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Nightmare Nostalgia’s Best Horror Movies of 2024- And Biggest Letdowns

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Well, here we are, nuggets. The end of another trip around the sun, and 2024 has seen some shit. Some great. Some, eh, not so great. And then some utterly shitastic fails that I think we’ll never let developers live down. But there were also some unexpected surprises to make up for it. 2024 was one HELL of a year for the horror genre and I personally, haven’t seen as many great films in one year for some time. So, in true NN fashion, Let’s go over to be, what is solely my own opinions here, the very best of 2024 in the genre, along with some well-polished turds to mix things up a bit. To be frank, I HATE saying anything negative about any horror movie. The genre is something I hold precious, which in all honesty here, is why I choose to turn down a lot of horror movie review opportunities because being such a negative bitch is too exhausting. I firmly believe people should just go to the movies and form their own opinions, and never rely on some over-glorified asshat’s opinions on the internet that are no better than your own. Which is primarily why I do this only once a year for people that genuinely hold my opinions to some regard. That’s still wild to me. Sure, it’s a great way to spread the word on movies you may or may not have heard of. But, you can always do that without the smug notion that a film like LISA FRANKENSTEIN wasn’t up to your standards as a movie.

I’M TALKING TO YOU, VARIETY. Also, with all due respect, FUCK YOU.

Probably gonna catch some heat for that last statement from a couple of reviewers who rely on those clicks, But, all my fucks ran out a long time ago. For complete transparency, I haven’t seen EVERY horror movie this year, but I’ve seen a good chock; including the very recently released NOSFERATU, which by itself is a goddamn Gothic masterpiece. But some that I haven’t gotten in my eyeballs yet are: STRANGE DARLING, HERETIC, and TERRIFIER 3. So if they should be somewhere on here but not, that’s why.

More transparency: I’m really in no rush to actually (maybe ever) watch TERRIFIER 3 as I’m not on that bandwagon of fandom. I could barely get through the first two with the unnecessary length of the second paired with the awful acting. SEE?! Got me talking negative here. But, hey. Transparency is good, friends.

Anyway, let’s start with some positive!

BEST INDIE HORROR

“LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL“

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL brings a refreshing take on found footage horror. BLESS THEM FOR THAT.

PLOT: In 1977 a live television broadcast goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms. David Dastmalchian plays Jack Delroy, a late night host who went from Late Night King to in the slumps with ratings, and here’s hoping the Halloween special he brings puts him over the hill again. Directed by Cameron and Colin Cairnes.

MY TAKE: LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL takes the essence of found footage paired with the formula of a simple plot and dial it up to a level that I’ve been waiting for someone to do for a long time. Even with being an active member in the horror community, I’m pretty damn good at avoiding spoilers and being able to go in blind on a lot of films. I just know what groups and people to avoid as far as the internet goes. So going in blind on this one probably made me like it even more so.

I’m an avid fan of the WNUF HALLOWEEN SPECIAL and this, while it is obviously much more polished out, gave me those same tingly nostalgic feelers while being truly engaged in the story at the same time. It FELT like I was watching a 70s program and not some new modern film. Effectively so, making what I was watching seem all the more sinister. Also, did anyone else while watching the movie swear up and down the skeleton in the audience was positively key to the plot? I would have bet money on that one, but alas, it was just a distraction.

The 70s aesthetic is absolutely nailed and while I DO get tired of the cliché of a little girl being “possessed” in a horror movie, at the very least they did something different with it all being a facade and not really the demon wreaking havoc, but Jack’s vengeful spirit of a wife instead possessing HIM and fucking ruining his life. Now that’s showmanship. Some of the last images, which I felt were beautifully executed, left an impression on me that this movie did something so right. And the journey to get there, was a wild ride.

BEST PSYCHOPATH

NICOLAS CAGE AS LONGLEGS in “LONGLEGS”

“MOMMYYYYY!!! DADDDYYYY! UNMAKE MEEEEEE!” will forever live rent-free in my head.

PLOT: FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes an unexpected turn, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again. Directed by Oz Perkins.

