Werewolves in Film

[J. Tithonus Pednaud]

An American Werewolf in London is a personal favorite as well, followed by The Howling and Silver Bullet.

I assume that when you say ‘faithful to the more traditional ideas’ you are referring to the dogmatic Hollywood lycanthropic folklore established in Universal’s The Wolf Man. That film was the origin of such elements as silver being fatal to werewolves, wolfsbane acting as a repellant, and that the ‘curse’ can be transferred via a bite or scratch.

None of those cannons are part of any previous traditional old-world werewolf folklore. Essentially, silver was not fatal to werewolves until 1933. The entire silver bullet idea was introduced later in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. I don’t remember the date on that.