I remember as a child watching Lon chaney Jnr as the the Wolf Man. He was a nice guy who woudn't hurt another soul. Yet after he was attacked by the Gypsy werewolf he would, himself, become the creature. During he full moon, Lawrence Talbot would howl at the moon and hunt the humans of the local village. The remake of this film was wonderful. They re-vamped the original horror, mixing it with some of the original script. For example, when sir John was bitten by the wolf boy in the Tibetan mountains.
Jack Nicholson also did the werewolf role justice. I also think adding Jason Bateman as the evil werewolf was a nice touch. It's a look at what can happen when the bad guy gets infected. I have also seen many other werewolf movies, and I still believe the best are the good guys who turn evil when the moon is full.
There was a time when good and evil battled and good always prevailed, the way its supposed to be right? However, that line between good and evil, at least with the vampire, has become clouded. They run nightclubs and mafia-like organisations, go to highschool and, for the real life wannabe's, have become a part of society. Posssibly this is because of the different forms of vampires. Some suck energy or life essence and others, the Hollywood type, suck blood from their victims. basically the same idea, as they're taking the life force of another into their own body so that they may stay immortal.
The werewolf, however, hasn't really changed all that much, at least not in the movies. They are still creatures of the night. Some movies show them gathered in societies and such, but when the creature takes over they are primal and hunt their pray. The underworld movies and Kelly Armstrong books try to make them a society of their own, but they cannot get away from that creature that lurks deep within.
Personally, I hope the never do. I like the creature the dwells within. With vampires, well Dracula was really a love story, and ever since they have a held a certain romanticism.
Here are some of my favourite books on the genre of werewolves...what the hell, a couple of vampires as well... They're in no particular order, but as I think of them.
Men of the otherworld - Kelly Armstrong
my daughter introduced me to this writer, well kind of. I actually bought her another book by Kelly Armstrong, Bitten. She went on to read more of her books and recomended them to me. 'Men of the Otherworld',is the story of a young boy, Clay, who finds a werewolf and chooses to get bitten so he can escape his own life. He goes through the changes on his own, with no-one to guide him through the change. It becomes impossible for him to control the change, or to know which he is at any given time. He is eventually saved by Jeremy Danvers who becomes his adoptive father and protector.
This is an exciting, interesting and sometimes funny, look into the world of a modern day werewolf pack.
Maneater - Thomas Emson
A werewolf tale that takes us back to the reasons we loved this creature in the first place. The sheer destruction it can cause. I don't want to give too much away as I'll ruin the story as it unveils itself. I came across this author by chance in the library. If your a lover of the werewolf genre, then this guy will knock your socks off. I don't want to give too much of this story away as I'll ruin the unveiling... Laura, the werewolf, is the last of her family bloodline. She seeks revenge on those who murdered her family and has little respect of human life in general. But as the story progresses, she finds love from a source she didn't expect. Join Laura as she rips through flesh and unknowingly revamps an ancient family. This is definitely one for like minded fans... then go on to read the sequel, Prey.
Skarlet- Thomas Emson
Another good story by this author. Skarlet leads into a series of three books about vampires. Thomas's vampires are turned with a club pill. It's different, and different can be good. I enjoy reading Emson's books, as he hits the ground running. When reading Skarlet, I had flashbacks of old movies, Hammer Horror in particular. I'm not sure if this was his inspiration, but then...I don't care, because it did it for me. He puts the same pulse into his writing as he did with Maneater. I don't mind admitting, I am a true follower of Thomas Emson.
Dark Prince - Christine Feehan
This was the first of a few of the Dark Series books that I read. These are supernatural romance books, there was a time when I would never have read anything with Romance in the genre description. However, when I read this I was desperate to find something decent to read in the supernatural genre. Christine Feehan takes us back to the land of the original vampire, back to the carpathian mountains. Her vampires are vicious and blood thirsty, yet loyal and honourable. It sounds a little corny, but it actually makes for a great recipe for her stories.
Lord of the Dead - Tom Holland
Tom Holland is Probably the best author of historical fiction as far that I have read so far. Also known as The Vampyre, Lord of the dead is a fictional explanation to Lord Byron's exceptionally romantic poetry. Another of Tom Holland's I've read is Supping with Panthers . He has a way of meshing history and fiction that makes his stories almost believable to a bent mind such as mine. He's also written books on ancient history. Of course reality has never interested me, however, ancient history could just be someone's story based on fact. Who's to say that in a couple of thousand years these won't be our future youth's history books. Ok, maybe I've gone a little far there, people don't just accept documents as recorded history just because they've been told to do so...right?
Surviving Frank - David A. Page
This book I read in around 2008 or '09. Talk about under rated. It's self published (I think) and I would put this up there with Harvey. Only he's not a rabbit, he's a werewolf and he's not invisible or imaginary but real. Ok their completely different yet... like Mr. Miagi says, 'different...but same...' This is about a cop that got a bad rap and he happens to be a werewolf, which doesn't make life as easy as you may think. However, it does open a variety of contacts for him and and his human partner, plus he can smell a good curry from five blocks away. This was a great read and, to be honest, I'd forgotten about it. After hundreds of books, yes I'm a slow reader, I can't remember every single one. However there are those few that pop back into my mind and I have to get it. This one was a little harder to find. but I was glad when I did and I have purchased a copy for my bookshelf. I suggest...no I must insist that you get a copy. Read it then put it on your shelf amongst that copy of Stephen King 'On Writing', and that old beat up copy of 'Dracula'. One day you will look on this little book, all discoloured and warped, and think of it as another of your paper children.
Abraham Lincoln Vampire hunter - Seth Grahame-Smith
Seth Grahame-Smith's books remind me of Tom Holland. He takes historical non-fiction and tweaks it with fiction. I enjoyed the book, the story was fun to read. It's like getting into a time capsule and being taken to a moment in history and seeing what could have happened 'if'. Of course Vampires could never have really existed, nor do they exist today...?
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