L-R, top-to-bottom
- An American Werewolf in London: The werewolf in this film is a definitely quadrupedal, over-sized animal, looking rather like a husky that has swallowed a large barrel, with limbs set more like a crocodile's than a wolf's; moreover, it has a howl like a train-whistle. Oh, and while Jack ambiguously dismisses the concept of a silver bullet, riddling the werewolf's body with regular gunfire seems to work just fine, as shown by the werewolf at the beginning and David at the end. It also almost single-pawedly popularised the horrible transformation subtrope.
- The transformation from American Werewolf In London is paid tribute to in Fright Night (1985) where Evil Ed (who is a wolf at the time during that scene) turns back into a human.
- While Are We Monsters follows the classic full-moon transformation, Alternate Identity Amnesia, and Silver Bullet tropes, the only lupine quality it gives them are the sharp fangs, claws, and glowing eyes. Their human forms are also invulnerable to non-silver wounds until a Blood Moon, where their werewolf form becomes a manifestation of their worst fears. While they still keep the name, they can be more compared to the Rokurokubi with the long neck they tend to have.
- Bad Moon features a werewolf that changes every night, without the need for a full moon, and that doesn't need any special method to kill (or harm).
- The Asylum 's Battledogs is basically a Zombie Apocalypse with werewolves.
- In Big Bad Wolf has a werewolf that can still retain its human mind, and talks even in werewolf form. Of course, this means nothing when this particular werewolf has the mindset of a serial killer and serial rapist.
- In Big Fish by Tim Burton, the main character suspects that the circus ringmaster is a werewolf; it turns out he actually is a werewolf, but not an evil or monstrous one.
- In Blood & Chocolate (2007), werewolves are known as loup-garoux and can transform into wolves at will, not needing the full moon. They transform by leaping into the air, at which point a bright light surrounds them and they morph into wolves. This differs from the book the film is based on (it's a very loose adaptation), where they painfully shapeshift like more classic werewolf transformations.
- Bloodthirsty: They can change at will after coming to grips with their nature it seems, and there's no sign they're affected by the moon's phases. It's a hereditary condition, passed by parent to child. They can also be killed with ordinary weapons, rather than things such as silver being required.
- The Boy Who Cried Werewolf:
- For one, the werewolves are the good guys in the film, as explained by Madame Varcolac during the scene where she details the history between vampires and werewolves.
- For some strange reason, the townspeople are not scared of them. Guardians or not, you would think some people would be cringing in terror (though considering the werewolves saved the world from vampires in the past, they could just know better).
- People also can become werewolves through three different methods: inheriting the condition from a relative, being bitten by one, or being infected with one's blood.
- Overall, they seem pretty standard to modern depictions otherwise, transforming under the full moon and having a weakness to silver. Along with that, they appear to have a Healing Factor, since Jordan's allergies and poor eyesight are cured upon becoming one.
- Bubba the Redneck Werewolf: These are sapient beings created by deals with dark forces. They don't shapeshift, and are permanently wolf men. They have Super-Strength and don't feel pain due to a Healing Factor. Their minds are altered to give them more dog-like traits, like catching Frisbees and enjoying girl-on-dog porn.
- The Company of Wolves has a very different take on werewolves, in that they're actually much more faithful to the medieval version of werewolves, albeit combined with a lot of hard-to-understand symbolism. But hey, the transformation sequences are awesome; the wolf form literally tears its way out of the human skin.
- According to the mockumentary The Compleat Al, Michael Jackson is actually a werewolf.
- Cry of the Werewolf depicts Werewolves as people who use magic for Voluntary Shapeshifting into the form of a wolf, and this magic can be taught alongside other forms of magic (Celeste, the main Werewolf of the film, is also a hypnotist, and attempts to brainwash another woman into becoming a Werewolf herself). The transformation is apparently instantaneous, and conveniently stows away the Werewolf's clothes. A museum curator also describes Werewolves as being The Dreaded even in comparison to Vampires, since only someone who is Axe-Crazy would willingly turn into a Werewolf so as to kill people. This movie happens to predate the codification of the "transmitted by bite, turn on night of a full moon, weak only to silver" depiction of Werewolves, hence why it is so different from the usual.
- Celeste also acts as much as a Sorcerous Overlord as a Werewolf, using a loyal mole acting as a museum janitor to prepare the murder of the curator, and using various other magical feats besides turning into a Werewolf and killing people.
- While they are stronger than baseline humans or wolves, a sufficiently strong human can go toe-to-toe with them, and they can be killed with regular bullets.
