I have a ton of nostalgic value attached to “Silver Bullet” as it’s one of the first hardcore horror movies I ever remember sitting down to watch, and it’s one of the first werewolf movies I ever saw, too. I fondly remember watching it as a kid with my uncle who’d moved in with us for a while and brought along his Beta tape player and a bunch of his Beta tapes to watch. Along with “The Final Chapter” and “The Making of Thriller” we must have begged him to watch “Silver Bullet” a thousand times, ad nauseum.
Tag Archives: Werewolves
Blackout (2023) [Fantasia Film Festival 2023]
I think when it’s time for distribution that audiences (especially long time fans) might just connect with what director Larry Fessenden puts down here. As for me, it lost me after the blood soaked prologue. Like most film outputs from Fessenden, “Blackout” suffers from a lot of sub-plots that are either left dangling or abruptly closed, all while never quite deciding on a tone. Is “Blackout” a horror drama, just a drama, or a drama comedy that happens to have a werewolf?
Werewolves Within (2021)
Director Josh Ruben has a real knack for taking snowy tundras and creating some prime horror fodder with them. While I didn’t much care for “Scare Me,” he managed to build some interesting tension with just two people in a snowy cabin. With “Werewolves Within,” it’s a bit larger in scale, but still a fantastic peek in to an engaging mystery. Ruben’s film brilliantly mixes Agatha Christie with “The Beast Must Die,” and some of The Coens for good measure.
The Return of the Vampire (1943) [Blu-Ray]
Although Universal eventually did follow up Tod Browning’s “Dracula” from 1931 with their own “Dracula’s Daughter” and “Son of Dracula,” the unofficial sequel has always been 1943’s “The Return of the Vampire.” When Columbia Pictures sough to revive Dracula for the big screener, Universal halted their efforts, prompting Columbia to basically deliver the follow up to Dracula but under a variety of different names and different circumstances. With “The Return of the Vampire” we have a great spiritual sequel that stars Lugosi returning as Dracula, but–not Dracula.
The Howling 3 (1987) [Blu-Ray]
By the time “The Howling III” rolled around, the studios basically stopped continuing the storyline from the original Joe Dante movie and just turned the movie series in to an anthology. The only connection “The Howling” movies have with one another is that they have werewolves in them. The rest of the movies are basically of varying quality with drastically different narratives. Ironically latter day sequels (The Howling: New Moon Rising) would use clips from the former films as a crutch to make up for lack of story and the painfully low budget.
Scooby Doo and the Goblin King (2008)
Not since “The Witch’s Ghost” has there been a “Scooby Doo” adventure so deeply rooted in Halloween that it qualifies as automatic viewing for the holiday. While it is a change in pace for the Mystery Inc. crew, it’s a fun adventure in to the magic and supernatural element, along with some pretty stellar animation, and a pretty awesome surprise ending that I admittedly didn’t see coming.
Five Great Horror Movie Sidekicks
Horror Movie Sidekicks can be some of the best aspects of a horror movie. Sometimes the can be the last thread of redemption for our hero, sometimes they help the final girl see the end, sometimes they can cause a big realization, and sometimes they can simply sacrifice themselves to help our hero or heroine battle the villain. On rare occasions they can even be more memorable than the heroes. In the end, a good side kick is everything, and these are five particularly good ones.