Perfect Werewolf movie

[MorganaFang]

If you could create the best werewolf movie what would you do or how would you make a current one better?

Obviously I'd do better costume design as a starter, non of this bad cgi either.

[Chriz]

I would go one of two routes.


The "Jaws" route, where the werewolf is a monster terrorizing a town. The focus of the story would be on the werewolf-hunters rather than the werewolf itself. Imagine a movie with the tone of Aliens, with the hero(ine) being like Ripley and the werewolf being the queen, but also backstabbing like Burke when he's in human form.
The "Matrix" route, where the heroes are werewolves and it's told primarily from their point of view, and normal humanity is essentially an alien and dangerous world. The werewolves would be trying to understand their true nature and the main hero would be someone who shows great promise, and needs to prevail against some overarching large-scale social entity (a.k.a. "the machine"). So in this case, imagine a movie like The Matrix where the hero is Neo-like and needs to be brought into the larger world of which he'd been a part all along but not aware of it.


I guess it depends on which approach grabbed me the most once I started writing it.

[Fenris_brood]

I gave this some thought and came to a similar conclusion of what Chriz said, although I would like it if somehow the two sides of this story joined themselves in one movie it would make, in my view, the ultimate werewolf movie. A bit like the original Hollywood werewolf, where we have a character that is good but trying to combat this new disease that is taking posession of his/her life. A thing that conjoined the horror of an monster movie like Alien, but still held a developing story about the person afflicted. I think I would like to see a sort of autobiography told by the werewolf on how his life turned out after the curse was dramatically put on him and a character development from that on, passing through periods of denial and acceptance, of grief of lost humanity and joy about freedom found in a condition. I would also like some part of it to try to depict a social interaction between more than one werewolf, demonstrating a relentless monster possessing relatable humane qualities towards one another. In summary, and off of other movies, it should have the character of the classical "Wolfman", the terror of a "Dog Soldiers" and of a "Howling", the relationship between creatures also of the "Howling", but also as the kind depicted in the series "Being Human", with the autobiographical format of an "Interview with the Vampire".

It's a bit too much to put in a film, and I fear that it would make it a bit too overloaded, but I wouldn't really want to see anything on an epic scale out of a werewolf movie, of the kind relating destinies or general meanings with a giving finality, I would like to see something more human and average being portrained in grotesque and animalistic colours, that's what I would expect out of a good werewolf movie. That, and better visuals, yes, like Morg started with saying. :p

[DarkWolf]

I've never liked the idea of Werewolfism being a curse or restricted to just a full moon. I'd have it where the transformation is neither painful or pleasant, just an ability, and can be done at any time. Only powerful/experienced/older wolves can change during daylight and it's an uncomfortable shift and slower but still results the same. While any wolf can very easily and quickly shift at night (with exception of Lunar Eclipse where it's as if it's during the day). On the Full Moon only the old/powerful/experienced can remain human if they want - other wolves will shift whether they want to or not.

Wolves remain intelligent and themselves during shifts. Have really never, ever, liked the whole "shift and go rawr" aspect.

I suppose my idea of a werewolf story/movie would be one where we follow a human reporter/journalist (nobody particularly special but a good person) who stumbles onto the discovery that Werewolves exist. As s/he debates on whether to reveal this story they become involved with a Wolf Pack who want to let the world know about them (in a controlled, do not fear us way). Before the person can make that revelation they're stopped by a rival wolf pack who don't want the truth revealed. There are battled between the two packs and always instigated by the later pack who seem very much the bad guys.

As the story unfolds the reporter sees a very vicious group attack from the "good pack" on a single member of the "bad pack". The attack seemed very unprovoked making the reporter question the motive - retaliation for previous battles or something else? The "bad pack" member is left for dead but the reporter, not the type who believes death is an answer or necessary, nurses the werewolf back to health. In doing so s/he gets to know them. The more s/he does the more it makes them question who is really good or bad here.

The reporter goes with the recovering wolf back to the "bad pack" and begins to realise they're not that bad and most of the attacks the pack started had in fact been instigated by the "good pack" first by doing exactly what s/he saw that "good pack" do to one of their members.

The human we follow goes back to the "good pack" and questions them. The alpha who had been very friendly turns very hostile and takes them prisoner and demands s/he tells the media exactly what they want him/her to say or be killed. It's revealed the only reason for them to "come out" as Werewolves is because they've been working with other packs across the nation to place werewolves in key positions and by revealing themselves they can earn public trust, get higher positions, and eventually some years down the line could even run political offices and take control more and more, bit by bit (or is that bite by bite ;)).

The previous "bad pack" saves the day (though it's the reporter who finally succeeds in killing the "good" alpha).