- In Cursed, Werewolves have a powerful sexual allure to members of the opposite sex. The curse itself seems to confer an uncanny ability to pull off complex pro-wrestling moves in high school wrestling matches, the animus of dogs, and Voluntary Shapeshifting abilities even on the night of a full moon. Lycanthropy can be sexually transmitted as well as by bite or inheritance (the Big Bad Joanie even outright states that there's "no such thing as safe sex with a Werewolf" in a Motive Rant), and killing the cursed werewolf that infected you won't cut it for the cure... you have to kill the natural-born werewolf that infected it.
- Deadtime Stories: Willie, the werewolf in "Little Red Riding Hood", transforms into a classic Wolf Man, but takes sleeping pills to knock himself out during the full moon.
- Dog Soldiers: These werewolves physically resemble the depiction established by The Howling. While transformed, they operate like a pack and are tactical. They transform during the full moon, but can resist the transformation if they wish, though apparently not until the night's end. Silver weapons don't kill them, but they do cancel out their Nigh-Invulnerability. When not harmed by silver, they're impervious to and recover from being pumped full of lead and having their faces scalded, but can be killed with lots of fire.
- Frankenstein's Bloody Terror: These turn others any time they draw blood, have a black star on their bodies as a sign of their curse, and can only be killed by silver piercing their heart, sent there by somebody who loves them. Otherwise, they're put into stasis until the silver is removed.
- The Ginger Snaps trilogy.
- The first film has its title character bitten by a werewolf on the night that she gets her first period. Unlike most werewolf movies, Ginger's transformation into the monster (which is of the Man-Wolf type) is gradual and irreversible, and there are many ties with the onset of puberty. Silver and wolfsbane (usually referred to as monk's hood) work on the werewolves, though the latter must be liquefied and injected to have any real effect, and the infection can be spread not just through bites but also through unprotected sex. Werewolves also turn out to be as vulnerable to mundane vehicular manslaughter and kitchen knives as they are to specific weaknesses. While the film never draws attention to it, lycanthropy is portrayed about as scientifically as possible, with few if any overt supernatural elements and the transformation coming off more as The Virus.
- In Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, Ginger's sister Brigitte — who survived but was infected — takes regular, weakened doses of monk's hood in order to inhibit her transformation. It's revealed that the effect of monk's hood is not only temporary, but that the body gradually builds up a tolerance to it and requires ever-greater doses to stave off transformation, extending the first film's puberty metaphor to one for drug addiction.
- The third film, Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, comes up with an ingenious — and squicky — method to detect whether or not one is a werewolf: put a leech on the person. If the patient is a werewolf, then the leech turns into a massive were-leech upon drinking the infected blood, and both are swiftly put down by the fort's guards.
- In the Brazilian movie Good Manners, lycanthropy is completely hereditary in this story. And not even being bitten by a werewolf through breast-feeding will transform you into one. However, many other classic werewolf tropes are in full effect. Werewolves also retain elongated nails and excess hair when transforming back, which becomes a problem as Dona Amélia sees an unconscious Joel right after a full moon and quickly realizes what he is.
- One of the fake movie trailers in Grindhouse is for a Rob Zombie-directed Nazisploitation movied called Werewolf Women of the SS. It's very silly.
- The 1961 Hammer Horror The Curse of the Werewolf (a loose adaptation of Guy Endore's The Werewolf Of Paris) starred Oliver Reed as the werewolf.
- In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Lupin's transformation has him with human-like proportions, bald, and extremely underfed.
- Horrors of War: These are ravenous creatures stuck in wolf form by mad science, only kept in check by shock collars until they're let loose to kill as many people as possible until slain themselves. They resemble humans with semi-lupine features, but no more hair than they had in life. The disease is transferrable via bite, and somehow turns into more traditional lycanthropy when spread.
- In House on Bare Mountain, Krakow, who works for Granny Good running her still and roams the grounds scaring the girls whenever there is a full moon, is a 7n ft. tall werewolf who seems to be permanently stuck in his wolf man form.
- Howl (2015): The werewolves in this film have a somewhat more human-like appearance than most portrayals, with the major wolf-traits present in their anatomy being their golden eyes, pointed ears, jagged teeth, claws, noses and digitigrade legs. Otherwise, they still possess distinctly human features including being largely hairless. Jenny even flat-out states that the werewolf who attacked her looked more like a man than an animal. Their vocalizations are a mixture of wolf-like howls and snarls, and vaguely human-sounding grunts and distorted rasps, which sound particularly disturbing. Lycanthropy infects and turns new people into werewolves via bites; but unlike the mainstream Shapeshifter depictions of werewolves, this version of lycanthropy is treated as a pathogenic mutation which slowly and increasingly transforms the victims and makes them lose their human identities in a zombie-like manner. The transformation after infection appears to be one-way and permanent. It's unknown if the full moon has any influence over these werewolves or the disease that turns them (the film's events take place on the night of a full moon). It's also worth noting these werewolves were still about in the final scene in morning daylight. They're completely feral, but still somewhat intelligent, and Scar seems to be a sadistic hunter.
