What's Your Favorite Werewolf Movie?

I have a soft spot for werewolves -- in my throat, which I diligently protect when they're around (just kidding -- I kid werewolves because I love them). Seriously, I love all the classic werewolf films: Universal's The Wolfman with Lon Chaney Jr., Hammer's Curse Of The Werewolf with Oliver Reed, Werewolf Of London with Henry Hull -- and the modern classics as well (The Howling, American Werewolf In London, Wolf with Jack Nicholson). But my favorites are lesser known; my top favorite was almost beaten out for that position by Dog Soldiers, a claustrophobic tale about soldiers holed up in a farmhouse besieged by the critters -- a kind of Night Of The Living Werewolf, if you will. And I've even enjoyed some of the sillier efforts like Werewolves On Wheels, a biker werewolf movie!

My absolute favorite werewolf movie, though, is an obscure British one called Children Of The Full Moon (1980). Directed by Tom Clegg, it was produced for the TV series Hammer House Of Horror and is only about an hour long.
The first time I saw it was on late night TV and I ended up not getting to sleep because it spooked me so much.

The plot follows a young married couple (Celia Gregory and Christopher Cazenove) who end up stranded for the night at the remote country home of an older woman (former bombshell Diana Dors) who presides over a strange brood of children. The kids wander around the house, and outside, at all hours of the night. Their father is mysteriously absent.

In the middle of the night, the young wife is attacked by what she claims is a monster. The couple survive and return to their lives, but their relationship remains troubled and haunted by that night. Later, when she's very pregnant, the wife feels compelled to return to the house in the woods.

That's all I can say without ruining it. It's subtle and low key, and emphasizes the story rather than special effects, which are minimal. But it's well-acted, well-written and quite eerie. It’s kind of a dark fairytale for adults.

Unfortunately, the DVD is hosted by Elvira – and while I like the idea of Elvira (ripped off though it is from Vampira, who tried unsuccessfully to sue her), having to listen to her inane jokes gets old fast. Luckily her segments are few and brief. Give me a provocatively dressed male vampire – are you busy, Spike? – and maybe I could put up with it. Meanwhile, that’s why God gave us fast forward.

What's your favorite werewolf movie?

MORE FAMILY HORROR: The Children (2008)

My partner and I have this little private custom. If we’re eating in a restaurant and nearby children begin screaming, making messes and misbehaving, one of us says to the other, “Have I thanked you lately for not wanting to have children?” I could see getting married if that becomes possible, but I guarantee you children will never be part of the equation for us.

That attitude was reinforced when I recently saw this 2008 British film. It's a very strange and violent little flick about two yuppie couples with way too many children between them -- most of them quite young -- who gather to spend the Christmas holidays together at a large house.

The first sign that this is a bad idea is that the youngest kid comes down with a flulike virus which quickly spreads to all of the other kids. Symptoms: first the child begins puking all over the place, then he or she becomes sadistic -- which quickly escalates into homicidal. The adults and the one teenager are apparently unaffected by the illness, but they have more than enough trouble to occupy them as they struggle to cope -- and ultimately survive.

Not having been able to master birth control despite their obvious socioeconomic advantages, the adults of course find handling violence and murder too tall an order. Teenager Casey (Hannah Tointon) is the first and for awhile the only person who realizes what's happening, but the adults -- as they so often do in horror films -- mistrust and even suspect her. With the grown ups too busy trying to deny what their tykes are doing, blame it on the other couple's kids, etc., the violence just continues to escalate unopposed, and the police, though called after the first "accident," never manage to show up.

The cast is good, and director Tom Shankland presents the whole story in a disarmingly matter-of-fact matter. The violence is gory and shocking. It's a scary movie with the look and feel of a highly realistic indie drama.

I'd recommend it, though I don't know that "enjoyed" accurately captures how I felt about it. It's a powerful film.

THE HORRORS OF FAMILY LIFE: Jack Hill's SPIDER BABY

(A luckless messenger gets caught in the web of Spider Baby).


Jack Hill’s rarely-seen 1964 cult film Spider Baby is one of the weirdest films I’ve ever seen, despite all the impressively weird films released in the several decades since its creation and long-delayed release. The film takes its name from the shocking opening scene in which a girl’s game of “spider” costs a messenger an ear, among other things. But the violence (actually pretty tame by today’s standards) takes a back seat to the strange dynamics of a twisted little family living in an isolated house.

Its central character is Bruno, a chauffer – played with affecting pathos by Lon Chaney Jr. – who cares for three demented young adults after the death of their father. The Merrye family suffers from a strange disease that causes mental and emotional growth to cease at age 10, and then to regress through childhood and on to an animalistic, violent state. “The children” are already having occasional outbursts of violence, and there are a couple of older relatives in the last monstrous stages secretly locked away in the basement. Bruno covers up what damage the children do, including the murder, and keeps them in seclusion in the dilapidated family home – until greedy relatives and a lawyer (complete with secretary) show up wanting to claim the estate and put “the children” away. The relatives’ big mistake: they insist on staying the night.

One of the creepiest (and funniest) scenes is dinner. The guests are appalled by the family’s “vegetarian” diet – which looks like clumps of weeds – and Bruno confides that, because of their illness, it’s dangerous for “the children” to be allowed to develop a taste for meat. Then he explains why the bald “boy,” Ralph, is allowed to partake of the one edible course – rabbit: “he’s allowed to eat what he catches.”

The cast is uniformly wonderful. Sid Haig, at the beginning of his long career as a horror actor, plays Ralph with an unnerving mixture of wide-eyed innocence and sudden bursts of savagery. The two girls, Elizabeth (Beverly Washburn) and Virginia (Jill Banner) are all breathy naivete and debutante manners one minute, then cold-blooded killers the next. It’s a testament to how good they all are that you identify with them despite their weirdness and violent outbursts. Your sympathies remain with them rather than the haughty Aunt Emily (Carroll Ohmart), a supreme bitch who is openly rude to them, and her oblivious crew (Quinn Redeker, Karl Schanzer, and Mary Mitchell) even after things get…well, nasty.

The center of the film is Chaney, who gives one of the best performances of his career. His loyalty to his charges and their late father is quite touching, and he even becomes tearful in one particularly moving scene when he realizes what he has to do.

The black and white photography by Al Taylor is eerie and quite beautiful, particularly in one sequence in the cobweb-shrouded cellar.

Some interesting bits of trivia: the film was actually shot in 1964, but its release was held up for four years because the producers went bankrupt. It’s been shown under various other titles, including “Cannibal Orgy” and “The Liver Eaters.” It also contains some amusing bloopers – such as a cameraman reflected in a rolled-up car window in the scene where Aunt Emily & Company arrive.

On the whole, though, it’s a fascinating 81 minutes – creepy, lurid, darkly funny, and at times surprisingly touching.