[[quoteright:250:http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wolfman-2009-250px.png]]
[[caption-width-right:250:Lon Chaney Jr. was the original Wolfman in the 1941 classic. Benicio Del Toro's Wolfman has an old-school look that pays homage to the original.]]
->''Go now, and may heaven help you!''
->''I used to be a werewolf, but I'm all right nowooooOOO!''
->''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.''\\
-- from '''The Wolf Man''' (1941)
Subtrope of OurWerewolvesAreDifferent, dealing with a BeastMan that has wolf features, but retaining human proportions.[[MonsterMash Together]] with Count {{Dracula}}, the {{Mummy}}, and FrankensteinsMonster, this is generally considered to complete the set of "classic" horror monsters. Unlike the other three, however, there is no single specific source of popular werewolf lore. The closest claim to one would be Lon Chaney Jr.'s character from the film ''The Wolf Man''.
However, far and away the most popular conceit is that a werewolf is a human who has somehow ([[EmergencyTransformation especially against his will]]) become able to temporarily transform ([[InvoluntaryShapeshifting usually unwillingly]]) into a wolf. Usual methods include a ViralTransformation spread by being bitten, but a lot of depictions show lycanthropy as solely hereditary. Other popular causes include [[CursedWithAwesome curses]] and typical MadScientist experiments.
In [[TheFifties 50's]] horror films, the transformation usually took the form of getting hair and fangs but otherwise remaining almost entirely human. (The "classic" Wolf Man appearance is not entirely dissimilar to the symptoms of a rare genetic disorder, hypertrichosis.) [[UndeadHorseTrope With the advent of more sophisticated make-up and visual effects, techniques have been developed that allowed more wolflike features on humanoids, such as giving a character a wolf's muzzle and ears.]] {{Phlegmings}} are popular for modern versions.
Depending on the adaptation, he [[TheMonsterSquad may or may not have nards]].
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!!Examples
[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]
* Liru from ''MagicalPokaan'' turns into a cute little puppy with anything round, strangely enough, except for the full moon.
* Wolf familiars Arf and Zafila of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', who are shown as capable of shifting from [[BigBadassWolf giant wolves]], to this, to full human (i.e., no wolf ears or tails), to FunSize versions of the first two forms. And just to punctuate the WolfMan image, Arf's first on-screen transformation ino a wolf was accompanied with a full moon in the background.
* Kotaro Inugami of MahouSenseiNegima is technically a dog boy, but he associates himself with wolves. He's also proven capable of [[spoiler: turning into a really BigBadassWolf at full power.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Comic Books ]]
* ''Werewolf by Night'' at Marvel Comics. The main character is named [[StevenUlyssesPerhero Jack Russell]], which is a breed of terrier.
* Mikola Rostov from ''TheWarlord'' was a Russian fencing instructor cursed to become a werewolf every full moon. he tried to escape his curse by moving to world of perpetual sunlight. This was not as successful as he might have hoped.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Film ]]
* ''The Wolf Man'' (1941) as stated above one of the main TropeMakers, though perhaps it is more the TropeCodifier and the slightly earlier ''Werewolf of London'' (1935 - not to be confused with the much later AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon) was the TropeMaker. (The now-lost 1913 Thanhouser film, ''The Werewolf'', was perhaps the UrExample.)
* The movie ''TeenWolf'' and the AnimatedAdaptation, ''Teen Wolf The Animated Series'', featured a light comedy version of this.
* Jack Nicholson in ''Wolf.''
* In the HarryPotter 3 film, Lupin's transformation has him with human-like proportions, bald, and extremely underfed.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Literature ]]
* The "Wolf and Raven" stories, which are part of ''{{Shadowrun}}'s'' ExpandedUniverse, feature a man who is posessed by Wolf, one of the many animal totems of the world, which grants him powers and mannerisms similar to the classic Wolf Man (as well as a SplitPersonality, of sorts). It should be noted that this is very different from the game's usual take on werewolves.
* The [[ProudWarriorRace Canim]] of the ''CodexAlera'' are a whole ''species'' of wolfmen.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' had Oz, who learned to suppress his normal transformations, but could also be triggered to transform outside of a full moon by stress. The series also had Veruca -- a minor love interest of Oz -- who had embraced the wolf inside her, making her a bad puppy.