- The Howling:
- The modern upright-beast man style made its popular debut in The Howling (1981), which featured infectious werewolves who otherwise acted as a species who could change at will and seem to retain their own minds, though with predatory instincts. It should be noted that both An American Werewolf in London and The Howling came out in 1981 (as well as the sorta werewolf movie Wolfen). Together, they make an almost perfect example of this trope in action. In The Howling a character points out that the werewolves must be killed with silver, while saying the full moon thing is just Hollywood made up stuff; In An American Werewolf in London, the titular character transforms during the full moon, and silver bullets are dismissed since regular bullets work just fine.
- Howling II: Stirba: Werewolf Bitch had Transylvanian werewolves who exhibited more vampiric traits (aversion to holy water and only a stake through the heart can kill them) and are weak to titanium instead to silver.
- In Howling III: The Marsupials, we are introduced to werethylacines
. The movie also implies that the therianthropes of that reality are akin to the wolves in Wolf's Rain, as they've evolved to become human to survive human persecution of their baser species (the wolves in Russia, thylacines in Australia). What makes that especially weird is that, despite being ten a penny in the rest of the world, shapeshifting myths are completely unknown in Australia. - Howling IV: The Original Nightmare: The Werewolves from this movie are Satan worshipers whose appearance ranges from being bestial to a full wolf form. Newborn Werewolves also complete their first transformation by melting into a puddle of goo and reforming into a wolf-like shape.
- Howling V: The Rebirth: This Werewolf has an upright bestial appearance like in the first movie and can quickly transform at will.
- Howling VI: The Freaks: The Werewolf in this movie is more like a traditional movie werewolf; he lacks control over his transformations and is triggered by the full moon or a spell being uttered. His appearance has a more human-like face than those seen in prior Howling movies.
- Howling VII: New Moon Rising: This Werewolf apparently has the power to take over peoples bodies and is possessing one of the town inhabitants, despite being the same Werewolf from The Rebirth. Their final form is achieved with a CGI morph effect and a cheap Halloween mask.
- The Howling Reborn: The werewolves here alternate between having a hairless humanoid appearance, or being a traditional bipedal beast-man for seemingly no apparent reason.
- Michael Landon in the 1957 film I Was a Teenage Werewolf, who turns into a wolfman through hypnotherapy.
- Jack & Diane: Diane's condition is apparently meant to be lycanthropy, though it's far from clear in the film itself. Mostly she dreams of turning into a monster that bears only the merest resemblance to a wolf or any similar creature, it's not affected by moon cycles specifically (but apparently it coincides with Diane's period) and never even clear if she's transformed.
- Ladyhawke features a couple of young lovers cursed to take on animal form at different times, as to keep them apart; the man turns into a wolf at night, and the lady into a hawk during the day. They can only be together during the moments of dawn and dusk.
- The Matrix Reloaded uses a very bizarre iteration of this trope. The Merovingian uses old programs from previous versions of the Matrix as his private Mook Army — notably because they are powerful and notoriously hard to kill, even by Agent standards. The programs themselves are said to be variations of werewolves, vampires, and ghosts. But other than The Twins, the rest don't really exhibit any of the typical traits (other than Persephone using a silver bullet to kill a supposed werewolf program).
- Monster Brawl: These are Wolf Men who maintain full sentience, but do transfer their affliction by bite.
- The Wolfman from The Monster Squad was a pretty solid Wolf Man. Regular bullets didn't work on him, as revealed in the scene with the cops and the coroner guy. In his first encounter with the protagonists in the old house on Shadowbrook Road, he gets kicked in the nards by "Fat Kid" Horace, which proves to be quite effective. After being blown up by the main character and his father and recovering, he's finally finished off when Rudy, the oldest of the titular group, uses a silver bullet to kill him.
- My Animal: Heather is a werewolf, transforming each full moon like usual. She chains herself up so she can't hurt anyone, having previously clawed her mom. She's only able to be outside on a full moon for a fixed, limited amount of time without turning into a wolf, and has an alarm set on her watch to alert her. It turns out to be hereditary, as her dad and her brothers are werewolves too. When her dad dies, he reverts to wolf shape, with his family cremating his body in an impromptu fashion so it's not discovered.
