The crimson eyes of the werewolf still glare at us from the midnight
depths of our ancient roots deep in primordial forest. From the halls of
Ancient Greek kings and from Roman horror stories, to medieval law
courts and modern crime scenes, the lycanthrope has stalked us across
the centuries.
In the contemporary world of the concrete jungle we may feel masters of
our bestial ancestry, but the werewolf reminds us that our teeth were
evolved to tear living - perhaps even human - flesh, that our place atop
the food chain remains precarious.
We are now most familiar with the wolfman courtesy of Hollywood. Over
the past century, a diverse pack of lycanthropes has manifest on the
silver screen - in big-bucks blockbusters and zero-budget B-movies -
each revealing a little more of the nature of the beast.
Within these colorful pages we will encounter reluctant wolfmen and
shapeshifting sadists, Nazi werewolves and werewolf nuns, big bad
fairytale wolves and lycanthropic nymphomaniacs.
Your guide is acclaimed author, broadcaster, occult historian - and
lifelong werewolf obsessive - Gavin Baddeley. By finding fresh
perspectives on established classics, uncovering neglected gems, and
even examining a few howlers among the definitive selection of werewolf
movies reviewed, Baddeley shows how the myth has adapted and
transformed: whereby werewolves become analogies for alcoholism or
adolescence, or ciphers for sexual awakening or serial murder.
Providing our foreword is the award-winning director, writer and
producer Neil Marshall, whose brilliant debut feature DOG SOLDIERS
reinvigorated the werewolf movie for the 21st Century.
So, the moon is full, the wolfsbane is in bloom... Time to brave the
fogbound moors to find out who - or what - is responsible for that
baleful howling... all is revealed in the FrightFest Guide to Werewolf
Movies.
