Guess who's back? Back again. Chaney's back. Tell a friend
Return of the Wolf Man is a 1998 novel by Jeff Rovin tying in with Universal Horror films. It revolves around Larry Talbot, the werewolf character who made his debut in The Wolf Man (1941) and was re-used in crossover films such as Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.The story begins with a recap of the ending of Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, in which it is revealed that the Wolf Man survived his apparent death during his fight with Count Dracula. He meets the film's heroine, Joan Raymond, and after turning back into a human he convinces her to kill him and carry out a specific burial so that he will never be resurrected.
Fifty years later, in 1998, a group of people inadvertently revive the Wolf Man. Once he reverts to human form he is befriended by Caroline Cooke, Joan Raymond's niece. His initial concern is how to be killed once and for all, but his attentions are turned elsewhere when it transpires that Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster are back on the scene.
It was followed by two sequels, The Devil's Brood and The Devil's Night, both by David Jacobs.
This novel provides examples of:
- Arch-Enemy: Dracula is this for Lawrence Talbot. Dracula even accepts that the Wolf Man is the most dangerous and powerful enemy he has ever faced (counting human vampire hunters for centuries and armies). At a primal subconscious level, the Wolf Man understands his human self's hate for Dracula, but he also sees him as a rival predator.
- Artistic License – Geography: Talbot is identified as having lived in "Wales, England". Throughout the rest of the novel the names of the two countries are used more or less interchangeably.
- Continuity Porn: Talbot ended up existing in the same cinematic universe as Dracula, Frankenstein and the Invisible Man; the novel takes this as a cue to create a Massive Monster Mash Crossover working various other Universal horror films into the same continuity. The narrative touches upon the events of House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, Dracula's Daughter, The Mummys Tomb, Revenge of the Creature, The Deadly Mantis, The Monolith Monsters, Werewolf of London, Horror Island and, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, amongst others.
- Some references are more faithful than others. Sandra Mornay from Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is given a father named Miklos Mornay who "used electricity... to give additional strength and stamina to the bodies of the living [but] succeeded only in immolating dozens of people." This seems to be a reference to Man Made Monster — but the mad scientist in that film was named Paul Rigas.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The novel is a direct sequel to Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein; arguably, it owes a bigger debt to this film than to any other Universal Horror movie, even opening with a recap of the film's climax. And yet, from reading this novel, you'd never know that the film was a comedy.
- Devoured by the Horde: Subverted — while not devoured, the weakened Frankenstein's Monster is free from Dracula's control, and is put against him. They fight fair, but finally the Monster is ripped apart and gutted by a pack of ferocious supernatural wolves controlled by Dracula. This didn't kill him forever, overall, as he returned in the sequels.
- Fur Against Fang: The novel is mainly focused in the conflict between Talbot and Count Dracula. Dracula tries to use Larry Talbot as a superhuman slave with Frankenstein's Monster. There are some hostile meetings, but at the climax, they fight with the Wolf Man at full strength. The Wolf Man wins, impaling Dracula with a stake through his heart. Before the climatic fight, the Wolf Man fights against the vampire woman Sandra Mornay, killing her.
- I'm a Humanitarian: The Wolf Man's hunger of human flesh is more explicit here, and he actually eats the humans he kills. If the Wolf Man doesn't kill, Talbot's mind gains control over him. The Wolf Man only can feed on living humans, not undeads, as he only killed a zombie at a point, but is more centered in feed on Caroline, a living human.
- Immortality Seeker: The book fleshes out Dracula's origin story, which is hinted at in the Bram Stoker novel but never mentioned in the Univeral films. During life, as Vlad the impaler himself, while studying at Scholomance, he made a Deal with the Devil for immortality. You can guess how that turned out.
- Kill It with Fire: Evited. Larry Talbot implied strongly that fire cannot destroy his body and overall, fire can't stop the Wolf Man. Subverted with Frankenstein's Monster, as he have several wounds from his supposed ending in the last movie. Strange, considering that in the posterior movies after Bride of Frankenstein, he is immune to this, or at last, he can regenerate considerably quick, and the wounds are about 50 years old.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Larry explains that the werewolf is driven to do this; he married Milizia Morelle from House of Dracula, but two months later his brain rejected the surgery that had supposedly cured him and, when he transformed again, his wolf form murdered her.
