Thanks to Leigh Whannell’s stellar reimagining of The Invisible Man, news of Universal reviving The Wolfman with a new take immediately prompted speculation on what that could entail. Universal’s revered 1941 classic, The Wolf Man, set the bar high for werewolf movies, especially when it comes to transformation sequences. It also set the tone for the tragic nature of contracting lycanthropy that would endure throughout the history of the subgenre.
In The Wolf Man, Lawrence “Larry” Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) returns home after the death of his brother. He’s hoping to reconnect with his estranged father and happens to fall for local antique shop owner Gwen (Evelyn Ankers). When he steps in one night to save Gwen’s friend from a vicious wolf attack, he’s bitten before putting the animal down with his silver-headed cane. That bite, much to his horror, curses him to transform into a wolfman by full moonlight and slaughter those unfortunate to cross paths with him. This strange affliction is so well-known in the village that the villagers all recite a nursery rhyme that sums up the heartbreaking reality:
“Even a man who is pure in heart, and says his prayers by night;
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.“
Not even the pure in heart are spared from the horrific fate of becoming a bloodthirsty beast by night. Larry virtuously tries to save a woman from being mauled to death, and it dooms him. He’s only there in the first place because he lost his brother and longs to make amends with his father. The character’s circumstances, Chaney Jr.’s performance, and his natural personality all melded together to create one of horror’s most sympathetic movie monsters.
Growing up, Chaney Jr.’s father discouraged him from following his footsteps into showbiz, so he went to business school and started work for a plumbing company. He never intended to be an actor. When his father passed away at the young age of 47, Hollywood came knocking, and Chaney Jr. eventually found the offers too good to pass up. Though he had numerous feature film credits under his belt by the time he assumed the role of Larry Talbot, Chaney Jr. had a fish out of water, clumsy sort of quality that lends so well to this particular character. Larry Talbot seemed uncomfortable in his skin before he’s bitten, and his desperation to stop his transformations amplified that awkwardness. Throw in stunning special makeup effects by legendary artist Jack Pierce, and it’s no surprise that The Wolf Man catapulted Chaney Jr. into horror stardom.
The Larry Talbot character would appear again in the Universal Monster cycle films Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. In every single movie, Chaney Jr.’s Talbot was a sensitive figure desperate to find a way to reverse his curse. More importantly, he was a sympathetic antihero. A typical ending among these sequels featured Wolf Man perishing with the featured villainous monster after a climactic battle, usually after saving a villager or protagonist from death. Only in House of Dracula, which was then the actor’s final contracted film with Universal, did Talbot finally receive the cure to lycanthropy. It proved short-lived, though, when Larry Talbot appeared three years later in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein to fight off Dracula in full Wolf Man mode.
In every reimagining or riff on the character, the Wolfman is a tragic figure. For The Monster Squad, the Wolfman (Jonathan Gries) is a desperate and reluctant slave to Dracula. In his monster form, he does his master‘s bidding. In human form, the man makes frantic calls to the police for aid and even demands to be imprisoned to prevent further harm to others. With his dying breath, he thanks Rudy (Ryan Lambert) for putting an end to his suffering. Though brief, this Wolfman’s appearances in this film highlight the tragedy of his existence.
Similarly, the werewolves in 2004’s Van Helsing are controlled by Dracula, who holds the only cure for lycanthropy. That cure is the driving force of the entire plot, and the film’s ending is a bittersweet one. 2010’s The Wolfman remake retooled some of the plot beats but left Larry Talbot and his fate mostly the same.
Werewolves in horror nearly all suffer the same fate with similar formulas. It starts with a bite, followed by the journey from body horror to the dawning realization that they’ve become violent murderers. Finally, it almost always ends with the only tried and true way to stop a werewolf- their death. From An American Werewolf in London to Ginger Snaps, we watch as characters grapple with the full scope of lycanthropy and all its grisly ramifications that ultimately culminates in their demise.
The exception to this blueprint seems to be acceptance. The characters that embrace their inner beasts tend to live past the end credits, for better and worse. During the unofficial ’90s cycle of Universal Classic remakes, 1994’s Wolf came close to offering a modern take on The Wolf Man with a less tragic fate for its werewolf. Protagonist Will Randall (Jack Nicholson) follows all the familiar stages of becoming a werewolf in a contemporary setting. It ultimately ends with him fully accepting the affliction and living out his days as a full wolf.
In horror, lycanthropy tends to be something forced upon its victim, whether through bite, curse, or inheritance. A primal inner beast that removes autonomy over your own body creates the perfect environment for sympathetic monsters. More often than not, becoming a werewolf results in death. There’s also the shocking loss of one’s humanity that is inherently lamentable. To become a werewolf is almost always a tragedy. It’s so deeply ingrained in the mythology that it’ll be interesting to see how and if the upcoming reimagining can break the cycle.
