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Vampires & Zombies are popular, so why not Werewolves?

Trek4Ever

Trek4Ever

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
I've been wondering about this alot lately given the plethora of shows and movies featuring vampires and zombies. They're very popular so why isn't there a craving for werewolves.
Sure they pop up as supporting characters or villains in vampire productions (True Blood, Twilight, etc.) but it seems like any attempt to have werewolves be the main draw falls flat.
The most recent example was this year's Wolfman movie that came and went without much notice. In fact I believe the last successful films about them were the Howling and American Wereful and that was back in the 80s when their makeup was revolutionary. Maybe it has to do with the way they are usually shown now. Often they use obvious CGI or actual wolves whereas vamps and zombies are done with makeup that still carries the day. Just guessing.
 
Werewolves will surge in popularity as soon as someone does a good movie with them again. Any interest in reviving them was killed off by the pedestrian Wolf Man remake.

I do agree the genre hasn't been explored much. The original Wolf Man is the only one I would consider classic, although I got a few chuckles from American Werewolf in London.


Isn't there a Frankenstein film being made? I think a remake of The Black Cat could be promising.
 
As I said in a similar thread a while back:

Gaith said:
The problem might be that werewolves are too alive for Big Media's puritanical tastes. Vampires can be sleek, cold, detached mopers and brooders who dress well and agonize about their soulless plight. Werewolves, on the other hand, are living, hot-blooded, beasts who like red meat, roaring fires, and a good time.

In short, any really solid depiction of werewolves would show them having copious wild and hot shagging. But since Big Media loathes nothing so much as a group of people that enjoys getting it on... they get neglected.
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^ I don't know about that... The vampires of the nineties were pretty sensual, though not always sexual. And True Blood, the biggest thing in vampires after Twilight, is deliberately sexual, dedicating several episodes to an entire town swept by orgiastic mania.

Every decade deserves it's monster. I say. Werewolves ran wild in the 80s because of the way they echoed the alpha male, greed-is-good predatory mentality of the time. The decadent vampires of the 90s, a culture searching for a new identity post-Cold War and experiment with new movements and paradigms. The zombies of the naughties, both the omnipresent threat and mindless group-fear of a collectively paranoid decade. I have no idea what to make of the current vampire trend--I can't figure out where, in the zeitgeist, they're coming from. And yet, I'm hesitant to ascribe it to mere imitation. Can it be that the success of one piece of pseudo-Harlequin Mormon emo-porn is enough to breathe life to all the other vampire products to have arisen since? Probably we'll need the benefit of a few years' remove to call it one way or another.

RoJoHen said:
Moody, emo Frankenstein. :p
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I'd say Victor's the former, the Monster's the latter.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
 
I can't stand the vampire craze, and with the exception of 28 Days Later (which some argue aren't even zombies) and Shaun of the Dead (a film which mocks the zombie craze), zombies don't do it for me either. The idea of werewolves have interested me but I haven't seen, listened, or read a story that I enjoyed...until this past weekend. I listened to Big Finish's Doctor Who audio play Loups-Garoux where The Fifth Doctor and Turlough encounter a group of werewolves in late 21st century Brazil. I would love to see more stories that dealt with werewolves like that audio play handled them.
 
Zombies have been done to death (or, perhaps, undeath) and one zombie film is very much like the next one. There is really not enough one can do with them, storywise, to keep people coming back. I place them in the same bracket as most "Horror" slasher flicks: they're not real horror (psychological) and suffer from the old "showing the bear too early" syndrome; there is little tension left to manipulate your audience with.

The only zombie thing that shows any promise is this new "Walking Dead" series - and then only because they focus on the universal story of human survival (and keeping the zombies in the background)...

On the subject of werewolves, the only "recent(ish)" thing of any note I recall was "Werewolf" back in the 1980s. Again, that one succeeded for the same reason that "The Incredible Hulk" did: apart from the occasional "Hulk-outs" it had a relatable 'human' story - the 'tragic man alone' searching for a "cure" (in Werewolf's case, finding and killing his 'maker').



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I'm in agreement with the line of thinking that there just hasn't been a good werewolf movie or series of movies, or perhaps more importantly a line of werewolf books (to base movies and/or a TV series off of) that have yet captured the public's imagination.
 
DarKush said:
I'm in agreement with the line of thinking that there just hasn't been a good werewolf movie or series of movies, or perhaps more importantly a line of werewolf books (to base movies and/or a TV series off of) that have yet captured the public's imagination.
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This, something to capture the tween imagination along the lines of Wolf, the Jack Nicholson/Michelle Pfeifer film. That could easily be turned into a High School setting and play of characters. School paper writer/ Nicholson's character, Sports Jock for Spader's character and Pfeifer as the prom queen girl of the series.
 
Kirkman1987 said:
Werewolves will surge in popularity as soon as someone does a good movie with them again. Any interest in reviving them was killed off by the pedestrian Wolf Man remake.

I do agree the genre hasn't been explored much. The original Wolf Man is the only one I would consider classic, although I got a few chuckles from American Werewolf in London.
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I liked Mike Nichols' "Wolf" with Jack Nicholson. It was an intelligent, interesting take on the werewolf theme.

Gaith said:
As I said in a similar thread a while back:

Gaith said:
The problem might be that werewolves are too alive for Big Media's puritanical tastes. Vampires can be sleek, cold, detached mopers and brooders who dress well and agonize about their soulless plight. Werewolves, on the other hand, are living, hot-blooded, beasts who like red meat, roaring fires, and a good time.

In short, any really solid depiction of werewolves would show them having copious wild and hot shagging. But since Big Media loathes nothing so much as a group of people that enjoys getting it on... they get neglected.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Trent Roman said:
^ I don't know about that... The vampires of the nineties were pretty sensual, though not always sexual. And True Blood, the biggest thing in vampires after Twilight, is deliberately sexual, dedicating several episodes to an entire town swept by orgiastic mania.
Click to expand...
Long before True Blood, the vampires of Buffyverse tore that theory to shreds. They were having lots of sex - hot, wild, often rough and kinky sex. In spite of supposedly being (un)dead and room temperature, they were all very lively, and many acted as if they were 'hot-blooded'. Some of them also smoked (don't ask me how that works with the supposed lack of breath :lol:), drank alcohol in addition to blood, and most of them loved having a good time.
 
The Underworld movies are as much about werewolves as vampires, though the Vamps tend to get more screen time. I realise this isn't really what the OP is talking about though. I'm not really sure why there hasn't been a good "Wolfman" movie in ten or twenty years.

And before anyone mentions it, the creatures in Twilight aren't werewolves, they're shape-shifters that turn into wolves. Yes, there's a difference.
 
They crop up. There's a very good werewolf in Being Human.

The best werewolf though is in the Discworld books in the Ankh Morpork Watch. She's great.

I don't see that many zombies being popular. I wonder that there aren't more ghost stories being made though.
 
That trailer looks truly rubbish but I can't believe Gary Oldman could ever be unwatchable, so I have to reserve judgement.
 
There have been some interesting werewolf projects in recent years: DOG SOLDIERS and GINGER SNAPS, for instance. And WOLF LAKE was an intriguing experiment that didn't quite work.

We also have a new, and reportedly more serious, version of TEEN WOLF in the works . . . .
 
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