WEREWOLF MOVIES
SELECTED BY DIRECTORS Joe Dante & John Landis
Werewolves — what’s the appeal?
John Landis: The werewolf, the ghost and the vampire are the only international monsters that are in every culture, everywhere in the world. We’re fascinated by metamorphosis, because every one of us goes through puberty. I mean, your body grows hair and women start bleeding and there’s this time where you’re all hormones. It’s just kind of frightening.
Joe Dante: What is I Was A Teenage Werewolf except a story about a guy who realises he’s got hair in places that he didn’t used to have it before? It’s a metaphor for adolescence. That’s one of the reasons it’s such a good movie.
Landis: Talk about a metaphor — the werewolf is a very rich one. You know, Sigmund Freud wrote a book about werewolves.
As a happy coincidence, you both released an iconic werewolf movie in 1981 — An American Werewolf In London and The Howling .
Dante: That was the year of the werewolf, you know? Those weren’t the only ones.
I wrote in 1969. And I tried to get that movie made between 1969 and 1981, when we finally made it. And that year, there is not only , there’s and there’s …
