Werewolves have become one of the most popular mythological creatures to be explored in horror films next to vampires, though not all the movies are equal in their quality. The most essential elements of a proper werewolf movie are the carnage, suspense, and grotesque transformation sequences, and too few films can masterfully accomplish all of the above.
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While it may feel like this sub-genre is way too overdone and filled with so many mediocre and critically panned films, there are some gems you should know about if you love werewolves (and we’re not talking Twilight). From horror to comedy and everything in between, these are the definitive werewolf films to watch.
10 The Wolfman
The Wolf Man is one of Universal Studios’ classic monsters, debuting in the 1941 film by George Waggner. Since Universal rebooted Dracula and The Mummy, and Frankenstein received various new versions as well over the years, it came the Wolf Man’s time in 2010. The more modern reimagining had a star-studded cast and a new title that also made the creature be one word.
Like all remakes of beloved classic movies, it drew nowhere near the same acclaim, but that doesn’t mean it’s as bad as 2017’s The Mummy or 2014’s Dracula Untold (it also thankfully kept an R-rating). There’s a nice Gothic horror atmosphere and the titular creature comes with an excellent design and harrowing werewolf action. What’s even more exciting is that the score is composed by Danny Elfman!
Main Cast |
Director |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, Gemma Whelan, Simon Merrells, and Asa Butterfield |
Joe Johnston |
2010 |
33% |
5.8 |
Amazon Prime Video |
9 Werewolves Within
Werewolves Within is an underrated horror-comedy gem in the werewolf genre, and it’s also a video game adaptation of Ubisoft’s social deduction VR game of the same name. Just like in the game, you have multiple strangers that come together (in this case, due to a snowstorm), and one of them is suspected of being a werewolf as more and more bodies turn up.
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It’s a hilarious and gory whodunnit movie starring some of comedy’s best talents and will keep you guessing until the very end. The premise of it involving a controversial gas pipeline being built in the fictional town of Beaverfield and how some of the ensemble cast are purposely portrayed as either Liberal or Republican-leaning also make it an excellent satire.
Main Cast |
Director |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Milana Vayntrub, Sam Richardson, Cheyenne Jackson, Harvey Guillén, Glenn Fleshler, Rebecca Henderson, George Basil, Sarah Burns, Michael Chernus, Wayne Duvall, and Catherine Curtin |
Josh Ruben |
2021 |
86% |
6 |
AMC+ |
8 The Cursed
Another underrated werewolf movie that may have fallen under many people’s radar is The Cursed. Narcos star Boyd Holbrook and Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly lead what is an incredibly dark and grim werewolf story set in 1881 France. It starts when an incredibly cruel and evil land baron decides to slaughter a clan of Romani people, who have put a curse on the land tied to a set of silver fangs.
The baron’s family becomes the target of the curse, with his son Edward quickly falling victim to it, and the body horror of werewolf transformation takes quite a unique new approach in this film. The process entails the victim sprouting vines from their body and getting wrapped into a cocoon-like state, before finally turning into a beast.
Main Cast |
Director |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boyd Holbrook, Kelly Reilly, Alistair Petrie, Roxane Duran, Nigel Betts, Stuart Bowman, Simon Kunz, Max Mackintosh, and Áine Rose Daly |
Sean Ellis |
2021 |
71% |
6.2 |
Hulu, Disney+ |
7 Bad Moon
Bad Moon is as tragic of a werewolf story as it gets. The main character, Ted Harrison, suffers a werewolf attack in Nepal while working as a photojournalist, which also leaves his girlfriend dead. When returning home, Ted tries his best to keep his werewolf issue a secret as well as what happened to his girlfriend, but then the bodies around his property get the police on his tail.
All these circumstances would otherwise point to Ted secretly being a serial killer, but little does everyone know what monstrous thing he’s really hiding. To dodge the law, Ted moves in with his sister and her young son and their dog Thor, who quickly starts to suspect Ted. When Ted’s werewolf form comes out to put his sister and nephew’s lives at risk, let’s just say, one canine will be a true MVP.
Main Cast |
Director |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Michael Paré, Mariel Hemingway, Mason Gamble, Ken Pogue, Hrothgar Mathews, and Johanna Marlowe |
Eric Red |
1996 |
30% |
5.8 |
Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, AMC+, Tubi, Sling TV, Plex, Crackle, The Roku Channel, and Xumo Play |
6 Silver Bullet
Even the literary king of horror, Stephen King, tried his hand at a compelling werewolf story with his 1983 novella Cycle of the Werewolf. Two years later, it turned into another one of his many film adaptations using the new title Silver Bullet, and it’s one that King himself wrote the screenplay for.
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Here, the main protagonist is Marty Coslaw, a young boy in a wheelchair whose town of Tarker’s Mills, Maine is under siege by a werewolf committing a spree of murders on the inhabitants. The identity of the werewolf remains a mystery until Marty uncovers the shocking truth, and as the tale goes, only a silver bullet can put an end to everything and stop the cycle of the werewolf.