- Monster Misogyny: Subverted. While Larry Talbot in his human form respect and admire women now, human women are the Wolf Man's prefered prey, and he recognizes them by scent and the hunger of human flesh. But when aren't women on his senses, he would gladly kill men instead. Played completely with Dracula, as he turns women into vampiric brides slaves as he did with Dr. Sandra Mornay.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Henry Pratt is named after Boris Karloff, whose real name was William Henry Pratt. Oddly, the main character Caroline Cooke appears to have been named after an uncredited extra who appeared in The Wolf Man (1941) (and The Mummys Ghost).
- It's not just characters: the novel names a cinema after Val Lewton (one of Universal's rival horror producers) and a brand of battery after special effects man Kenneth Strickfaden.
- The Nose Knows: One of The Wolf Man's most remarkable powers is his sense of smell. As both human and werewolf, he can easily track both monsters like zombies and humans like Caroline from four miles by scent. Dracula know this, so he ordered Sandra Mornay, his vampire bride, to walk in water so the Wolf Man can't track her. Dracula also posseses a keen sense of smell.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Played with when the novel addresses some of the inconsistencies and oddities in the films. The book establishes that Talbot becomes the Wolf Man on the days immediately before and after a full moon, thereby explaining his strangely frequent transformations in the movies. The idea that lycanthropy affects different people in different ways is also brought up, hence why Bela Lugosi's character in The Wolf Man (1941) turned into a four-legged wolf.
- Sequel Hook: The book ends with the three monsters — Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man — all apparently dead, but Caroline stays in the tombs, promising her friend Talbot that she will give him a permanent cure. The epilogue then has Dr. Wilfred Glendon III, a descendant of the original Werewolf of London, studying Dr. Frankenstein's notes about the Monster and the bride of Frankenstein. The story continues in the two sequels.
- Shout-Out: Early on, the book describes what happened to Chick Young and Wilbur Gray after the events of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein and suggests places they might have gone after the film, referencing multiple other films by their actors:The men left their LaMirada hotel room the day they returned. Some people said they assumed aliases and went to Mexico; others claimed they went to Africa; some maintained they'd joined the Foreign Legion. Whatever the truth, they never returned to LaMirada.
- Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Dr. Charles Stevens, one of the survivors of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, is killed off in the novel's prologue at the hands of the Wolf Man, which also reveals that Milizia Morelle from House of Dracula was killed by Talbot some time after the events of that film, as his brain rejected the surgery that was meant to cure him.
- Super-Strength: The iconic monster trio have this. Even the Wolf Man who is even stronger that Dracula.
- Took a Level in Badass: The Wolf Man is more powerful here than in his first film. He got superhuman strength on pair, if not superior to Dracula, who is more or less an One-Man Army physically.
- A True Story in My Universe: Early on, Dr. Stevens and Joan Raymond discuss Sandra Mornay's background, with Dr. Stevens revealing that Sandra's grandfather Sandor Mornay once had H.G. Wells as a guest in his house, and Wells based the title character of The Island of Doctor Moreau on Mornay and his deeds.
- Undead Barefooter: After her return as a vampire bride, Sandra Mornay is always barefoot.
- Unexplained Accent: Averted. In the Wolf Man films, Talbot has an American accent — despite being being the son of a British lord. The novel mentions his accent but establishes that he had an American mother and grew up in California.
- Voodoo Zombie: Dracula has some of these as his assistants; they are revealed to have been created by the magic of Legendre from White Zombie.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Played with. A few hanging plot threads from the films are picked up: for example, in Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Mr. McDougal survives being bitten by the Wolf Man; the novel establishes that he became a werewolf himself. He was preying in the humans on La Mirada for a time, before the events of Revenge of the Creature and travel to Tibet, searching a cure.