--

An alternative version, since the politics/coming out thing is a bit flaky, is that instead the human who is a doctor or specialist whose skills the "Good Wolves" want to use to make a "cure" for Werewolfism. The "good wolves" want it claiming their nature is a curse when the reality is that it isn't and they only want to create a cure to use as a weapon to become the dominant wolf pack.

The rival pack thing makes it a little like Skinwalkers (only a little!). Version 1 having a True Blood element (coming out and gaining political positions) while Version 2 is a bit of X-Men: Last Stand there (cure being used as a weapon). Suppose there's a bit of Underworld in it too (where it was first made out that Vampires were good and Wolves were bad only to discover it was really the other way around).

I suppose the idea is being a Werewolf doesn't make you good or evil - it's your actions and intentions which do and are the same for everyone, werewolf or human. And also breaking the overly stupid "even though wolves aren't angry violent creatures at all let's make a werewolf that goes on a monstrously beserk evil rampage!"

--

Of course I'd do the basics: have werewolves that actually look like wolves not deformed bears or apes. In my story the werewolf can choose human, wolf or anthro-wolf modes. Wolf being an ehanced wolfy state for agility, anthro for close combat and strength-based, and human for getting around undetected.

[J.L.R.]

I'd write "Hour of Darkness"... oh wait... I already did! :P (An actual production start date is still in limbo though...*shrug*)

While what would make a "werewolf" movie better can be different depending on what one's opinion is as to what is wrong, I think almost all werewolf fans can agree that the most sticking part in many, if not nearly all werewolf films, is the story.

The story stinks, you're not going to be as forgiving in regards to effects. Films like Ginger Snaps and Dog Soldiers, of which boasted well crafted, albiet simple stories, still outshine the much larger budgeted werewolf films like "Red Riding Hood" and the recent "Wolf-Man" movie, even though both films used extensive CGI. Well Red's CGI was "okay" but it still had a larger budget that Dog Soldiers and Ginger Snaps put together.

With "Hour" I pushed to create a complex story that had more akin to the likes of Lord of the Rings, than you're traditional werewolf film. My werewolves have an extensive culture, a language (based on Norwegian), a set of complex beliefs. In HOD, werewolves belong to various secs, called "Orders" of which catagorizes them according to their philem. This is pretty cool, but you also have to consider that I also have a race of "vampires" I call the "Odin" in the story. They too have their own classes and such.

The story itself follows your typical heroe's journey of an outcast's rise to glory...per say. Mix in a little romance (NO EDWARD! THANK GOODNESS!!!!!) here, a crazy amount of action there, and its all wrapped tightly around a construct of saving humanity, and the world at large...there you go... You have HOD in a nutshell.

On another note... I wrote another script that dives into the world of werewolves in a more "traditional" since of the word. The screenplay is entitled, "The Wolf Prince" but the novelization of the script, of which was recommended by my screenwriting guru as well as my agent, is "Tales of Ulrica: The Wolf Prince". (I'm almost finished with the rough draft WOOT!)
WP is loosely based around the 12th Century French werewolf lias, like Bisclavret, Melion, Gorlogon, and my personal fav William of Palermo. The story follows a 16-year-old prince who gets turned into a wolf by his sadistic step-brother, and must emBARK (oh pun) on a journey to save his kingdom, and quite possibly the world. Yeah I'm all about epic fantasy... :)

[Fenris_brood]

Although I said in my post that I wouldn't like an epic sense to a werewolf movie, I take it back, in your words J.L.R., I can't deny intereset towards this stories, and that I would love to see them produced, or in the very least read them. Is there in fact any way I can read them?

[J.L.R.]

Although I said in my post that I wouldn't like an epic sense to a werewolf movie, I take it back, in your words J.L.R., I can't deny intereset towards this stories, and that I would love to see them produced, or in the very least read them. Is there in fact any way I can read them?

Just PM me... Thanks for the interest. :D

[Vendetta]

Hire the best writers, actors and director I could. The content is secondary to telling a good story well executed in film.

[Chriz]

Hire the best writers, actors and director I could. The content is secondary to telling a good story well executed in film.

Agreed, but I think the essence of the question is "what creative decisions would you make?" I'm not sure it properly answers it to say "I'd hire creative people to make them for me."

[J.L.R.]

Agreed, but I think the essence of the question is "what creative decisions would you make?" I'm not sure it properly answers it to say "I'd hire creative people to make them for me."

Agreed... There is a lot of great talent in Hollywood, but without the right guidance, concept, and the proper enviroment, things could go sour.

The new Wolf-Man movie is a great example. It had all the right elements, but everything fell apart, so fast that Universal is already going to create a reboot, to fix what was destroyed.

