--- description: The tales behind 13 of Hollywood's most famous wolfmen title: Werewolves Prowl the Movies image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) # Werewolves Prowl the Movies by [TIME](/author/time/) Oct 23, 2009 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Oct 23, 2009 4:00 AM CUT The tales behind 13 of Hollywood’s most famous wolfmen ### Werewolf of London (1935)  The first mainstream Hollywood werewolf movie proved problematic for makeup designer Jack Pierce — the film's star, Henry Hull, refused to sit for the hours needed to apply the werewolf makeup, so a simpler design had to be used. Everett ### Wolf (1994)  Rick Baker returns to the genre for this Mike Nichols film starring Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfeiffer. After a poor critical response to the last third of the movie, Wolf's release was delayed so that some scenes could be reshot, a decision that paid off at the box office. The movie ultimately earned more than $130 million worldwide. Columbia / Everett ### Underworld: Evolution (2006)  The Underworld series brings together two horror staples, vampires and werewolves — known as "Lycans" in the Underworld universe — and sets them on opposing sides of a centuries-old war. Thus far, this premise has served its producers well. Despite poor reviews, the franchise saw its third release (Rise of the Lycans) in 2009 and production has already begun on a fourth installment. Screen Gems / Everett ### The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009)  Part two of Stephenie Meyer's cross-species love story features Taylor Lautner (second from right) as Jacob Black, a member of the Quileute tribe, who according to folklore are descendants of wolves. Though Lautner worked out extensively to beef up for the role, most of his transformation is achieved with the help of CGI. Screen Gems / Everett ### The Wolfman (2010)  Rick Baker once again creates werewolf special effects, this time for a remake of the 1941 film, with Benicio del Toro in the Lon Chaney role. Baker has said his work on this movie was creatively challenging because "going from Benicio to Benicio as the Wolfman isn't a really extreme difference. Like when I did An American Werewolf in London, we went from this naked man to a four-legged hound from hell, and we had a lot of room to go from the transformation and do a lot of really extreme things. Here we have Benicio del Toro, who's practically the Wolfman already, to Benicio del Toro with more hair and bigger teeth." Frank Ockenfels / Universal Pictures ### The Wolf Man (1941)  Makeup artist Pierce was able to use the look he invented for Werewolf of London on Lon Chaney, who starred in Universal's 1941 rendering of the werewolf tale. The full version of the werewolf makeup, as seen here, took six hours to apply and three hours to remove. Undeterred, Chaney went on to play the Wolf Man four more times, becoming the only actor at Universal to play a monster in the original film and all of its sequels. Everett ### Idle Roomers (1944)  The Three Stooges starred in this short, one of 190 they made for Columbia Pictures. The contrivance used to get them together with a werewolf starts with them playing bellhops at a hotel who fight for the attention of an attractive woman. The woman's husband is a mean-tempered knife-throwing expert who, naturally, is secretly importing Lupe the Wolf Man. Everett ### I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957)  Michael Landon starred in this B-movie classic, one of the most successful films ever released by American International Pictures (AIP). In an effort to capitalize on the movie's popularity, AIP rushed out a rash of similar films, including I Was a Teenage Frankenstein and Blood of Dracula, both before the end of 1957, and How to Make a Monster in 1958. Everett ### The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)  Oliver Reed played the title role in this British release, the only werewolf movie made by the prolific Hammer Film Studios. The Curse of the Werewolf ended up taking place in Spain because sets had already been built there for another Hammer project, The Inquisitor, which had to be abandoned due to objections from the Catholic Church. Everett ### The Howling (1981)  Based on a novel of the same name, The Howling was successful enough to spawn six sequels. It was notable for its convincing special effects. In addition to using stop-motion and cartoon animation, director Joe Dante and makeup artist Rob Bottin used air bladders under latex facial applications to achieve a convincing-looking (at the time) transformation from man to werewolf. Avco Embassy / Everett ### An American Werewolf in London (1981)  The special effects devised by artist Rick Baker for the scenes in which star David Naughton was transformed into the fearful beast prompted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create a special category for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup, with Baker as its first winner. Baker would go on to provide the effects for several more werewolf films, like Werewolf (1987) and Wolf (1994). Universal / Everett ### Silver Bullet (1985)  This adaptation of the Stephen King novel was produced by Dino De Laurentiis, who was said to be unhappy with the werewolf effects, despite the pedigree of their creator, Carlo Rambaldi, who had already won two Oscars for his work on E.T. and Alien. Paramount / Everett ### Teen Wolf (1985)  The success of Teen Wolf seems to have been heavily predicated on another Michael J. Fox movie of the same year, Back to the Future — in Brazil Teen Wolf was renamed Garoto do Futuro (Boy from the Future), and in Italy the title character was renamed Marty. Atlantic Releasing Corp / Everett Werewolves Prowl the Movies - Photo Essays - TIME ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7078781/werewolves-prowl-the-movies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7078781/werewolves-prowl-the-movies/"},"headline":"Werewolves Prowl the Movies","datePublished":"2009-10-23T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T10:46:07.253Z","description":"The tales behind 13 of Hollywood's most famous wolfmen","url":"https://time.com/archive/7078781/werewolves-prowl-the-movies/","keywords":["LightBox"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7078781/werewolves-prowl-the-movies/","name":"Werewolves Prowl the Movies"}}]}] ```