MY TAKE: I love the SHIT out of LONGLEGS and it etched an infinity love for Oz Perkins as a director for most likely, the rest of my life. The fact I really think that Nicolas Cage was just free to dial up his wild ass in this movie into a nightmarishly creepy serial killer that might haunt my dreams for the nest five years, begs to have some recognition here. Cage as Longlegs didn’t exactly have a ton of screen time, but the time he did have, he used well and it was memorable to say the least. However, it was also the right move because it just added to the tension and mystery of the character until we got the full scope reveal of just how insane this character actually is. He could eat a peach for hours, and I could praise his supporting role as 2024’s best psychopath for years.

BIGGEST LETDOWN

“MAXXXINE“

Oh, Maxine Minx. What an unsatisfying ending to this trilogy. But like all stars, ya’ gotta deal with not all of your films being winners.

THE PLOT: In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. However, as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Los Angeles, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past. Directed by Ti West.

MY TAKE: Man, I really wanted to love this movie. But unlike it’s predecessors, “X” and “PEARL“, MAXXXINE was the biggest letdown of 2024 for me. It was boring. predictable, and just… not good to put it simply. The whole movie seemed poorly paced. The filmmaking and aesthetic was beautiful enough, but it didn’t make up the fact I felt Maxine/ Mia Goth feels a little wasted here. She starts off confident and able to hold her own, yet the rest of the movie has her being very passive and practically having her desired fame handed to her instead of earned. It felt like a step backwards for the character.

The reveal of her father being behind everything might’ve worked on paper, but holy hell it didn’t translate well onscreen. The entire ending sequence is a mess,  and I just felt like the story needed more time in the oven before putting it to screen. Such a shame.

BIGGEST SURPRISE OF 2024

“THE FIRST OMEN“

I truly ate my own words when I decided to judge a film before I saw it. Which, normally, I NEVER do. But considering The Omen legacy and it being a prequel, can I be blamed, really?

THE PLOT: A woman starts to question her own faith when she uncovers a terrifying conspiracy to bring about the birth of evil incarnate in Rome. Directed by Arkasha Stevenson.

MY TAKE: When I heard they were doing a prequel to 1976’s THE OMEN, I rolled my eyes so hard they damn near fell out my skull. I immediately just thought “what a shameless cash grab” and never really gave it another thought until the movie came out, and the circle began really praising this film as something superb. Including one of my writer colleagues here on NN, Manic Exorcism who shared the same skeptism as myself but urged me to go see it as his mind was competely changed. I did. And it was.

Seeing as how so many prequels can be a miss especially when they’re leaning in on a beloved classic and our nostalgia for it, THE FIRST OMEN brings the vibe of the original haunting ambiance of the 70s along with some love for POSSESSION (1981) and origami’s it into a tidy love letter that was a nice surprise for me, personally. It didn’t rely on jump scares, it relied more on atmosphere and story. I can understand the newer generation thinking it’s boring considering what they grew up with, but for an older horror fan like myself, I really enjoyed and appreciated it.

WORST HORROR OF 2024

“NIGHT SWIM”

Coming soon to the Wal-Mart dollar bin, Amityville: The Swimming Pool

THE PLOT: Forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness, former baseball player Ray Waller moves into a new house with his wife and two children. He hopes that the backyard swimming pool will be fun for the kids and provide physical therapy for himself. However, a dark secret from the home’s past soon unleashes a malevolent force that drags the family into the depths of inescapable terror. Directed by Bryce McGuire.

MY TAKE: This was a random watch on HULU one night when nothing else seemed to be catching my eye and I should have just used that 90 minutes to sleep instead. The premise was interesting enough with the family pool acting out as some evil wishing well, so props to the writers for something unique here. But as intriguing as that is, it couldn’t save the film from the goofy CGI, the paper thin characters I never once gave a shit about, and a pool just doing whatever the fuck was convenient for the plot. The fact they tried to make the game, ‘Marco Polo’ scary was laughable enough. My advice, just skip it altogether and watch “Are You Afraid of the Dark‘s “The Tale of the Dead Man’s Float“. If you want a scary pool monster, that’s the way to go.

MOVIE I THOUGHT I WOULD LOVE BUT ENDED UP HATING

“ALIEN: ROMULUS“

Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like it’s really hard to fuck up an ALIEN movie. And yet, here we are.

THE PLOT: Space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life-form in the universe while scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station. Directed by Fede Álvarez.

