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Ever since cinema’s origins, werewolves have been a massive part of the greater horror canon, but they’ve never had a better year at the movies than 1981. For a few decades, these giant dog-like beasts had taken a back seat in the mind of the movie-going public, but in ’81, audiences were treated with two bangers and an attempt at greatness with An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, and Wolfen. It’s odd that there was such a huge craze going on so long after the original werewolf run back in the ’40s, but maybe this huge drought is what led to two major classics coming out of the early ’80s. These three have plenty in common, but they do enough to stand out in their own ways to justify all being released in the same year.
By the 1980s, the werewolf subgenre had been resting for a few decades. The Universal Monster’s Wolf Man series boomed in popularity in the ’40s but capped off with the hilarious 1948 comedy Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The ’50s had the fantastically titled I Was a Teenage Werewolf, the ’60s brought the Hammer-touch with Curse of the Werewolf, and the ’70s gained a modern edge with The Beast Must Die and excitingly titled Wolf Guy. So yeah, these movies hadn’t totally died off since Lon Chaney Jr. officially left the scene, but no one seemed to be in any sort of rush to try and top Universal’s iconic franchise, no one but the filmmakers who were raised on those movies.
Why Was There a Werewolf Movie Boom in the ’80s?
That is until the ’80s! For whatever reason, this decade saw a massive boom in werewolf movies, and not just in 1981. There was the throwback chiller The Company of Wolves in 1984, Stephen King’s Silver Bullet and the comedy Teen Wolf in ’85, the all-star ghoul fest The Monster Squad in ’87, Teen Wolf Too in ’87… and My Mom’s a Werewolf in ’89? Okay, the werewolf movies of this decade weren’t all great, but a ton of them were, with two of the three released in ’81 being the best that came out of this entire era.
‘The Howling’ Is a Mean Monster Movie
The first of these three 1981 werewolf movies to hit theaters was The Howling, released on March 13, 1981, and directed by the mastermind behind Gremlins, Joe Dante. Before Dante’s film, hardly anyone had seen such a modern take on this monster. The film follows Karen White (Dee Wallace), an amnesiac news anchor who is sent to a remote resort to take time and heal mentally, but during her stay, she and some of her fellow visitors begin to be stalked by werewolves.
Out of the three ’81 werewolf movies, The Howling just might be the one with the most resonant themes. This is a movie about sex, affairs, communication in relationships, and of course, murderous, bloodthirsty werewolves. All of its ambitions are interesting for the first 20 minutes or so, but the film’s setup ends up overstaying its welcome by going on for 30 to 40 minutes. Howling is a film that takes a while to get rolling with werewolf action, but once it does, it’s totally worth the wait. Special effects guru Rob Bottin gives these werewolves massive, slimy, nasty builds – they look phenomenal. The second half of the movie is a nonstop thrill ride, with way more of these hairy suckers than you might expect. A great werewolf movie, but not exactly the best.
‘Wolfen’ Is the Tamest of the Three 1981 Werewolf Movies
The second werewolf film released in 1981 would be Wolfen, released on July 24th of that year and directed by Michael Wadleigh. It follows a New York City cop named Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) who does his best to find the killer behind a series of brutal murders. Hmmm… I wonder what could be behind this. This movie does its best to differentiate itself by adding in a crime element and taking elements of police procedurals, but ultimately, we’re all only here to see one thing – werewolves!
Sadly, Wolfen doesn’t really go above and beyond in the ways that The Howling and American Werewolf do. It’s the tamest of the three in terms of action and horror, opting out for a similar slow-burn approach to what you find in the first half of The Howling. It feels crazy to say it, but Wolfen could benefit greatly from a remake. Keep the slow-burn procedural approach, but when we get some monster scenes, either make them disturbing or give us some good kills. Wolfen isn’t bad by any means, it just doesn’t live up to its potential.
Why Is ‘An American Werewolf in London’ the Greatest Werewolf Movie Ever?
The biggest werewolf movie of 1981 is obvious. That’s right, it’s An American Werewolf in London. John Landis’ horror-comedy hybrid is the most haunting, eeriest, darkly comic movie in the entire werewolf subgenre. In short, it absolutely rocks. The film follows two American backpackers traveling across England who are attacked by a werewolf, leading one of them to become a werewolf himself. Landis’ film stars a perfect cast of absolutely stellar performers, including David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, and Griffin Dunne, and features what might be the best cinematography of any movie in this subgenre, and the best werewolf effects of them all, hands down. The effects are so unbelievably great that the film ended up winning the first-ever Oscar for Best Makeup. Was this category invented because of American Werewolf? Probably not, but we’ll act like it was. This isn’t just one of the best movies in its respective field, it’s one of the greatest horror movies ever. One of the true examples of a movie that changed the game for a genre entirely. You don’t get better than this, folks. Also, you can’t forget those amazing puffer jackets seen on the poster. This is expert costume design at play!
So how does the class of 1981 stack up to each other? Well, it honestly depends on what you’re looking for. As if you couldn’t tell already, An American Werewolf in London is the best all-around pick and has the deepest roots in the subgenre’s canon, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right pick for you. One night, you might be feeling a grounded, more realistic approach to these movies. In that case, Wolfen would absolutely be your bag. What about a more direct horror approach, one that deals with PTSD, messy and nasty relationship choices, and an incredibly grim tone laced throughout its runtime? The Howling is sure to get you your fix. If you’re looking for a bleak but sneakily hilarious monster movie, an imperative release in the history of horror that stands as one of the best in its decade (let alone of all time), then you should probably go American. None of these are bad movies, so you can’t go wrong any way you roll it. That being said, if you haven’t seen the two that are not titled Wolfen, maybe start with those.
If you’re looking for a good werewolf movie but don’t know where to start, just roll the dice and fire up one of the 1981 releases. It’s likely that the classic titles in this subgenre were obsessed over by the young filmmakers of the 1980s, way back when they were kids. They were given a lifetime to think about their own take on werewolf stories, make a few movies to build up their rep, and after having proven themselves, finally obtained the budget to pull one of these monster flicks off. There would be many more of them as the years went on, but no year was better for werewolf movies than 1981.
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