In the Year of the Werewolf, We Look at Some of the More Novel Deployments of the Beast

In the Year of the Werewolf, We Look at Some of the More Novel Deployments of the Beast

This year and, to a lesser extent, next year look to be big for werewolves and wolf-men on the big screen. We kicked off this year with Cocaine Werewolf. Next came Kit Harington turning exceedingly furry in The Beast Within, which was so close to exploring something unique. To end 2024, we got the werewolf apocalypse in Werewolves.

Throw in the bitter-sweet news relayed by MovieWeb that Neil Marshall will be making another werewolf film, the menacing creature looks to be having a moment on the big screen. It all has us eager to explore some of the more unique horror interpretations of the beast.

A Native American Werewolf to Save the World

One of the more novel turns on the purpose of the werewolf in horror TV came in Penny Dreadful. In it, Josh Hartnett plays a charming gunslinger running from his past who ends up in London, wrapped up in a whole host of other supernatural and fictitious Gothic events and beings. What’s interesting about Hartnett’s character, Ethan Chandler, is that his backstory links to the Native American ties to wolves.

Native Americans are well known to have respected and even revered the animals around them, which is why they’re so often depicted as having close ties to bears, bison, eagles, and wolves. In fact, one of the best IGT slots is made all the better for being in a Native American theme and tapping into the power of wolves and the wilds. The wild times keep rolling in Wolf Run, where it’s all about meeting the mighty wolves and triggering the free spins with stacked wilds and the potential to retrigger over 200 times.

In the show, the Apache character Kaetenay encountered Chandler just after the werewolf had killed the Native American’s family, begging for Kaetenay to end it. Instead, the Apache who had turned him into a werewolf let him live to carry his guilt, but also to push him towards saving the world. Using dreamwalking and his own powers of hybrid man-wolf transformation, the Native American manages to guide Chandler down the right path to become a saviour rather than just a mindless beast.

To Juxtapose Red Riding Hood and Female Empowerment

In The Company of Wolves, the decision was made to reimagine the Big Bad Wolf of the tale of Little Red Riding Hood as a werewolf, and to use that angle to tell a rather different tale. On top of this, it features one of the most unforgettable werewolf transformation scenes put to film that even the crew from Star Wars thought was absurd when pitched.

In any case, in this British rendition of a werewolf from 1984, the werewolf is used in juxtaposition to Rosaleen (essentially Little Red Riding Hood) becoming a woman, becoming empowered in her female sexuality, and as a realisation of her grandmother’s warnings of those men who are “hairy on the inside.” Yet, there’s another twist, with Rosaleen falling for the beast and ultimately pitying them before running away together.

There seem to be a great many werewolves rampaging around right now, but for a different take on the classic or common werewolf tale, check out Penny Dreadful and The Company of Wolves.