MY TAKE: I guess I should have seen this one coming. I’m also not a fan at all of Fede’s 2013 EVIL DEAD, because I’m sorry, that franchise doesn’t work without Bruce Campbell and I just couldn’t enjoy the thing. However, it’s an ALIEN movie that ties into the universe so what could go wrong? A lot, actually. While visually pleasing, I felt it had nothing new to say in the franchise.  It felt like they just put all the best parts of the other ALIEN films into a single movie and called it a day; hoping that fans wouldn’t notice or just choke on the fan service nostalgia. That was too lazy for me. Also, Deep Fake Ian Holm REALLY took me out of the film whenever he was on screen. It just didn’t match the rest of the movie’s great aesthetic, because, well, it was pretty bad. The movie felt like an ALIEN fan-fiction film rather than something cannon to the legacy of movies we’ve seen before. I’ll just say it, the last GREAT ALIEN movie was PROMETHEUS and I just haven’t seen that kind of love and care taken into the franchise since then.

THE INSTANT CULT CLASSIC AND FAVORITE FILM OF THE YEAR

“LISA FRANKENSTEIN”

Because it begs to be said once more: FUCK YOU, VARIETY.

THE PLOT: A misunderstood teenager and a reanimated Victorian corpse embark on a murderous journey together to find love, happiness, and a few missing body parts. Directed by Zelda Williams.

MY TAKE: LISA FRANKENSTEIN is everything I could want in a cult horror comedy and more. A coming of RAGE love story about a teenager and her crush, who happens to be a corpse is a Gothic romance fairy tale for the ages with some great comedy moments spliced with scenes that will hit you in the feels. Not to mention all the nostalgia and love of the late 80s surrounding it and the EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and HEATHERS vibes were felt hard- but the story was entirely its own and a fresh take on the FRANKENSTEIN lore that’s been done to death in the last 100 years.

It exceeded my expectations in a big way. Funnier, dirtier, sweeter, and grosser than I thought it would be. The style is cohesive, consistent and as much a character as anyone else! Like Rocky Horror it will very much be a cult classic Dammit (Janet)!  And not to mention Cole Sprouse does so much with so few lines. He took a page from Nicholas Holt and ran with it. Kathryn Newton does such an excellent job of tossing off Diablo Cody’s dialogue and selling it all the more as a true teenage stream of consciousness. I truly don’t even see any flaws in this movie at all and will watch this movie over, and over again with a smile on every time.

BEST OVERALL HORROR FILM OF 2024

THE SUBSTANCE

Coralie Fargeat, who wrote, edited, produced, and directed this modern body-horror Mona Lisa, is by far the best thing I’ve seen come out of the genre in some time.

PLOT: Elisabeth Sparkle, renowned for an aerobics show, faces a devastating blow on her 50th birthday as her boss fires her. Amid her distress, a laboratory offers her a substance which promises to transform her into an enhanced version of herself.

MY TAKE: Perhaps not since PET SEMATARY (1989) has a horror movie made me cry a blubbering mess. However, with THE SUBSTANCE it was for very different reasons. As a 42-year-old woman I felt all the things Elisabeth (Demi Moore) felt prior and during her wild journey. I’ve stood in that mirror for hours, obsessing over every flaw until I just walloped myself into a sad state of depression. All my life, I’ve suffered from body dysmorphia and an eating disorder that almost took me out as a teenager. I got down to 69 pounds and I probably should be dead, but I’m here instead bringing nostalgic and weird joy to the masses with the one thing that has always just been accepting of me for me- the horror community. *Just to be clear, I’ve been healthy for the last 14 years in terms of body weight and have gone through, and continue therapy on the matter to pull myself out of that. So, yay for me.

So yes, this movie hit me hard in the feels on a relatable matter. However, I feel like every goddamn woman on the planet can relate to the atrocities of being a woman in the social media age. Where filters make you feel more self-conscious than you already are along with, as always, setting unrealistic standards for what a woman should look like along with selling us Botox and dermal fillers up the ass so that we may achieve that glorious unpolished Instagram filter on our own faces. Then there was the younger, more perfect version, Margaret Qualley, beating the ever-loving shit out of Elisabeth- a nice metaphor for we, as women, beat the crap out of yourselves on a daily basis with harsh words. It wasn’t until it was too late that Elisabeth could see her own beauty and realize that she was always enough. And it had me thinking for DAYS on end what a powerful message that was. I mean, bonus that it’s a body horror with a TON of Easter Egg homages to a variety of great horror movies like THE FLY, THE SHINING, RE-ANIMATOR and so forth along with a bloody finale that rivals that of EVIL DEAD 2. It’s just everything I could ever want in a horror movie and more. It’s the absolute GOAT of 2024.

