History Main / HumanToWerewolfFootprints

* Sent up (along with many other HorrorTropes) in ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit''; albeit {{inverted|Trope}}. [[spoiler:Gromit sees the were-rabbit prints revert to ''human'' ones...and how they lead right into Wallace's room.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AceVentura'' cartoon series episode "Howl Of The Weremoose" there's a scene where Ace follows a trail of moose hoofprints that turn into human footprints.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Discussed: in the episode "Gem Hunt", Steven and Connie are chasing after a [[WasOnceAMan Corrupted Gem]] and come across a destroyed field with sets of both regular boot prints and the monster's foot prints, seemingly switching between them. While setting up camp, Steven and Connie talk about the possibility that the Corrupted Gem is somehow trying to return to her original form, and maybe isn't as corrupted as they originally thought. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this isn't the case: those boot prints belonged to ''[[BloodKnight Jasper]]'', who was also chasing after the Corrupted Gem to capture her.]]

* On the other hand, the wolves in ''[[Anime/WolfsRain Wolf's Rain]]'' can make themselves ''appear'' human, but they always leave wolf footprints.

->''"Seen as unsavory, the hunters were never allowed in town -- until one night they vanished."''\\
''"The boot prints became paw prints, and they led right back into town."''
-->-- '''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering''', [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=222124 Grizzled Outcasts/Krallenhorde Wantons]] flavor text

* Sent up (along with many other HorrorTropes) in the {{claymation}} film ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit: WesternAnimation/TheCurseOfTheWereRabbit''; albeit {{inverted}}. [[spoiler:Gromit sees the were-rabbit prints revert to ''human'' ones...and how they lead right into Wallace's room]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' episode "Dances with Werewolves" an encounter with a wolf convinces Steve that he's becoming a werewolf. This fear is reinforced when he wakes up to find bloodstained wolf prints in his bedroom. But actually the prints were left by the ''real'' wolf, which Roger is attempting to keep as a pet.

** In episode "Shapes", despite normally suffering from a horrible transformation into a beast, the tracks clearly change.
** The discovery of Tooms' stretched-out fingerprint in "Squeeze" is a variant.
* ''Series/LostTapes'': a typical example occurs in "Skinwalker", but not in "Werewolf" or other episodes involving shapeshifters, interestingly enough. A pair of men at Skinwalker Ranch in New Mexico are investigating a coyote problem and finds pawprints in the dirt which turn into human footprints. There's even a transitional footprint where it looks human but still has clawmarks at the end of the toes.

* ''Literature/Animorphs'': When the Animorphs are on a beach and realize that Controllers are closing in on them, everyone's first instinct is to morph to seagulls and escape -- except Marco, who reminds the others that if they did that, they'd leave human to bird footprints in the sand. Instead, they run into the water and morph to fish.

** PlayedWith: In ''Night Of the Living Pharmecist", the opening shows ordinary foot prints turn into Doof's foot prints. And then showing Perry's foot prints turning into Doof's foot prints.

* ''Series/{{Animorphs}}'':
** The very low-budget TV series featured this at least once to show how Ax got through a locked door. Human sneakerprints yielded to Andalite hoofprints to lizard tracks that went under the door, then hoofprints again, then sneakers and [[CoconutSuperpowers Ax in human form]]. All in such clear black prints that it looked like he'd paused every couple of steps to dip the relevant appendages in tar.
** Played much more intelligently in one of the books. When they're on a beach and realize that Controllers are closing in on them, everyone's first instinct is to morph to seagulls and escape -- except Marco, who reminds the others that if they did that, they'd leave [[HumanToWerewolfFootprints human to bird footprints]] in the sand. Instead, they run into the water and morph to fish.

* The 'folksong' "The Grisly Bride" doesn't specify that a werewolf specifically is at issue, but the lines run "his angry mind was gone, for where a two footed track gave out, a four footed track led on. Her night dress lay on the snow as it would on a bed sheet, and the track that led from where it lay was ne'er of human feet". The song ends with "an empty bedstead still waits for him, as he lies in a crimson tide. Beware beware all trapper men; beware of the grisly bride". Song possibly by Cynthia McQuillin but appears in regional variants.

* Used in one Cthulhu mythos story, where Nyarlathotep takes the form of a colleague of the protagonist. The protagonist realises something is amiss when he finds his friend's clothes stewn around outside the house and footprints that gradually change from human prints to something left by an enormous creature clearly not from this world.

* The song "Became" by ''Music/{{Atmosphere}}'' is a rare musical example. The narrator is camping with an unspecified close friend. He wakes up in the snowy morning to find that his friend is missing. He follows his friend's tracks...when he notices several wolf tracks following his friend's tracks. The narrator panics, thinking that this meant his friend was stalked and chased by wolves. Then he comes to a clearing in the woods where his friend's footprints disappear, replaced by a wolf's footprints (implying the friend was running ''with'' the wolves and transformed).

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Discussed: in the episode "Gem Hunt", Steven and Connie are chasing after a [[WasOnceAMan Corrupted Gem]] and come across a destroyed field with sets of both regular boot prints and the monster's foot prints, seemingly switching between them. While setting up camp, Steven and Connie talk about the possibility that the Corrupted Gem is somehow trying to return to her original form, and maybe isn't as corrupted as they originally thought. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, this isn't the case: those boot prints belonged to ''[BloodKnight Jasper]]'', who was also chasing after the Corrupted Gem to capture her.]]