The first motion picture that had lycanthropy as a subject was a silent film from 1913 by the name of The Werewolf.  The long-lost twenty-minute film involved an Indian curse in form of a young woman (Lule Warrenton) destined by her witch mother to periodically become a werewolf and prey on whites.  At that time in cinema history, most of the conventions of the werewolf subgenre had not yet been invented.  The werewolf mythology itself has evolved to a large degree in Hollywood horror of the last 69 years.  What follows is a chronological listing of Werewolf Movies (and those with notable werewolf appearances), including points of historical interest.  

 

1935 - Henry Hull
Werewolf Of London
Stage Actor Henry Hull plays a scientist who is bitten by a werewolf while on a botanical jaunt to Tibet, taking the affliction back home to London.  The make-up, by Universal legend Jack Pierce, is conservative by later standards, leaving Hull reasonably recognizable beneath it.

 

1941 - Lon Chaney
The Wolf Man
For their second werewolf movie, Universal Studios cast famous son Lon Chaney Jr. as the tragic Laurence Talbot, an American-educated nobleman who returns home to Europe only to be bitten by shape-shifting gypsy Bela (Bela Lugosi), and receive the curse of the Wolf Man.  Chaney was much more accommodating than Hull, enduring the grueling six-hour Jack Pierce job that produced the most well-known werewolf make-up.

The Wolf Man is the true source of the idea that werewolf  transformations are triggered by the full moon, as well as that of silver being ideal to kill them, and of wolf-bane.  All are inventions of Universal screenwriter Kurt Siodmak

1942 - Glenn Strange
The Mad Monster
Future Frankenstein Glenn Strange plays a hapless hick who is injected by wolf-blood serum by misguided scientist George Zucco.  Abysmally bad skid-row production.

 

1942
The Undying Monster
Kind of The Hound Of The Baskervilles, only with a werewolf.

1943 - Lon Chaney
Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man
Larry Talbot returns from the grave to seek the Frankenstein family recipe for curing lycanthropy, and ends up on unfriendly terms with the Frankenstein monster, played by a famously miscast Bela Lugosi.

1943 - Matt Willis
The Return Of The Vampire
Matt Willis plays the werewolf Boy Friday to Lugosi's Dracula-like vampire character.  Possibly the only movie where a character speaks with a perfectly natural human voice while in werewolf form.

 

1944 - Lon Chaney
House Of Frankenstein
Back from the dead again, and still desperate to bring his curse to an end, Larry Talbot falls in with a diabolical scientist (Boris Karloff).

 

1945 - Lon Chaney
House Of Dracula
Laurence Talbot returns yet again, this time not only being cured of lycanthropy but surviving the end of the movie.

1948 - Lon Chaney
Abbott And Costello Meet Frankenstein
The last appearance of Larry Talbot, this time pitted against Lugost as Dracula, and Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein Monster.

Prosthetic make-up was used for Lon Chaney's Werewolf in A&C Meets Frankenstein as Universal had recently shelved Jack Pierce for failing to adapt to the new, more cost-efficient methods.

1956 - Steven Ritch
The Werewolf
A man who is injected with a serum made from wolf blood during life-saving (but highly experimental) surgery, turns into a murderous werewolf.  Great werewolf make-up on Stephen Ritch, but the movie isn't terribly exciting.

1957 - Michael Landon
I Was A Teenage Werewolf
Before being catapulted to fame in the TV show Bonanza, Michael Landon played a mixed-up high school misfit who becomes a werewolf by virtue of post-hypnotic suggestion.

Lycanthropy can be induced by mad science, as revealed in The Mad Monster (1942), The Werewolf (1956) and I Was A Teenage Werewolf.  These unnatural werewolves can generally be killed without benefit of silver.

 

1958
How To Make A Monster
The I Was A Teenage Werewolf make-up was brought back for this AIP cheapie about a disgruntled make-up artist who turns his subjects into real monsters, but Michael Landon did not reprise the role.

 

1960 - Oliver Reed
The Curse Of The Werewolf
Oliver Reed has a distinctive make-up in Hammer Studios own variation of the werewolf legend.

 

1960 - Lon Chaney
Face Of The Screaming Werewolf
Lon Chaney's infamous last cinematic portrayal of the werewolf was lensed in Mexico.

1961
Samson Vs. The Vampire Women
In one scene, famous Mexican wrestler El Santo faces off against an opponent who turns into a werewolf right there in the ring.