- Never Cry Werewolf: Werewolves in this version keep control over their wolf form (though in this case, he was evil even as a human). They can infect people just by slashing them a bit with their claws rather than bite them, and claim those people's souls, giving them the ability to talk to them telepathically. Their curse can be broken if the werewolf that cursed them is killed prior to midnight of the next full moon. Some also transform themselves voluntarily with a ritual, rather than being infected.
- Nosferatu has a scene of a werewolf (actually, a hyena) roaming the inn that the protagonist stops at en route to Orlock's castle in the Carpathians.
- Red Riding Hood: One can only be turned into a werewolf if they are bitten by one during the Blood Moon. And only those that are in their bloodline can understand what they say. Everyone else hears only growls.
- Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt is about Spain's first documented Serial Killer: Manuel Blanco Romasanta. During his trial, he was diagnosed as suffering from lycanthropy: a mental illness in which a sufferer has episodes where they believe they transform into a wolf. The film plays up the mystical aspects associated with the case and, through Gory Discretion Shots and certain events being witnessed Through the Eyes of Madness, leaves it open as to whether Romasanta is a genuine werewolf; a madman who believes he is a werewolf; or a cunning criminal employing Obfuscating Insanity to avoid punishment for his crime.
- Silver Bullet has a werewolf who is a church pastor and changes EVERY NIGHT, though he gets less "wolfish" in form and thought the further away time gets from the full moon, and vice versa.
- The werewolves in Skinwalkers are of the Wolfman variety. They turn on the full moon, but the existence of a Red Moon causes them to change regardless of the moon phase. Also, if one feeds on human flesh, it causes them to permanently develop a more wolf-like personality, though the severity varies from each werewolf.
- The infamous Cantina Scene from A New Hope showed a Shistavanen, which though not werewolves certainly fit the bill of "wolfman◊". The Star Wars Expanded Universe gives us "wyrwulves", the nonsentient canine immature form of the Codru-Ji; KotOR also provides rakghouls, who in terms of transforming someone who has been bitten fall squarely between werewolves and zombies with a dash of Body Horror.
- Teen Wolf and the Animated Adaptation, Teen Wolf The Animated Series, featured a light comedy version of this. These werewolves were hereditary, and could transform at will retaining full mental faculties, but lost control of the transformation on nights of the full moon.
- Trick 'r Treat has this as the twist. Laurie and her friends are a pack of all-female werewolves who change their form by tearing off their human skin to reveal their true forms underneath in a rather gruesome way. They also seem to congregate on Halloween nights to party and devour people.
- Underworld (2003) and its oddly named sequels answer the age old questions of what would happen if vampires and werewolves got into a centuries old blood war, and what would happen if someone was turned by both vampires and werewolves. In Underworld, werewolves, or lycans, are from the brother strain of the virus that produced the vampires. There are two strains of werewolves. The first came from the first werewolf, William Corvinus, and all those bitten by him. They're dire wolves, but they can never turn back to humans ever again, and they've permanently lost their minds. The second version is the ones descended from Lucian, who was born from a woman who had been turned by one of William's wolves while pregnant. They are monstrous man-wolves with jet black skin and very little hair. The latter ones go berserk on their first transformations, but as they age they can gain control. They can voluntarily transform during the full moon, but they don't have to, and again, older ones can transform when they please. Both forms are transferred via a bite, though it's briefly mentioned that only a small percentage of humanity can be turned, and in the rest, the virus is fatal. Both forms are regenerating immortals. (Immortal to an extent anyway; silver works, but ripping their head off without silver works too). There's also Michael Corvin, who's a badass hybrid as a result of Selene turning him near the end of the movie, but resembles a werewolf far more than a vampire, likely because he was bitten by a werewolf first. He's a wolf man, and has complete and total control over his transformations, sometimes even doing partial transformations with ease.
- Lucian is also notable for having learned precise muscle control, allowing him to expel silver bullets before they poison him. Unfortunately, this is useless against silver nitrate, which is a liquid.
- Similar to Michael, Marcus becomes a hybrid by accidentally tasting the blood of a lycan. However, since he was a vampire first (the first vampire, no less, which is what allows him to survive the transition), his new form is distinctly more bat-like, even including wings that allow him to fly or impale anyone. He still appears to fear sunlight, but that may be a psychological effect from all the centuries of fearing it and the unwillingness to test his limits. He is even tougher than Michael, although being put through a Helicopter Blender appears to do the trick.
- In later films, more hybrids appear, and they are all immune to silver.
