The Wolf Man: The History of the Classic Universal Monster
Before Wolf Man hits theaters, let's take a look back at Universal Pictures' werewolf history.
This weekend, Universal Pictures' Wolf Man arrives in theaters, offering the latest reimagining of one of the studio's beloved Monsters. Directed and co-written by The Invisible Man mastermind Leigh Whannell, it promises a bold, brutal new take on Universal's werewolf movies, and will put in place another chapter in a legacy dating back nearly 100 years.
Because of that legacy, it's important to remember that Wolf Man is part of a long line of stories, just like every other Universal Monsters properties. So, before it hits theaters this Friday (get tickets here!), let's take a brief look back at the history of Universal's Wolf Man franchise.
Looking back at the history of the Classic Universal Monster, The Wolf Man
The Beginning of The Wolf Man
When it comes to werewolf movies, the Wolf Man franchise proper was not actually Universal's first effort. For that, you have to go back to 1935 and Werewolf of London, the first major werewolf feature ever released. Directed by Stuart Walker and starring Henry Hull in the title role, the film concerns a botanist who, while searching for a rare plant in Tibet, is bitten by a werewolf and begins to transform when he returns to London. Featuring makeup design by the great Jack Davis, it's a film that does its own thing with werewolf lore, and while it was overshadowed by The Wolf Man a few years later, it remains a worthy entry in the Universal Monsters canon, and was followed by a short, spiritual sequel of sorts, She-Wolf of London, in 1946.
Six years after Werewolf of London, Universal's werewolf as we know him would arrive in The Wolf Man, directed by George Waggner and written by Curt Siodmak. Starring Lon Chaney Jr. as Lawrence "Larry" Talbot, the film began to codify a lot of the standard lore that we know about werewolves on film, particularly their weakness to silver. The film's atmosphere, scares, and focus on an ordinary man in an extraordinary situation made it a hit for Universal, and over the next few years Larry Talbot became an indispensable part of Universal's monster machine.
The Monster Rallies
Unlike Frankenstein's Monster, who became a kind of standard-bearer for Universal Monsters in the 1930s, and the Mummy, who was off doing his own thing in Egypt, The Wolf Man did not go on to get his own standalone franchise. There are no direct, single-monster Wolf Man sequels starring Chaney as Larry Talbot. That's okay, though, because what we got instead is arguably even more fun.
After the success of The Wolf Man, Universal decided to pair Talbot with Frankenstein's Monster for what's gone down in history as the first of the "monster rally" films, something the studio would spend much of the 1940s churning out. In 1943, we got Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, which made some major changes to Universal Monsters' werewolf lore and brought Larry Talbot back from the dead.
The resulting clash was successful enough that, a year later, Universal did it again, bringing Dracula (John Carradine) and some new mad scientists into the fold with House of Frankenstein. This was followed by House of Dracula in 1945 and then, in 1948, by the horror-comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. This film, which also featured Bela Lugosi's only true reprisal of the Dracula role, would be Chaney's last, and the final word on Larry Talbot in the classic era of Universal Monsters. But like just about every other monster in Universal's canon, The Wolf Man would not stay dead forever.
The Wolf Man's Revival
Though Dracula was remade at Universal as early as 1979, and The Mummy got a new chance at life in 1999, The Wolf Man's path to revival would be a little stranger. After the success of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, the studio drafted director Stephen Sommers to work on Van Helsing, a monster hunter film that would also turn into a new monster rally movie, complete with revamped versions of Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and of course, werewolves. The film gave us a new Wolf Man in Universal canon, with a new name (Velkan Velarious, played by Will Kemp), but because he was only part of a much larger monster picture in that film, we barely got to know him.
Finally, in 2010, Lawrence Talbot got a remake of his very own when director Joe Johnston and Universal released The Wolfman. Starring Benicio del Toro in the title role, the film moves the setting of the Wolf Man story to the late 19th century, adding a more Gothic atmosphere while keeping many of the key beats of the original 1941 film. It wasn't a massive box office success, but it won an Academy Award for Best Makeup for Rick Baker and Dave Elsey, and over time it has gained more and more appreciation from the horror faithful.
What is Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man about?
All of which brings us to right now. After the Dark Universe experiment never quite got off the ground, a Wolf Man film became one of those projects that went through a few different iterations before landing on Whannell and stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner. The new film, titled simply Wolf Man, follows the Lovell family — Blake, Charlotte, and their daughter Ginger — as they head into the woods for a trip to Blake’s rural Oregon childhood home. After Blake survives an attack from a mysterious creature, the family hopes to ride out the night by shutting themselves inside their farmhouse, but there’s a sinister transformation already at work inside those very walls.
Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man hits the big screen Friday, January 17. Tickets are now on sale right here!