: thanks to
Angela Quinton of Werewolf-News.com for maintaining an incredibly
useful website; to the late Peter Hutchings – a giant in horror studies –
for providing his contribution to the collection She-Wolf (2015), and to
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
the editor, Hannah Priest, for several other chapters; to Lowell Dean for
granting early access to WolfCop (2014); to Simon Brown for providing
his conference paper on Silver Bullet (1985) and his endless kindness; to
Kieran Foster for digitising The Werewolves of Moravia; to Stacey Abbott,
Chi-Yun Shin and Iain Robert Smith for their vital examiners’ comments
on my thesis; a second thanks to Stacey for graciously agreeing to pen a
foreword to this book; and a huge thank you to Dave Huntley for pro-
ducing some jaw-dropping cover art. Thanks are also due to others who
have offered so many forms of help and encouragement along the way:
Sergio Angelini, Liam Ball, Kev Bickerdike, James Blackford, Jon Bridle,
Louise Buckler, Jake Burton, Leah Byatt, Andy Cliff, Chris Cooke, Jon
Dickinson, Liz Dixon, Larry Fessenden, Liam Hathaway, Chris and Lisa
Hopkins, Dawn Keetley, Murray Leeder, Kurt McCoy, Mike Mann, Joe
Ondrak, Jon Robertson, Caitlin Shaw, Suzanne Speidel, Eric J. Stolze,
Chris Suter and Johnny Walker. Special thanks are due to Stella Gaynor,
Shellie McMurdo, Laura Mee and Tom Watson; they know why.
I can’t offer enough thanks to my mother, Gillian Mann, who has always
supported me and has made untold sacrifices with no (well, very few)
complaints; did everything she could to fuel my love for movies from a
very young age; and even encouraged my passion for horror films – unless
it was The Exorcist (1973), which was for many years kept in an ominous
black box on the top shelf of the video cabinet. Finally, thank you to Rose
Butler, who was the primary sounding board for the majority of ideas in
this monograph, for listening to me complain during frustrating spells
of writer’s block, watching a great many films of somewhat question-
able quality and spending several years silently tolerating my tendency to
turn nocturnal during writing periods (along with a number of other bad
habits). I hope you found what you were hunting for.
*
An earlier version of Chapter 3 was previously published in ‘Horror Studies’
10.1 (2019).
A section of Chapter 5 was previously published with Arrow Video’s
2019 release of An American Werewolf in London (1981).
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