 

1961
Werewolf In A Girl's Dormitory
Famously bad whodunit set in a girl's dorm.

1962
House On Bare Mountain
Famous "nudie cutie" featuring a gentle, seven-foot-tall werewolf named Krakow.

1967 - Paul Naschy
Mark Of The Wolfman
Spanish horror cinema's Paul Naschy in his first of thirteen movies as cursed Polish nobleman Waldemar Daninsky.  Climaxes with a fight to the death between two werewolves.

Lon Chaney and Paul Naschy are essentially the only actors to turn the role of the wolf man into a career.  Chaney donned the make-up in 5 movies, from 1941 to 1960, compared to Naschy's 13, from 1967 to the present day.

1968 - Paul Naschy
Nights Of The Werewolf
Naschy's werewolf character is forced by a mad doctor to commit murders.  Said to be a lost movie.

1969 - Paul Naschy
Dracula V. Frankenstein
Diabolical aliens resurrect all of the famous monsters, including Naschy's werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, in a scheme to take over the Earth.  This film has a confusing history, with several different cuts under different titles, none of them making a lick of sense.

1970 - Paul Naschy
Dr. Jekyll And The Werewolf
Cursed nobleman Waldemar Daninsky seeks the help of the infamous Doctor to cure his lycanthropy, with predictable results.

1970 - Paul Naschy
The Fury Of The Wolfman
Werewolf Waldemar Daninsky is held captive by another mad doctor.

1970 - Paul Naschy
The Werewolf Vs. The Vampire Woman
Paul Naschy's most famous movie, also known as Blood Moon and  Werewolf Shadow

1971
Werewolves On Wheels
After a run-in with a satanic cult, a gang of rowdy, hard-rocking bikers discovers that there is a lycanthrope among them.  As with most biker flicks, this isn't exactly a tight production, nor does it posses a single appealing character, or good make-up, or camera-work, etcetera- but it is a curiosity.

 

1973 - Paul Naschy
Curse Of The Devil
The noble descendent of a famous witch-hunter is cursed with lycanthropy by the same line of Satanists his ancestor persecuted.  A dramatic improvement over previous Naschy outings as far as the werewolf make-up goes.

1973 - Dean Stockwell
The Werewolf Of Washington
In this Watergate-era political satire, presidential aide Dean Stockwell gets bit by a werewolf during a European trip, and returns to terrorize America's capital.

1974
The Beast Must Die
A group of people stranded in a remote locale struggle to sniff out the werewolf among them.

1974
Legend Of The Werewolf
Peter Cushing is a police pathologist on the case of a rampaging werewolf in 19th-century Paris.

1975 - Paul Naschy
Night Of The Howling Beast
Naschy's wolfman battles the abominable snowman.

1976
The Legend Of The Wolf Woman
A homicidal woman might be a werewolf.  The hilarious-looking werewolf make-up is seen only during a lurid dream sequence.

1980
The Howling
Joe Dante's ultimate homage to the Werewolf Movie, with revolutionary make-up effects by Rob Bottin.

Starting with The Howling, werewolf make-up effects became considerably more elaborate, with werewolves that literally burst out of their clothing.  In particular, bladder effects and animatronics, virtually unknown before this time, were thereafter used for all manner of horror and fantasy movie creature effects.

 

1981 - David Naughton
An American Werewolf In London
David Naughton is an American who gets a nasty case of lycanthropy in England.  Aside from boasting the talent of make-up effects legend Rick Baker, the werewolves in this movie are remarkable for running around on all fours.

 

1981
Wolfen
Sleuth Albert Finney finds that werewolves might be behind a grisly series of murders.  Wolf Man fans will likely be disappointed by the titular creatures.

1982
The Beast Within
A sleepy Southern town is terrorized by a young man of tragic lineage who turns into a horrific beast when the moon comes out.

1984
The Company Of Wolves
This highly allegorical werewolf movie is more of a dark fantasy than horror, with an exploration of human sexuality and the werewolf legend in a Little Red Riding Hood setting.

 

1985 - Alice Cooper
Monster Dog
Rocker Alice Cooper returns to his home town to find that he is suspected by locals of being a werewolf, just like his infamous dad.

1985 - Everett McGill
Silver Bullet
Stephen King adaptation with Everett McGill as the pastor of a small town who is revealed to be a werewolf.  The werewolf effects, by the great Carlo Rimbaldi, are a grievous disappointment.

 

1986
Stirba - Werewolf Bitch (The Howling II)
Low-budget sequel to The Howling stars Christopher Lee and Sybil Danning (as the leader of a werewolf cult, the "bitch" of the title), and, for awhile, had a reputation for being one of the worst horror movies ever made.