* Wolf from ''TheTenthKingdom''.
* The main character from the aptly-named ''{{Big Wolf on Campus}}''.
* Eddie Munster from The Munsters was the werewolf child of a Frankensteins Monster and Countess {{Dracula}}
** You really have to question the genetics of that...
* George from ''BeingHuman'' turns into a sort of wolf-man creature during his "time of the month".
* Jiro/Garulu of KamenRiderKiva can transform from human to WolfMan at will.
* Parodied: [[ThirtyRock Werewolf bar mitzvah/Spooky, scary/Boys turn into men/Men turn into wolves...]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Music ]]
* The horror movie in MichaelJackson's Thriller video has a werewolf.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]
* Not surprisingly, the game ''[[WorldOfDarkness Werewolf: the Apocalypse]]'' was all about these, as is its successor, ''Werewolf: The Forsaken''.
** Not to mention the wide range of other werecreatures in both old and new Worlds of Darkness.
* ''{{Shadowrun}}'' has a virus which turns people into mindless Neanderthal types which get stronger and vicious during the full moon. However, they don't gain animal traits, beyond the extra hair. What Shadowrun does have are Shapeshifters, as in normal animals of all varieties spontaneously giving birth to magically active stock able to take on human form. Not to mention all the dragons who've learned the ability...
* ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'' brings us the Wulfen, werewolves InSpace. With guns.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Video Games ]]
* ''Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within''
* One level of ''[[OsuTatakaeOuendan Osu! Tatake! Ouendan 2]]'' has the group cheering on a werewolf as he struggles to keep from transforming in front of his girlfriend. Made more difficult for him because he transforms just by seeing things that are round, including balls, ice cream, and bald heads. If the player fails the song, the poor lug gets carted off to the pound. The actual ending of the stage has him finally transform in front of his astonished girlfriend, who turns out to be happy because she loves dogs.
* Werewolves are a common enemy in the PC game ''Nocturne'', appearing in all but one chapter, and they can be killed with any weapons; it's just that silver bullets kill them a lot faster.
* Saberwulf of KillerInstinct & J. Talbain of DarkStalkers.
* Tinek/T'Nique/whatever from ''[[StarOcean1 Star Ocean]]''. Despite the series borrowing heavily from ''StarTrek'' he's the only thing that comes close to being a shapeshifter in any of the games.
* Kevin from SeikenDensetsu3 is a beastman that turns into a full wolfman at night. This effectively gives him two sets of moves to the other characters' one.
* Berserkers in ''BattleRealms'' can be given the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Lycanthropy]] ability.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Webcomics ]]
* ''GirlGenius'' has the fanged, green, and hairy Jagermonsters. They mix elements of the WolfMan, JekyllAndHyde, and SuperSoldier.
** On top of that, they're just plain goofy, and easily this troper's favorite characters.
*** Unt don' anybody forgetink ze silly German akzent!
**** Und der ''hats''.
* One of the supporting characters in ''[[http://www.noroomformagic.com/ No Room for Magic]]'' is Roy, [[http://www.noroomformagic.com/d/20050915.html whose dad turned him into a werewolf]] so that he could survive gym class. [[http://www.noroomformagic.com/d/20051208.html It's made him less shy, but he feels compelled to sniff strangers' butts]].
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* ''{{Freakazoid}}'' did a parody of the original ''The Wolf Man'' with an obvious Lon Chaney Jr. parody coming to Dexter for help with his werewolf problem. Freakazoid, after forcing him to suffer numerous indignities, ultimately cured him by dumping him into the internet and back out again.
** This same episode even parodied the fake frame-by-frame transformations of the original Wolfman, for both the Lon Chaney Jr. {{Expy}} and Freakazoid himself. It was, in this tropers opinion, the best CrowningMomentOfFunny in a series full of them.
*''TheSimpsons'' did it during a ''[[HalloweenEpisode Treehouse of Horror]]'' episode where Ned Flanders becomes a werewolf.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: Web Original ]]
* Averted in this Cracked.com article, when the campers are attacked by what is obviously [[http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/671049 Bigfoot Man]].
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