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Last night was the Super Blood Wolf Moon, and how else would one celebrate other than with a heavy dose of Werewolf stories. I love Werewolves, so I'm always looking out for movies or books that feature them. Which ones are worth checking out?

Some of my favorites:

An American Werewolf in London. This has to be the golden standard of werewolf movies. A classic.

The Howling. I love the werewolf design in this movie, but I find I have to fast forward to the good parts. hey, that's Robert Picardo!

Silver Bullet/ Cycle of the Werwolf. A solid choice in either medium.

Bad Moon. The werewolf look cool. And who doesn't want to see a German Shepard throw down with him?


The Kitty Norville series. One of my favorite urban fantasy series, Kitty Norville is fairly low on the power scale for fantasy, but the stories are great.

Mercy Thompson series. The series seemed to meander for a while. My wife says it has returned to form, so I'll have to catch up. This series has Dresden Files-level crazy powerful werewolves.

Le Pacte des Loups has some cool moments.

Balanced out by some truly terrible ones.

That's the one with the Beast of Gevaudan, the Native American tracker, and the royal incest, right? It was a beautifully shot film. Cool moments balanced out by terrible ones indeed.

Yeah, it seems reigned in nd dignified and then there is like the schlockiest crap in it all of the sudden.

I remember enjoying "Wer" when it came out a few years ago.

As a big fan of Werewolf the Apocalypse I've really enjoyed most of the novels that they did for them, but especially the Tribebook series.

Hell, one of the reasons I'll watch Van Helsing on occasion is the near spot on Shadowlord Werewolf form Vlad seems to have.

I loved "American Werewolf in Paris" even though it was pretty bad by any objective measure, other than how pretty Julie Delphy is, and that it "has werewolves".

The remake of The Werewolf - the Anthony Hopkins \ Benicio Del Toro one - I liked well enough for a popcorn film.

No mention of Underworld?

I think American Werewolf in London is probably my favorite.. Though I always liked the look of a werewolf walking on its hind legs better than all 4's, but was never really into the wolfman look.

 Necros wrote:
No mention of Underworld?

I always felt like Underworld squandered it's awesome premise and relatively good for the time CGI on a fairly terrible story climaxing in a roided up Smurf.

The sad part is I think that was the franchise's high point.

Good looking werewolves though.

 Ouze wrote:

 Necros wrote:
No mention of Underworld?

I always felt like Underworld squandered it's awesome premise and relatively good for the time CGI on a fairly terrible story climaxing in a roided up Smurf.

The sad part is I think that was the franchise's high point.

Good looking werewolves though.

All I ever noticed was Kate Beckinsale running around in tight leathers.

Edit: Jim Butcher's Dresden Files book Fool Moon was good and had 3 kinds of werewolves.

Dog soldiers. A great little movie with some pretty good were wolf effects.

Yeah, Dog Soldiers.

"There is no Spoon."

 Necros wrote:
No mention of Underworld?

Good stuff, even if Weres were secondary to Vamps. I'll watch Underworld over pretty much anything else listed so far.

Odd. I wouldn't piss on Underworld if it was on fire.

It's no more than a vehicle for Kate Beckinsale's posterior.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
Odd. I wouldn't piss on Underworld if it was on fire.

It's no more than a vehicle for Kate Beckinsale's posterior.

To each their own. I thought it was okay (the werewolves were the best part), my wife really likes them.

Ayuh. Subjective, innit?

My tastes are just different, not 'better'.

I think underworld started fine and then became a seamless mess of grey blue haze and bricks with nothing especially memorable standing out in any of the entries.

That series suffers more the longer its gone.

Was the immortal old sea captain in the 2nd or the 4th? 3 was the prequel right? Hard to say. Who cares.

Underworld is still the best Vampire franchise out there.

It's also still the best movie series with Werewolves.

That it's not as good as the MCU shouldn't be held against it.

I like Underworld.. I'll watch it if it's on when there's nothing else. But for me it's just been overplayed on Syfy too much, like they always do.

I like the first one best. I think it's the first movie where I noticed Bill Nighy and started to like his stuff. Also the guy that played Lucian.. Martin sheen maybe? something like that.. he's good in stuff too. Better as Lucien than the wussy sparkly Twilight vamp he played.

The prequel one was good too, but the other films were just OK, for me.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Underworld is still the best Vampire franchise out there.

How are we measuring "best", exactly? If we are using Rotten Tomatoes scores, average reviews on Metacritic, box office revenues, or whatever else, it's pretty hard to argue that Underworld is "better" than, say, Twilight (which similarly has werewolves and vampires in a war or something).

 Ouze wrote:

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Underworld is still the best Vampire franchise out there.

How are we measuring "best", exactly? If we are using Rotten Tomatoes scores, average reviews on Metacritic, box office revenues, or whatever else, it's pretty hard to argue that Underworld is "better" than, say, Twilight (which similarly has werewolves and vampires in a war or something).

What moron is rating Twilight over Underworld?