With all that being said, I wanted to point out that 2024 was not only a great year for horror, but also a fantastic year for women in horror. It truly felt like women horror directors and writers just dominated the fuck out of the genre this year and being a female in the game as long as I have, it makes me extremely proud to be a minuscule part of it in my own little corner of the horror community.

Or something like that…

What were your favorite horror movies of 2024? How about your most hated? Comment below and let’s have our last horror movie discussion of the year!

Editorials

40 Years of “A Nightmare On Elm Street”: How Freddy Changed The Game In The 80s and Beyond

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The year was 1984.  The very first commercial for the revolutionary Apple Computer premiered at the beginning of the year, foreshadowing an irreversible change in the way we live for an entire generation. While one can argue this may very well be, the most significant moment in ’84, (or hell an entire decade), most horror fans may dispute that. 40 years ago, one of horror’s biggest and influential icons was born from the mind of the late Wes Craven-Freddy Krueger. Robert Englund gave him a body, Craven gave him the brain- see what I did there- and unleashed Freddy Mania unto the generation that became the golden era for Slasher movies; and shows no signs of slowing up all these years later.

While I can’t speak for every single child of the ’80s, Freddy Fever rose high and rampant over the course of a decade, introducing an entire generation to the horror genre due to Springwood’s Slasher popularity. Nancy said it best, “Every kid knows who he is. He’s like Santa Claus.” 

And even celebrated much more so by the horror fandom than the generous, jolly ol’ dude. With on-screen heroes emerging in the decade like Indiana Jones, Rambo, and pretty much any Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Freddy rose to the ranks as a hero of a generation of horror movie fans by being nothing more than the ethos of pure evil-slapstick comedy added later-which only BOOSTED all the diehard FredHeads (myself included) to put him on a higher pedestal; rounding out the Holy Horror Slasher Trinity with his buddies Michael and Jason.

I mean, you’ve really made it when MTV (when it was, you know, amazing) lets you VJ and just end up doing whatever the fuck you want. That’s some star power.

And it all stemmed from an idea inspired by real-life horrific events that dated back a decade earlier.

As most of you are aware by now, Craven was enthralled by a story he came across in the LA TIMES about a family who had survived the Killing Fields in Cambodia. They made it safe and sound to the United States, but their young son was soon terrorized by horrible nightmares and was eventually found dead.

From Vulture Magazine, circa 2014:

“He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time. When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying. That became the central line of Nightmare on Elm Street.”

All that being said, WHAT exactly had the youth of our generation so insanely captivated by, well, a brutal child killer? I can only speculate on watching Freddymania evolve throughout the ’80s, and ’90s, to today’s hardcore fan base that follows Freddy and Friends to the ends of the Earth via social media and horror conventions (I’m totally one of those people), and speaking with fellow FredHead buddies. And the answers are pretty quite simple: The children are the warriors of this horror franchise. They are the ones who recognize the evil while the adults stand around with their thumbs up their asses. THEY are the ones who stand together, (just look at Dream Warriors) and face their enemy head-on. So it’s only natural an adolescent would gravitate toward something they could possibly relate to. Society is often guilty of not listening to our youth, and A Nightmare On Elm Street made that loud and clear, folks.

Another reason, and this is personally true in my case being a female, is that each of the NOES films gave us the absolute, most ass-kicking heroines that any young girl would be proud to look up to. First off, let’s just get this right out of the way- Nancy is the goddamn Queen. Even though it was quite clear that she was slowly getting edgier as the film progressed- to be fair she was working on a week’s worth of almost no sleep while Fred was trying to murder her– she really had the most logical and sturdy head out of EVERYONE in that entire film. Including her parents. Not to mention, she went full Rambo on Krueger’s ass. I’m not going to sit here and try to argue how she managed to set all those booby traps, fall asleep, and capture Freddy all in twenty minutes of film time. Let’s just appreciate the fact that this girl went balls to the wall, going as far as tackling her predator to the ground WWF style in one giant FUCK YOU to his face. And then she turns her back on him and calls him “shit”.

Goddamn. GIRL FUCKING POWER.

