Top 10 Werewolf Movies (REDUX)

There are of wolf and man! Welcome to WatchMojo.com, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 10 werewolf movies.

When we did this list in January 2013, our audience was split down the middle between males and females. So the movie Twilight was actually ranked number one in our poll. We knew that wouldn’t fly with our audience, but we left it at number ten. But now we’re older and wiser, so we took the opportunity to update this clip by rejigging the order, adding honorable mentions, and just generally making it more awesome. So please be advised, this clip contains mature content! Now let’s get with the blood!

It’s Lassie meets Terminator 2: a family’s insanely loyal German Shepherd discovers a werewolf and protects its owners at all costs as the *cough* underdog in the fight. We’re pretty sure no other film features an all-out brawl between dog and dog-man. We dig the entire beast versus beast theme, and love how the mother jumps in to take a page from the book of Sarah Connor and save her son!

Michael J. Fox stars as a dorky teen who dreams of dominating the basketball court and getting the girl in the probably most family-friendly werewolf flick on this list. His affliction is hereditary and is triggered by puberty, but instead of ripping people apart as he should, he uses his powers to score. Yes, that was corny, but we love it—so sue us.

In this film, a book publisher, played by Jack Nicholson, gets bitten and uses his heightened senses and strength to regain control of his life… and to eat muggers. Only after falling in love does he realize that his gift is a curse. Unlike most werewolf movies, it features strong acting and a star who doesn’t even need any makeup to play a convincing movie monster!

Twilight wasn’t he first movie to mix budding female sexuality with Lycanthropy. But this time, the focus is on two sisters, one of whom is pretty messed up even before she’s bitten. Replacing glisten with gore, this horror flick respects the mythology, but devilishly uses the werewolf genre to explore the themes of conformity and alienation. Plus, it has tons of gore. This cannot be overstated.

This wasn’t the first ever werewolf film, but it was the first to make the moon monster as universally recognized as Universal Studios’ other creatures, Dracula and Frankenstein. It also introduced the concept of vulnerability to silver. While it seems clichéd now, the tragic story of Lawrence Talbot remains the archetype of the genre, and the film still thrills with convincing acting, a memorable musical score and its haunting atmosphere.

Part-action, part-horror, and all epic, this series follows the long-standing battle of vampires-versus-Lycans, with Death Dealer Selene making it her life’s mission to destroy her sworn enemies. After this dispute is introduced in the first film, “Rise of the Lycans” reveals its origins, explaining that the werewolf breed in question is a more advanced species than its beastly counterparts. Advanced or not, the Lycans are some of the most terrifying werewolves to grace the silver screen.

This Stephen King adaptation has become a beloved horror classic and centers on a small town besieged by mysterious murders. Corey Haim plays a paraplegic who discovers the truth, and goes on a quest to stop the hairy killer! Sure, the werewolf effects are pretty lame, but this is a movie with the right mix of 80s camp, humor, anticipation, and of course, Gary Busey!

Now we’re getting to the real action. Let’s showcase a werewolf flick that’s strictly for the boys. This horror-thriller takes everything we love about werewolves and combines it with the standard zombie genre setup. We follow some British soldiers as they take refuge in a farmhouse when the beasts come looking for chew toys. As the situation unfolds, paranoid cabin fever begins to set in as the soldiers begin to question the loyalties of their ever-shrinking group.

This loosely-based-on-a-novel story follows a woman who has selective amnesia and she decides to stay at a psychiatric cabin resort. Once there, she hears howls, and begins to suspect that a werewolf is lurking around. With a twist ending that M. Night Shyamalan probably wishes he wrote; this is a memorable werewolf flick as it was the first to fully discard Hollywood’s standard Wolf Man tale.

Before we unleash our number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

• Van Helsing (2004)
• Blood & Chocolate (2007)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
• Red Riding Hood (2011)

And we have one dishonorable mention as well:

• - Twilight saga (2008-12)

It’s John Landis’ unforgettable tale of an American tourist who’s been bitten by a werewolf, and is urged by the ghost of his dead friend to off himself before he becomes an unstoppable murder machine. With enough humor to carry over into a second, albeit less successful, film; An American Werewolf in London expertly balances comedy with horror, and features the greatest and most graphic werewolf transformation ever put to film! Mmmm crunchy.

Do you agree with our list? Which is your favorite werewolf movie? For more entertaining Top 10s, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.