It's like saying McDonalds is better than Le Chateau Anglais, because there are more total ratings, rather than considering the Michelin star from Executive Chef Gareth Blackstock!

"There are more ratings" is dishonest. No one said one was better because one has more ratings. Similary dishonest is pretending we are comparing apples to oranges, like a high-end restaurant to a fast-food restaurant: These are both fairly mediocre film series featuring werewolves and vampires fighting (albeit one does climax in a swole smurf).

You're saying it's better. Better how?

The two 5 part series compared:

Underworld: averaged RT score of 24.6
Twilight: averaged RT score of 39.8

Underworld: averared metacritic score of 36.8
Twilight: averaged metacritic score of 51


Underworld gross box office: 539 million
Twlight gross box office: 3.3 billion

What metric are you using that it's "better"?

No, its like rating McDonalds over Burger King (or vice versa). There isn't any Michelin star Executive chef involved in either franchise.

Underworld is another third generation derivative (most recently by way of World of Darkness). I can see the appeal for folks who like generic CGI action porn featuring furs and fangs, but not much else.

I'll second Dog Soldiers! Great film

Also The Book of Were-Wolves by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould (he composed "Onward Christian Soldiers" the hymn). It's not a fantasy, but rather a more historical study of real world werewolf references and myth. It's actually a really interesting read and quite accessible even though its over 100 years old. It's free on the kindle ebook store so go check it out!

 Lance845 wrote:
I think underworld started fine and then became a seamless mess of grey blue haze and bricks with nothing especially memorable standing out in any of the entries.

This - it was so dark and gloomy and blue tinted all the time that you sort of lose sight of what's happening in the murky dark. Thing is its not even proper dark; its just gloomy. It's a shame, but its not the only franchise to kill itself by too much mood effect. Heck I recall watching a Twilight 1 trailer and thinking - wait what the heck this entire trailer was bright BLUE! The whole time even in the daylight its blue.
Also I disliked how the perfect hybrid of werewolf and vampire was basically a human man with jet black skin/fur; it sort of sapped the fantasy out; when I was more expecing some huge bat wolf hybrid monster with a bit of human buried deep.

TBH I will never forgive that series for not giving that super hybrid a set of bat wings.

 Manchu wrote:
Le Pacte des Loups has some cool moments.

Balanced out by some truly terrible ones.

This and Dog Soldiers are my go to werewolf movies. I'd love to see a remake of Brotherhood of the Wolf that cleaned up some of the insanity and made the film into a little bit more of a horror mystery.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ouze wrote:
"There are more ratings" is dishonest. No one said one was better because one has more ratings. Similary dishonest is pretending we are comparing apples to oranges, like a high-end restaurant to a fast-food restaurant: These are both fairly mediocre film series featuring werewolves and vampires fighting (albeit one does climax in a swole smurf).

You're saying it's better. Better how?

The two 5 part series compared:

Underworld: averaged RT score of 24.6
Twilight: averaged RT score of 39.8

Underworld: averared metacritic score of 36.8
Twilight: averaged metacritic score of 51


Underworld gross box office: 539 million
Twlight gross box office: 3.3 billion

What metric are you using that it's "better"?

Twilight has a much larger fan and more devoted fan base. I'd say it's objectively worse if only because it's a completely serious take on teenage drama and has many disturbing elements passed off as romance. Underworld works as a live action rip off of a campy WoD campaign. Saying either one is great would be a lie, but using the burger comparison...Twilight is more McDonald's and Underworld would be a Five Guys/Whataburger level flick. Also, Underworld did werewolves at the least much better.

 Ouze wrote:
TBH I will never forgive that series for not giving that super hybrid a set of bat wings.

I'll just attach this artist's interpretation.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
No werewolves are worse than the Harry Potter 3 werewolf.

 Ouze wrote:
"There are more ratings" is dishonest. No one said one was better because one has more ratings

You're saying it's better. Better how?

Underworld is objectively better in every possible way, starting from the fact that it's World of Darkness and WoD Medieval on screen, with Werewolves that look properly Crinos.

Further, Underworld doesn't promote Mormonist grooming of underage girls by middle-aged men to become daughter-brides who are bred as soon as they reach puberty

 trexmeyer wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
Le Pacte des Loups has some cool moments.

Balanced out by some truly terrible ones.

This and Dog Soldiers are my go to werewolf movies. I'd love to see a remake of Brotherhood of the Wolf that cleaned up some of the insanity and made the film into a little bit more of a horror mystery.

OMG I fething love brotherhood of the wolf. WITH all the insanity. No werewolves in it though.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:

 Ouze wrote:
"There are more ratings" is dishonest. No one said one was better because one has more ratings

You're saying it's better. Better how?

Underworld is objectively better in every possible way, starting from the fact that it's World of Darkness and WoD Medieval on screen, with Werewolves that look properly Crinos.

Further, Underworld doesn't promote Mormonist grooming of underage girls by middle-aged men to become daughter-brides who are bred as soon as they reach puberty

Well, don't hold back at all.

@Lance845, it doesn't, but it's inspired by a legend of one. Close enough for me.