35 Years of Freddy: A Clawed Imprint On An Entire Generation

Prior to Heather Langenkamp’s debut as a horror heroine, there really hadn’t been too many “final girls” who actually used their wit and a bit of critical thinking to overcome danger. Sydney Prescott said it best, “Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can’t act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door.” Ironically, another character of Wes Craven-which is a big reason why I adore him and the strength he gave his female heroes.

The stupid girl trope in horror movies had always really bothered me until I got a dose of Nancy. The only other final girl that came remotely close to being a full-on badass that any young girl would admire prior to NOES, is Amy Steel’s Ginny from Friday the 13th Part 2. Nancy is Ginny turned all the up. And I respect the fuck out of it. We finally had someone willing to fight back with both her mind and skills she obtained. The strong female presence would continue throughout the franchise, and personally, I really think it made other horror films and franchises really think twice about the dumb girl victim angle. Post 1984, the main female characters in BOTH Friday the 13th and Halloween, respectfully, had a bit more fight in them. Think of Megan from Jason Lives, or Rachel from Halloween 4 who helped break the cycle. We can thank Nancy for that.

If someone wants to chime in about Jamie Lee Curtis, don’t make me remind you that just screamed her way through the first one until Loomis saved her ass; and then again in the sequel. A sequel where she literally laid in a parking lot where help was 10 feet away and waited to call out until they were gone.

I fucking love these movies to death, but I can never get past the stupidity of that.

Last but not least, A Nightmare On Elm Street has always been seen by me as a “comfort horror film”.  Over the years, I’ve written several articles on how horror films actually soothe my anxiety- And the NOES films are exactly that for me. Comfort in times of stress and the harsh realities of the real world. I refer to films like these in a term I coined, “FANTASTICAL HORROR”. Films like Halloween and Friday the 13th (only the first, after that they became FANTASTICAL), were very much real to me. THAT SHIT COULD ACTUALLY HAPPEN. It’s very plausible an escaped lunatic could go on a killing spree or a deranged childless mother going apeshit on a group of kids. With NOES, mehhhhhhhhh, highly doubt a burnt-faced demon is gonna kill me in my dreams. This is not to say that one could never die in their sleep, or to take away the fact that the movie is really terrifying in other aspects. But, it’s not realistic to me. And that’s ok! In times of real-world tragedies, shitty adult issues, and when the world seems so ugly that you want to pack up and move to Mars, Freddy, and the gang are here to take us to Dream Land. To a place that takes us out of reality and into the world of Fantastical Horror.

You know, kinda like Harry Potter but cooler. Don’t you Hogwarts fans @ me.

Happy 40th anniversary, Freddy and the gang. And to all my fellow sons and daughters of 100 maniacs who keep the fandom of this movie as strong as ever. We are all his children now and forever.

35 Years of Freddy: A Clawed Imprint On An Entire Generation

On a last note for all you Fred Heads, make sure you grab the latest revised edition of “NEVER SLEEP AGAIN” that has all new information about the making of the movie via the cast and crew! The book releases on November 9th, 2024 and you can grab it here on Amazon!

Creature Features, Editorials

The Wolf Man’s Unstoppable Legacy of Terror

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It’s that time of year again – arguably the best season of all! A time of longer nights and shorter days. A season fraught with nightmarish landscapes! Skeletons hang silently from banisters like cadavers strung over a hangman’s gallows, neighboring lawns – the same ones we pass day in and out – become overnight graveyards, masked ghouls take to the streets seeking treats, and inhuman voices howl at autumn moons. The season of horror and the hour of monsters is again upon us.

Horror fans don’t have to wait a whole year to indulge in the inner beasts that drive us, but this time of year makes it much more fun to embrace all things macabre. With Halloween approaching, I’ve decided to continue my tradition of focusing on a specific legendary monster. This year, my fangs are bare and I’m going for the jugular with Universal Monster’s Wolf Man.

The film stands as an early example of body horror, showcasing our protagonist’s human form abandoning its natural grace and becoming grotesquely animalistic. Bones break and rearrange, skin tears and fur grows, nails curl blackly into sharpened talons and teeth sprout from a beastly maul hungry for human blood. Human anatomy is mutilated until a man becomes an accursed beast trapped under the gossamer shine of a haunting moon. Such is the horrid fate of the werewolf as we know it today. And nearly all of our knowledge concerning werewolf lore draws from the imaginative concepts introduced in this classic horror spectacle.

