The Cardboard Dog Halloween Movie List Part 6: Werewolf Movies

The beast that walks among us. The Lycanthrope. The Wolfman. One of cinema's most famous and tragic monsters. To combat the current myth that werewolves like to spend their spare time in the club-house hanging out topless with other werewolves, this list has been complied. It has five of the very best werewolf films that cinema has yet to offer...

Top 5 Werewolf Movies

5. The Beast Must Die (1974)

The absolute coolest werewolf movie ever made. This is another Amicus production and has a great concept which actually deserves and requires to be updated. Basically, we have an extremely wealthy businessman turned hunter, Tom Newcliffe (an ace performance by Calvin Lockhart) who gathers a group of individuals to his country pile – as he believes one of them is a werewolf and he's in the mood for a hunt! The score is straight out of a Blaxploitation movie and the action has more than a few fine set pieces to be proud of. The most unique part of this entry? The Werewolf Break. Thirty seconds to collect your thoughts and deliver your guess as to who the hairy murderer has been all along. The film has character and is criminally underrated, however some lovely people have decided that the movie deserves a moment of glory and as such, is being shown at the Ulster Hall on Sunday 3^rd November – do try to check it out. Yo, Hollywood, this one needs remade.

4. Silver Bullet (1985)

Or Gary Busey meets the Werewolf. Two awesome things about this movie. Gary Busey is crazy Uncle Red and Corey Haim is in it as cute-as-a-button Marty Coslaw. The story is once more set in Small Town America, this time in a town at the mercy of a werewolf with locals getting offed every full moon. In time, the beast is injured by young Marty as he sets off fireworks while completely alone in the woods. At night. During a spate of werewolf attacks. FFS. Anyway, like Steven Seagal, the beast is now out for justice and makes Marty his number one priority. Marty then tries to convince Uncle Red that he's being stalked by a werewolf – then the real fun begins.

3. Dog Soldiers (2008)

A complete surprise in that it came from nowhere AND was a predominantly British production. A film that benefited from a strong cast of likeable characters, gloomy setting and great premise, Dog Soldiers is a mix of Assault on Precinct 13, Aliens and Zulu – all flavoured superbly by director Neil Marshall. The movie follows a group of British squaddies as they find themselves under siege by a pack of werewolves in a remote farmhouse in the Scottish Highlands. The film majors on tension and humour, and you'll be on the edge of your seat as the makeshift barriers crumble and the beasts claw their way in.

2. The Howling (1982)

As luck would have it, this movie was released in the same year as our top movie, An American Werewolf in London AND also happens to be one of the best werewolf movies made (also reviewed in an earlier post here). The action is set in America and centres around a young couple who seek quiet reflection in the Californian woods. Bad luck for them, there's demonic howling at night that can only be coming from evil lycanthropes. As the nightmare unfolds around the couple, it really is a battle between man and beast – a creature at the top of the food chain. The visual effects aren't as good as An American Werewolf in London but what effects are? The horror is there and some really creepy set pieces too. All from the director of Gremlins.

1. An American Werewolf in London (1982)

Regarded as a classic amongst fanboys and general horror fans, An American Werewolf in London is still one of the very best in horror films. Horror and humour are an effective combination and director John Landis combines the two very well. Opening with two American students travelling through rural England, the film gathers pace as soon as they arrive in East Proctor – a small village terrorised by a werewolf every full moon. Upon being told to leave the local pub, the students are both attacked; one dies and one is bitten, cursed to become a werewolf. The story expands as the cursed student recovers in a London hospital, time getting closer to his monstrous transformation (which BTW is still the best transformation scene to date). Great scares and visual effects that are a real spectacle – enjoy!

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The Cardboard Dog Halloween Movie List

Good tidings traveller, I greet you warmly and invite you to spend a while from the bitter midnight chill at this ramshackle and vaguely threatening tavern as I recount tales of the best movies that you could be watching this All Hallows Eve. In other words, there's a countdown list on the way.

