Watch These Great Werewolf Movies on Peacock Before Seeing Wolf Man
Is that a full Moon in the sky?
A full Moon is rising over movie theaters, which will soon be terrorized by The Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man, a reimagining of the classic werewolf horror movie.
Wolf Man, starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, opens exclusively in theaters on January 17 (get tickets here!), but that same full Moon is already casting its lupine light on Peacock. If your hunger for werewolf movies can’t be sated, there are three great werewolf films streaming on Peacock that you should watch before (or after) seeing the new movie.
There are also several TV shows that feature werewolves available to watch on Peacock too, including The Munsters, Being Human, and the Peacock Original Wolf Like Me. These are all worth checking out, but for the purposes of this list we will stick to three feature films: the original 1941 Universal Classic Monster film The Wolf Man, the 2010 remake The Wolfman, and the 2000 Canadian indie flick Ginger Snaps. (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is also streaming on Peacock, but while it does feature a werewolf, the lycanthropy is probably not the main reason people might want to watch a tale from the Wizarding World.)
Werewolf movies to watch on Peacock, just in time for Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man to arrive in theaters
The Wolf Man (1941)
Although Werewolf of London predated it by six years, there’s a reason why 1941’s The Wolf Man became the iconic werewolf of the Universal Monsters franchise as well as one of the most influential werewolf movies of all time. Starring Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot, The Wolf Man finds Talbot returning to his ancestral home in Wales for a funeral, where he is attacked by a wolf. He soon learns that he’s been inflicted with a terrible curse that causes him to change into a savage beast.
Boasting then-cutting-edge special effects that make Chaney’s transformation into a werewolf remembered all these years later, The Wolf Man’s most poignant quality is the pervasive sense of sadness. The Wolf Man truly treats the curse of the werewolf as a curse, and you feel for Talbot as he suffers and is forced to hurt others against his will. Chaney would play the Wolf Man several more times, meeting Frankenstein’s monster in a 1943 sequel, but the original should be considered mandatory viewing for any horror fan, especially before seeing Whannell’s new take on the story.
Stream The Wolf Man on Peacock
The Wolfman (2010)
Joe Johnston’s 2010 remake of The Wolf Man, The Wolfman dropped the space between “Wolf” and “Man,” but one thing it maintained was the special effects werewolf movies are so naturally suited to showcasing. The legendary makeup artist Rick Baker won an Academy Award for his efforts at transforming star Benicio del Toro into a lupine terror. The Wolfman underperformed at the box office, but if you want to see a man turn into a werewolf and unleash furry terror, you can’t go wrong, especially with a supporting cast that boasts the likes of Sir Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, and Hugo Weaving.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Unlike The Wolf Man and The Wolfman, Ginger Snaps is not about a wolf man at all. Instead, this acclaimed Canadian horror flick follows two sisters after one of them is attacked by a beast that appears to have been killing a lot of dogs in their neighborhood. Using lycanthropy as a metaphor for puberty — as having a period is another bloody thing that happens once every cycle of the Moon — is brilliant, and makes you wonder why werewolf movies hadn’t explored this theme before. Unflinching in its gore and its depiction of teenage sisterhood, Ginger Snaps boasts a transformation sequence that can stand with the best werewolf movies, and it definitely worth checking out ahead of the new film.
Stream Ginger Snaps on Peacock
What is Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man about?
Wolf Man follows the Lovell family — Blake, Charlotte, and Ginger — as they head into the woods for a trip to Blake’s rural Oregon childhood home. Blake's father has only recently passed away, and an undercurrent of frightening unease escalates the atmosphere surrounding their isolated destination, after Blake survives an attack from a mysterious creature.
With something dangerous and strange seemingly lurking in the woods, the family hopes to ride out the nightmare by shutting themselves inside their ancestral farmhouse for the night. But there’s a sinister transformation already at work inside the very walls where they try to seek refuge… and shockingly, it calls into question Blake’s trusted role as the family’s vigilant protector.
Leigh Whannell's Wolf Man hits the big screen Friday, January 17. Tickets are now on sale right here!