The movie takes its viewers on a dangerous journey across haunted moors and a gypsy camp where old magic still rules the night and locks all under a gloom of superstition and existential dread. This distant land of mysticism is shared by resplendent mansions and modern conveniences, which, intentional or not, leaves us a message – the modern day of science and progression is not protected from the old curses of a much more powerful world still lingering on the outskirts of society. The moors hold their secrets and the practitioners of the old ways know more than modern mankind when it comes to safeguarding against primordial haunts and horrors. This lesson our protagonist, Larry Talbot (played by horror royalty Lon Chaney Jr.) all too soon falls prey to.

We’re entering the violent world of the Wolf Man and only a silver bullet can protect you from that haunter of night. Lock yourself behind an iron gate and say your prayers he’s not picked up your scent.  

“Even a man who’s pure at heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolf bane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.” – The Wolf Man

artwork by Bernie Wrightson

The plot is one of pathos. Much like the other demons of Universal Studios’ House of Horrors, this monster is another lamentation of lost innocence. Larry Talbot has reluctantly returned home to his father’s house (here played by acclaimed actor Claude Raines who starred in The Invisible Man and later Phantom of the Opera) and it’s not long before Larry’s struck by otherworldly powers.

In many cases, victims in horror movies often get exactly what they’re looking for. A puzzle box that opens the labyrinths of Hell, an Ouija board, calling out the Candyman’s name five times, or simply exploring a house said to be haunted are all examples of how curiosity can lead to dire consequences and make for some really good scares. However, this is not the case with the Wolf Man. He neither went seeking to become a wolf nor was he even the intended victim of the werewolf’s bloodlust.

Larry brings Hell down upon himself by simply being a good Samaritan. Hearing the distressed cries of a woman being attacked in the woods Larry rushes out to help only to find she’s being attacked by a wolf. With no thought to caution, Larry throws himself between the beast and its prey and quickly becomes the new object of its rage.

Unbeknownst to Larry this isn’t a mere wolf which would’ve been bad enough. No, this was a werewolf. Larry wins the fight and kills the beast but doesn’t walk away as a victor. He’s been bitten and we all know good and well what that means for poor Larry.

His selfless act of valor ends up cursing him to the beast’s possession. A murderous rage soon takes over his mind, eating away at his senses and sending him out into the night to hunt down and kill all whom he holds dear. It’s a story of sublime pathos if ever there was one and that’s the silent genius of the movie’s timeless strength.

This ingenious concept – that still holds up in every werewolf movie to come out after Universal’s feral classic I might add – is all due to the insight of one man – the movie’s screenwriter, Curt Siodmak. Of course, werewolf lore existed before the movie’s release and this wasn’t even the first werewolf movie out at the time. Werewolf of London had already come and gone but ultimately didn’t enjoy the success Wolf Man managed. This is due to the personal touch of sadness Siodmak put into his screenplay.

Siodmak’s youth was ravaged by sudden tragedy as his home was overtaken by men and women who turned hostile and monstrous against him and his own kind as if overnight. Being Jewish Siodmak saw his neighbors and acquaintances transform and give in to bestial instincts. Jewish people were forced to identify with a star, a symbol that later on would mark them for death. It’s no wonder then that in his screenplay the Wolf Man can see a pentagram star appear on the palm of his victim’s hand, a sure mark of death for the innocent and unsuspecting victim.

This harrowing environment stayed with Siodmak well after his family fled Germany and elements of it settled into his imagination and went on to create one of the most enduring movie monsters of all time. So powerful was Siodmak’s vision that Wolf Man DNA can be seen in every werewolf movie to follow. Before Wolf Man people turned into a werewolf by eating a poisonous plant or by magic herbs. But now all of a sudden a man bitten by a werewolf (and lived) would join the demons of the night in a rampage of grotesquely.

Wolf Man also introduced the idea that silver is lethal to werewolves, as well as the concept of transformation during a full moon. These elements contributed to the foundation of many iconic and cult werewolf films, including Silver Bullet, The Howling, An American Werewolf in London, and Ginger Snaps. All of these “wolfy” favorites draw on the concepts established in this classic Universal horror film.

In short, what Bram Stoker did for vampires and George Romero did for zombies Siodmak did for werewolves. Ask anyone: how do you kill a werewolf and they’ll tell you a silver bullet. Same goes for how we all know a werewolf transforms on full moons. These monster facts are rooted securely in our cultural zeitgeist and that’s something very, very hard to pull off. And so we salute Siodmak, a man not very well known among horror fans, but, maybe that can change, because had it not been for his imagination and insight we would’ve been robbed of one of the most enduring movie monsters to ever go tearing across the screen.