At this time of year, you won't be able to burn a witch without coming across a top ten horror movies list; some of them are well worth considering, especially this one over at The Guardian. The problem with these? Ten movies just aren't enough! There are just too many great horror films out there to fit onto a list of ten, and why should you miss out?! So that's why I've singled out the five best movies from the most popular horror sub-genres in order to give your options more....bite? Sorry.

These lists will be posted on the blog over the next week in anticipation of the big night itself, and hopefully they'll give you a few ideas of what to watch to get in the mood.

To kick off, I've started with a sub-genre that's all about telling a good, creepy tale – the anthology...

Top 5 Horror Anthologies

5. The House That Dripped Blood (1971)

Although Hammer may have owned the 60's and 70's horror movie scene, Amicus gave them a decent run for their money and this Amicus produced film is not the only one on these lists. The cast sheet of The House That Dripped Blood is like The Expendables of horror and sci-fi; you've not just got Cushing and Lee but Jon Pertwee, Ingrid Pitt and Geoffrey Bayldon. As well as the cast, the movie has a great kitsch vibe (as you'll discover as soon as the movie starts) and stories macabre enough to get the Halloween juices flowing. The best one? Vampire tale, The Cloak, about pompous actor Paul Henderson (Pertwee) who, in order to look convincing in his latest role as a vampire, makes a purchase of a mysterious cloak that literally transforms his performance...

4. V/H/S (2012)

V/H/S has got a great retro feel to it. Not only does it tell its stories through old VHS tapes (which means it has that shaky, how-the-hell-am-I-supposed-to-autotrack-this-on-my-bluray-player) look, but the fact that the stories are told in the anthology style is in itself a throwback. There are no “stars” in this one but this only serves the film as you have no pre-conceptions about who the villains are and who will possibly meet their grisly demise. The film also works as a “found footage” piece as the movies are, as you'd expect, filmed by the characters themselves as the events happen. The best story for me is Amateur Night, where the first person POV works well to craft a moral tale of how you should be careful who you decide to pick up in a bar.

3. Asylum (1972)

Another entry from the Amicus canon, featuring Jesus of Nazereth and The Crowman (or Robert Powell and Geoffrey Bayldon). Again, suitably macabre from the start the plot here is about young Dr. Martin (Powell) who is tasked with interviewing four patients from a mental asylum as part of a job interview. If, after hearing their stories, he correctly uncovers which of the patients is the recently-gone-insane Dr. Starr – he gets the job. The stories from the unfortunate individuals are even crazier than The House That Dripped Blood, from bloodthirsty bio-mechanical robot toys to severed body parts teaming up to take revenge on the hallion responsible for separating them.

2. Creepshow (1982)

A popular title that had the strength to bear two sequels, this is more fun that fearful. Leslie Nielsen is in it for a start... Guided by an on-form Romero (who would eventually peak a few years later with Day of the Dead) and with a screenplay by Stephen King, how could this NOT hit the mark. The best story is Something to Tide You Over which features the aforementioned Nielsen and Ted Danson. Danson's character (Harry Wentworth) has been poking away at Nielsen's (Richard Vickers) wife. With the mantra “Danson Must Die” ringing over and over in his head, Leslie decides to kill the pair of them in an elaborate buried-up-to-the-neck, TV watching fashion. It plays out like an episode of Columbo until the newlydeads resurface to wreak their vengeance Romero style.

1. Trick 'r Treat (2007)

A great movie for getting into Halloween. Set on the ghoulish night itself, Trick 'r Treat revolves around the fate of several residents of “small town America”, the sort of place you'd reckon Michael Myers calls home. There's plenty of familiar faces in it, including True Blood's Anna Paquin and the awesome Brain Cox (not the TV brainiac). The film is lush with Halloween atmosphere and colourful characters ranging from werewolves to crazy psycho-killers. All the good stuff, y'know. What sets this apart from the others is the structure of the storytelling. Some tales are set up gradually, while others are going on, and the timeline isn't linear – think Pulp Fiction and you'll be closer. Best story is that of Laurie (Pacquin) as she settles on finding the right guy for her first time...

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