- Van Helsing features big muscular werewolves that rip the skin off their former human selves when they transform. When they turn back into a human they tear off their werewolf skin.
- Werewolf (1996) was wildly inconsistent in its portrayal of the titular monsters; they vary between looking like really hairy men and looking like "a bear with a bat mask." Even a scratch from a dead werewolf's bone is enough to transmit "werewolfism" to other people; one victim gets scratched and transforms while driving. Mike and the 'bots did not let this pass without comment; for instance, the sketch where Mike accidentally gets scratched by Crow and begins transforming into a "were-Crow", or "Where Oh Werewolf". The film has the gall to go out of its way to argue that its titular beast is "not a traditional white man's movie monster", but is actually a Skin Walker. And then proceeds to have said werewolf behave... exactly like a white man's movie monster. It is claimed that the silver bullets only incapacitated one of the infected characters. And the inconsistent makeup seems to just show progression; they just look very hairy at the start of their transformation, and wear the bat-mask when they're fully "wolf". By the way, said werewolves aren't very tough; a random bystander gets into a fistfight with one, and almost wins.
- The now-lost 1913 Thanhouser film, The Werewolf, was perhaps the Ur-Example, although the few—and admittedly vague—descriptions suggest they used a dog or wolf/dog mix for the werewolf rather than making up a human.
- The Werewolf 1956 has Duncan Marsh, the first on-screen character to turn into a wolfman through scientific means rather than supernatural causes.
- In Werewolf Castle, they're humans who've willingly renounced their humanity in favor of living like a beast. They can transform at will and can stay in their human form if they please, as demonstrated with Wolfstan and Thorfinn.
- Werewolf of London (1935), the earliest extant werewolf feature film (some silent werewolf films existed, but are now lost), introduced the moon/werewolf connection and the contagion meme. Not only does the full moon cause the infected to transform, but the only antidote for the transformation (the "mariphasa") is a fictional flower which only blooms under moonlight.
- Werewolves on Wheels: These ones are of the Wolf Man variety, created by a Satanic curse and weak to fire.
- The Werewolf Of Woodstock (1975) starred Tige Andrews as Bernie, a werewolf who got his lycanthropy through an electrical power surge.
- Werewolves of the Third Reich: These are genetic chimeras made from human and wolf DNA. They're intended to be berserk super soldiers, but the experiments haven't gotten that far by the time of the film.
- The Werewolf of Washington: These ones are your standard Wolf Man deal, but they also have a star-shaped mark on their chests in human form.
- Werewolf: The Beast Among Us has an In-Universe example - it turns out the particular werewolf in the film is a different kind then the werewolf hunters are used to dealing with. Justified as this werewolf was a result of an experiment of a mad scientist who's using the werewolf to kill people.
- Wolf (Mike Nichols) has Jack Nicholson's character Will gradually become more and more werewolfish in his behavior during the days leading up to the full moon. In desperation, he acquires a mystic amulet that will supposedly prevent his transformation, but all it does is keep him in a half-man/half-werewolf (think about that one for a moment) state. Until the guy he bit shows up, more werewolfish than Will and threatening Will's new love interest. Will tosses the amulet aside and quickly catches up to the other werewolf, finally looking like a Wolf Man lite before leaving. At the end of the film it's revealed that the curse has run its course and Will has become a full wolf. And his girlfriend is going to be one, too. After next month, at least.
- Wolfman: These werewolves are your traditional Wolf Man archeype, except they're caused by a Satanic curse and an index finger longer than the others is a sign of lycanthropy.
- Curt Siodmak built on the above foundation in the script for The Wolf Man (1941), and added the henceforth near-unavoidable weakness to silver. "Even a man who is pure in heart, and says his prayers at night, may become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright." A less copied touch is the trait of having the werewolf seeing the mark of a pentacle on his fated next victim. Even less copied, Lawrence Talbot (the hero/villain of the movie and its sequels) can come back even after being killed with silver if his body is exposed to the light of a full moon. This happens at least twice over the course of the movies.
There are references to the use of silver against werewolves as far back as in the 18th century or more. Back then silver was considered effective against all sorts of evil entities, and wasn't absolutely necessary in disposing them. In fact there are stories of using silver against them that go back to the 16th century, and possibly earlier, it merely wasn't that common until recently when this film made it popular. - Wolves: Features both rare pure-bred werewolves and the kind who became werewolves from being bitten. Although they do change, they're "mutts" and not as powerful as the born kind. Either way, their transformations are either voluntary or caused by strong emotion, especially anger. The full moon doesn't make them change, but does affect their emotions so it's more likely. They all, however, look suspiciously like people in furry masks.