Main Cast |
Director |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gary Busey, Corey Haim, Everett McGill, Megan Follows, Terry O’Quinn, Robin Groves, Leon Russom, and Bill Smitrovich |
Daniel Attias |
1985 |
41% |
6.4 |
AMC+ and Paramount+ |
5 Ginger Snaps
No, the popular cookie doesn’t become a werewolf in this film, but a girl named Ginger does, and well, she snaps. Many would call this film a precursor to Jennifer’s Body, as Ginger’s werewolf habits go unchecked and cause her to prey on everyone in her school, from faculty to lovers. It’s a tragic story, because, once again, Ginger is close to her sister, who’s trying to save her.
Although there’s also Teen Wolf, Gingers Snaps is one of the most refreshing and standout werewolf movies that exist because it’s also a coming-of-age tale that explores the bond of two teenage sisters. The way it portrays lycanthropy and werewolf transformation as a more gradual process is very clever and different as well.
Main Cast |
Director |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle, Mimi Rogers, Kris Lemche, Jesse Moss, Danielle Hampton, John Bourgeois, and Peter Keleghan |
John Fawcett |
2000 |
90% |
6.8 |
Peacock, AMC+, and Xumo Play |
4 Dog Soldiers
If you enjoyed Neil Marshall’s other famous horror film, The Descent, Dog Soldiers is certainly worth checking out. Instead of a claustrophobic cave system filled with monstrous dwellers, Dog Soldiers is set in the woods of the Scottish Highlands and follows a military unit whose training exercise turns into a suspenseful night of survival against werewolves.
You have a brilliant cast featuring Gotham actor Sean Pertwee, Liam Cunningham from Game of Thrones, and the original voice of Soap MacTavish in MW2 and MW3, Kevin McKidd. It’s nothing but pure action and riveting thrills from start to finish, and the story has a few twists and turns. The werewolf costumes and makeup are also iconic and creepy, especially for such a low-budget film.
Main Cast |
Director |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Liam Cunningham, Emma Cleasby, Thomas Lockyer, Darren Morfitt, Chris Robson, and Leslie Simpson |
Neil Marshall |
2002 |
82% |
6.8 |
Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, AMC+, The Roku Channel, Plex, Pluto TV, and Sling TV |
3 Underworld Series
The Underworld films depict a battle between vampires and Lycans and provide some of the most action-packed and entertaining thrill rides in the monster genre. You have lead actress Kate Beckinsale in one of her best and most memorable roles as Selene, a vampire who finds herself at odds in the war between the two factions after falling in love with a vampire-werewolf hybrid named Michael Corvin.
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This supernatural film series is highly reminiscent of the Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil movies and the Matrix series in terms of action and gunplay. There’s really no bad Underworld film, and the 2009 installment, Rise of the Lycans, is a prequel exploring Michael Sheen’s werewolf character, Lucian, alongside Rhona Mitra’s Sonja.
Main Cast |
Directors |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score (Audience) |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kate Beckinsale, Bill Nighy, Michael Sheen, Scott Speedman, Shane Brolly, Rhona Mitra, Steven Mackintosh, Derek Jacobi, Tony Curran, Theo James, Charles Dance, Michael Ealy, and India Eisley |
Len Wiseman, Patrick Tatopoulos, Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, and Anna Foerster |
2003 – 2017 |
Underworld – 79% Underworld: Evolution – 72% Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – 63% Underworld: Awakening – 62% Underworld: Blood Wars – 49% |
Underworld – 7 Underworld: Evolution – 6.7 Rise Of The Lycans – 6.5 Underworld: Awakening – 6.3 Underworld: Blood Wars – 5.8 |
Xumo Play |
2 The Howling
The Howling is based on the horror novel not by Stephen King, but by Gary Brandner, and is directed by horror-comedy legend Joe Dante, who also directed films such as Gremlins, Piranha, Small Soldiers, and The ‘Burbs. It’s like The Wicker Man meets werewolf horror, with a story following a husband and wife who deal with werewolves at a secluded wellness retreat called the Colony.
The premise here is that an LA TV news anchor, Karen White, helps the police capture serial killer Eddie Quist in a sting operation, which leaves her traumatized. On her doctor’s orders, she and her husband Bill are sent to the Colony, a retreat where the people there are not at all who they seem, and one that Eddie Quist also has a connection to.
Main Cast |
Director |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dee Wallace, Christopher Stone, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Robert Picardo, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, and Elisabeth Brooks |
Joe Dante |
1981 |
74% |
6.5 |
YouTube via Shudder subscription and Amazon Prime Video (For purchase) |
1 An American Werewolf In London
The most undefeated werewolf movie is still 1981’s An American Werewolf in London, a dark comedy from director John Landis, who also gave you the acclaimed comedic films Coming to America, Trading Places, The Blues Brothers, and Animal House. It’s such a special werewolf film that’s unlike any other, balancing horror and laughs with a story and characters that are unforgettable.
You follow two American backpackers, David and Jack, who get attacked by a werewolf in the Yorkshire Moors, leaving one of them dead and manifesting as a ghostly rotting corpse and the other bit and turning into a werewolf. David is the one who gets the werewolf curse, and he’ll be wreaking a lot of havoc across London while his dead buddy Jack tries to stop him from beyond.
Main Cast |
Director |
Released |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDb Rating |
Where To Stream |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter, Don McKillop, Frank Oz, Joe Belcher, David Schofield, Brian Glover, and John Woodvine |
John Landis |
1981 |
89% |
7.5 |
Amazon Prime Video, AMC+, Tubi, and The Roku Channel |
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