 

1987
Curse Of The Queerwolf
A leisure-suit wearing bigot is bitten on the ass by a cross-dressing werewolf and suffers a fate worse than death- he becomes a "queerwolf".

1987
The Marsupials - The Howling III
Werewolves, it turns out, are from Australia, and they're not all that evil and nasty after all.  But this movie bites.

1987
The Monster Squad
The classic monsters all return in cutting-edge effects glory, with a striking werewolf make-up that looks more like the barrel-chested werewolf of Curse Of The Werewolf than Chaney's Wolf Man.

 

1988
Fright Night Part 2
Jonathan Gries is the werewolf cohort of lead vampire Regina in this follow-up to the popular fang flick.

1988
Howling IV - The Original Nightmare.
A remake of the original, this has basically the same plot- a woman writer and her husband go to a rural community where everyone are werewolves- but manages to be inferior in every other way.

1988 - Paul Naschy
Howl Of The Devil
Paul Naschy is a deranged actor who portrays all of the classic monsters, including the Wolf Man.  That's not only a biography of Paul Naschy, that's the actual plot!

1988
Waxwork
One of the teenage victims finds himself trapped in a dimension where he is cursed with lycanthropy.

 

1989
Howling V - The Rebirth
Another year, another Howling sequel.  This one, a sort of murder mystery with a werewolf, isn't as aggressively awful as the previous sequels. however.  Oh it's dumb, but at least it's dumb in a refreshingly unpretentious way.  And it's set in a spooky castle!

 

1990
Howling VI - The Freaks
The first Howling sequel with actual production values, this concerns a werewolf that is abducted by a traveling sideshow.

 

1994
The Howling - New Moon Rising
The sequel that finally buried the franchise, this movie scarcely has anything to do with werewolves, or anything at all, really.  Has to be seen to be believed.  Leagues worse that The Howling II.

1994 - Jack Nicholson
Wolf
Jack Nicholson is an over-the-hill publisher who experiences a personal reawakening after being bitten by a werewolf.  The werewolves of the movie are inspired by the Henry Hull make-up of Werewolf Of London, allowing Nicholson's natural wolfish characteristics to shine through.

1996
Bad Moon
A family's faithful German Shepard protects their small community from the local werewolf.

1997
An American Werewolf In Paris
Vacationing college students run afoul of a gang of lycanthropes in the City Of Lights in this light-headed, and unrelated, sequel.

Since An American Werewolf In Paris, creature effects have increasingly relied on CGI to the point where, today, "physical" make-up effects, as perfected by Rob Bottin and Rick Baker, have practically gone extinct.

1997
The Creeps
The classic monsters are zapped into our reality in midget form.

2000
Ginger Snaps
Two inseparable, anti-social, teenage sisters find their world thrown into chaos when one of them is bitten by a werewolf.  Followed by a direct-to-video sequel in 2004, Ginger Snaps: Unleashed, and a prequel.

2002
Dog Soldiers
Actors in werewolf-tights scamper through the woods terrorizing a unit of cockney troopers on exercise in this The Howling meets Southern Comfort British horror thriller.

2003
Underworld
Werewolves and vampires wage war in an atmospheric, but two-dimensional, action/sci-fi flick.  The werewolf suits are strinking enough in brief glimpses, but director Len Wiseman's assertion that they work better than CGI is certainly seems dubious judging from some recent CGI work, like the werewolves of Van Helsing, (which can bear more scrutiny without resorting to annoying jump-cuts and strategic lighting).

 

2004
Van Helsing
Stephen Sommers mindless monster-mash special-effects extravaganza, and certified box-office bomb does, at least, feature impressive CGI effects for the werewolf creatures.

 

2004 - Christina Ricci
Cursed
Though hardly a commendable effort from genre director Wes Craven, this profoundly derivative horror opus is still no worse than most werewolf movies, if you can forgive the presence of Happy Days Scott Baio in a distracting cameo, and a myriad of comic misfires (e.g.: a werewolf flipping the bird, a lycanthropized Labrador Retriever, and so on...) that really only serve to embarrass the genre.  A troubled production, Cursed was re-shot once, leading to speculation about how much worse the original movie possibly could have been.  I kind of like the look of the werewolf, though many take issue with the CGI work.  Recommended only for hardcore werewolf movie completists, or rabid fans of Christina Ricci.

 

2004 - Julian Sands
Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt
Speculative "true" story about a serial-killer and purported lycanthrope.

 

2005 and on...

Wild Country, sequels to Dog Soldiers and Underworld, Skinwalkers, The Werewolf Cult Chronicles, Big Bad Wolf, Werewolf By Night, Full Moon Fever, and a slew of independent productions.