Is Universal’s Wolf Man a perfect film? Hell no, of course not and I’m not gonna pretend it is otherwise. But it serves perfectly on my annual Halloween watchlist. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective. Its moody atmosphere and eerie imagery are all perfectly Halloweeny and if you’ve never seen it you’re missing out on one of horror’s essential foundations that set the criteria for the genre.

Remakes of the Wolf

Wolf Man (2010)

I honestly don’t hate the 2010 remake. I saw it at the theater back when it came out. I also just ordered the Scream Factory special edition release. I think it’s a good retelling of the familiar classic with some decent (honestly gotta say shocking) gore. I also like how the Wolf Man looks proving once again that Rick Baker (American Werewolf in London) is the monster maker. It’s an updated vision of what Jack Pierce came up with all those years ago and I love it.

The one glaring fault with the movie is its unnecessary use of CGI. Because the studio had the genius of Rick Baker behind the project there’s no excuse for not letting him be in charge of the werewolf transformation scenes. Compare those scenes to what Baker did with AAWIL and you’ll see what I mean.

Overall does the remake deserve the hate it got? No. I mean comparing the look of its werewolf to that stupid shit Blumhouse is trying to push and yeah. Superior!

The story closely follows the original film with a few new twists and surprise elements to keep it fresh. Honestly, I say give it a chance.

Wolf (1994)

This is a weird one and shocking that it even exists. It’s not a bad movie but it’s just a bit odd. It’s a modern retelling of the Wolf Man and was inspired by the striking success of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The ‘90s wanted to restore the audience’s love for classic horror icons with new erotic romance, updated effects, and blood. Woo hoo!

Well, Wolf might strike some (probably most) viewers as a boring journey seeing as how there is no wild transformation scene. Not on the lever of AAIL or The Howling. You also won’t get a full-body werewolf costume like you do in Silver Bullet. Our lead protagonist slowly does turn more wolf-like and will fully become a beast by the end of the movie but it’s nothing at all like what people expect to see.

This time our lead is played by Jack Nicholson (The Shining, Batman), and is no stranger to horror roles or larger-than-life parts. He’s a perfect casting choice to play the role of Larry Talbot but the filmmaker chose to hold back. There’s no amazing monster makeup and Nicholson’s roles in The Shining and The Joker are way more memorable. That’s not to say there’s no monster effects. There are they’re just, well, have a look. They look fine.

Wolf came out during that weird time in the ‘90s when Hollywood didn’t want to make ‘horror’ films and preferred the term thrillers. Because of this attitude, the movie really feels like a monster movie that’s scared of being associated with being a monster movie. So it misses the point. All that said I do weirdly like it. I mean honestly, I’ve not seen it since I was a teen and I liked it back then. If I rewatched it now all these years later that all could possibly change.

Personally, I’d recommend just watching any other werewolf flick. That or the 2010 remake. If you’ve never seen the original movie I say go give it a watch because I’m a whore for Universal Monsters and have to watch them every year around this time.

Further Recommendations: Sequels

I’d also strongly recommend the Wolf Man’s sequel, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. One of the first times horror icons met up in a fatal fight to the death as the man made of cadavers and the man cursed by the moon are locked in battle. It’s also the earliest example of a shared universe way before Marvel ever acted like they started that shit.

And, if you’re like me and have seen all these movies a dozen times over and still need a lycan fix, I just discovered a novel officially released by Universal Monsters that’s a sequel to the Wolf Man. It’s called Return of the Wolf Man and the book opens up right away with our hairy beast promptly fighting Dracula! Not only that but the Frankenstein Monster shows up and already this is proving to be a wild monster mash well worth the price I paid for it.

Yeah, so about that, it’s sad to say this thing can be pricy as all fuck. I paid $40 at Half Price Books for my (used paperback) copy but a copy on Amazon (last I looked) is going for over a hundred big ones. So yeah… If you happen to chance across this book at a used store or the library I say pick it up.

So that’s it, my nasties. Hope you all enjoyed our little journey into the night to discuss werewolves. You all have a Happy Halloween and watch out when you go out after sunset. If you hear something howling in the dark run as fast as you can. You might get away with your life.