PART 3 of 4 - A Zombie, Werewolf and Vampire walk into a bar…
This month we are diving into the love, fascination and strength of some classic monsters. We’ll cover some of the history through the lens of pop culture and try to wrap our head around the “rules” of each as we determine why each are so nightmarish.
We’ll wrap the month discussing the battle’s outcome. Join the conversation on social media to be included in our final CHAMPION discussion. Which monster would win in the situation noted? You decide.
BATTLE SYNOPSIS:
Its 9pm on a Saturday in October. The full moon is bright. A small corner bar in a hip area of town is super busy. Patrons crowd the bar for a drink. On one side near the entrance sits a vampire. Across the bar you find a werewolf, in the center, a zombie. The fight starts when the zombie turns and takes a fatal bite from a local…and the vampire locks the door.
WEEK 3: Werewolves
By Justin Pomerville
Werewolves' earliest origins seem to come from Greek mythology with The Legend of Lycaon. The story goes that Lycaon angered Zeus when he served him a meal made of the remains of a sacrificed boy. Zeus was so angry with this trick, that he turned Lycaon and his sons into wolves. In Nordic folklore, there’s a story called The Saga of the Volsungs which is about a father and son that discovered wolf pelts that had the power to turn people into wolves for 10 days. When the father and son put the pelts on, they went on killing rampages in the forest. The two only stopped when the father turns on the son and attacks him.
Throughout the centuries, there have been all sorts of these kind of stories about werewolves. In the 1700’s, we found a possible medical explanations for those who are accused of being werewolves. Science pointed towards food poisoning, rabies, hallucinations (from consuming herbs), and/or hypertrichosis (a rare genetic disorder that causes excessive hair growth).
Zeus turning Lycaon into a wolf; 1589 engraving by Hendrick Goltzius
Werewolves made their film debut in 1913 in a silent short film called The Werewolf. The film followed a Navajo woman who becomes a witch and teaches her daughter how to transform into a wolf to seek vengeance. Sadly, the film was lost in a fire in 1924. The first mainstream werewolf film was 1941’s Wolf Man, starring Lon Chaney Jr. and is considered the blueprint for future werewolf films over the years.
Lon Chaney Jr. and Evelyn Ankers in the 1941 movie The Wolfman
As talked about with the zombies and vampires, there are four different types of werewolves that have significant strides to adding to the lore of werewolves within media:
War-Wolf: Seen in films like The Howling, Dog Soldiers, and The Underworld series, these are the menacing wolves that dominated the 80’s horror scene. Characteristics of these monsters were that they didn’t have tails, had black or grey fur, usually stood about 7’ tall, fueled by rage, long fingers and claws, and can transform at will.
Action scene from 2002’s Dog Soldiers movie
Quadruped Wolf: Seen in The Twilight series and An American Werewolf in London are giant wolves. They don’t stand upright and are not as resilient as their war cousins. Characteristics include being 7’ long from tail to snout, have some self-awareness and rage control, black, brown, or grey fur, prefer biting attacks, and long whip like tails.
The fully transformed werewolf in American Werewolf in London
Pug Wolf: Seen in The Wolfman, Penny Dreadful, Teen Wolf, and Grimm, these are the ones that are more human like. These are the types that are used in most TV shows because they are easily made with prosthetics. Characteristics for them are obvious with the more human stature, elongated ears, long canine teeth, retaining most human self-awareness and control, slight snouts, prefer slashing attacks, least likely to kill their victims or turn them into werewolves, and some fur covering.
Michael J. Fox in 1985’s Teen Wolf
Full Wolf: Seen in True Blood, Wolf, and Wolfen, these ones are pretty self-explanatory. These guys are the most fragile of the bunch. However, they are the most dangerous when in packs, especially if you are a different type of werewolf. If a Full Wolf attacks and wounds any of the other kinds of werewolves, those wolves cannot heal from those wounds.
True Blood werewolf
The weakness of werewolves are all pretty universal. Silver bullets are your best bet to take any of these guys down, but it will take a couple shots. You can also remove their head or heart. Another weakness is that you can turn them on each other, as explained previously in the Full Wolves bio. They don’t play very well with each other. Probably the easiest way to kill a werewolf is to destroy the “human form” because it’s just a person. Easy target, unless they are some sort of specialist in some sort of combat.
Conclusion to "A Zombie, Werewolf and Vampire walk into a bar…"
It really depends on the type of werewolves that get locked in. Best bet would be a War Wolf because of the ruthless rage. That would be the greatest asset as well as not needing the moon in order to turn (which wouldn’t matter in this case). The other three would not have a chance in this scenario. When it comes to zombies, they can just rip them apart. And not being held back by the moon, they have more of an advantage with strength against vampires.
Honorable mentions:
Teen Wolf 1985 (noted above) Comedy/Fantasy Michael J. Fox is a high school nerd that finds out he’s a werewolf and decides to use those attributes for basketball. It’s totally what I would do.
Werewolves Within 2021 Comedy/Horror A very creative film that is basically Clue with a werewolf twist. Very funny and creative fun cast of mostly up-and-coming actors.
Silver Bullet 1985 Horror Based on Stephen King’s novel Cycle of the Werewolf, not the strongest film, it does have a memorable performance by Gary Busey.
Trick ‘R Treat 2007 Horror Although this movie is more of an anthology film, the section with werewolves is probably some of the best modern usage of the creature.