To me it all starts out with a solid concept.
The concept solidifies into a solid story...
Add a great director and a well rounded cast...
Add a mixture of praticle and CGI effects...
Plus a Danny Elfman score, and BANG... you have a good movie. :D

[Vendetta]

Agreed, but I think the essence of the question is "what creative decisions would you make?" I'm not sure it properly answers it to say "I'd hire creative people to make them for me."
I prefer to think of it as having the makings of being a great producer. :D

[BCvonRayfus]

They're re-rebooting The Wolfman??? I thought the new one was... pretty awesome. :confused: Oh well, more werewolf mayhem. I'm all for it if they do it well.

My idea of the perfect werewolf film. I couldn't just pull a plot out of my pants and call it perfect, but I'll use some other movies as examples of where I would go with it if I could.

Let the Right One In. I finally saw this movie 2 years ago and HOLY CRAP, THAT is how you make a vampire horror movie. Heck, for it featuring 2 12-year-olds as the main protagonists, it's actually quite romantic, if you ask me. Beats the snot out of anything America's come up with in the genre of supernatural-romance, if you'd call it that. What I mean by that is that there's no teenage, high school bull crap. 2 kids like each other despite their blatantly obvious differences, and though they don't swoon over each other and say things like, "Let's run away together" like all the people in other romance movies do, (spoiler alert) they do it and get away with it anyway! You never see that! 1 main vampire character. 1 main human character tormented by schoolmates and a crappy family life. They fall in love. Bloodshed ensues. They run away together. Boom. That's romantic. ANYWAY, we're not talking about romance. The reason I brought this movie up is this: replace the vampires with werewolves and the story would still hold up.

I would love to see a werewolf movie where the main werewolf (protagonist, maybe? You could make it a bad guy I 'spose.) just happens to befriend an average joe, and that person has no idea through half the film. Maybe the audience has no idea either; add suspense in whatever ways possible. Horror's about making the audience uneasy, creeping the heck out of them, and leaving them in shock by the time credits roll, but not so much that they'd never want to watch the movie again. :drool: Have at least 1 human protagonist, somebody the audience could relate with, and establish that connection before the monster shows up killing people. Add in scenes of investigation -those are just fun. Cops and forensics experts running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to figure out what the crap is leaving severed body parts all over the town, city, village, WHATEVER. Locations don't usually make that big a difference in werewolf movies, because it's all about a creature that roams around generally at night, whether it's cold, hot, medium, populated, remote, in the mountains, in the woods, in the city, you get my point. Time-period-settings are fun to switch up, though. If the film's in medieval times, you don't have the technology to determine what's killing people, so... basically the human characters are screwed, which is okay, because it's horror. :droolbld:

Silver Bullet, though not the most spectacular movie ever, is a good example of the aspect of investigation, and the suspense of nobody knowing who the werewolf is, or rather, 1 person knowing who the werewolf is. I love Silver Bullet, myself, and having the main character know who the werewolf is with nobody else believing him/her, that's some scary stuff. Say the werewolf is the human character's best friend or a relative, and the human doesn't want others knowing, to protect the werewolf. Say the werewolf knows the human knows and they set up plans of making sure the werewolf doesn't go berserk every time it turns. Say the werewolf knows the human knows and (in Silver Bullet's case) threatens to kill the person if he/she tells anybody. Any option is suspenseful, and suspense is good. Throw in another werewolf somehow if you'd like, but I don't see that as a necessity. Some werewolf movies pull off having packs involved, or add more suspense by introducing a second werewolf, so THEN the audience is like, "Well which one is killing people?" or something. Either way, establish the backgrounds of the human and the werewolf characters, make them likable, whether good or bad characters.

One last thing: involve more adults. Like... adult-adults. Maybe even make the main characters adults, doing what adults do... which could be anything, I know, but I'm really just trying to think of a nicer way to say CUT the TEENAGE BULL CRAP. Yeah, I'm writing a werewolf story with high-schooler protagonists, but I'm trying REALLY HARD to make as original as it can be. I'm SO sick of high school scenarios, heck even college scenarios. You get the same angsty characters in the same angsty situations over and over and over and it's old as balls. Not even going to mention Twilight (oops, I just did), but that's not the only movie/story I could use as an example. WOLF with Jack Nicholson was decent. Not the best ever, but what is, you know? The makeup effects were... kinda goofy-looking, but the movie explained that the werewolves became more wolflike gradually after being bitten (I think it explained that?). But see, it focused on people who worked in big-business office-type stuff. Yeah, I'm still in college and I can't fully relate yet, but it's interesting! It's actually different, and holds my attention more than...a whole lot of other werewolf movie plots I've seen. Take some average joes in their 30s, 40s, 50s, however old, and put them in the monstery situations that too many teenagers have gotten tossed into in all the books, movies and shows about werewolves and vampires these days. It's just more interesting, at least to me. Like I said, I can't fully relate so I'm sticking with teens and college students in my own story for now, but just because I can't relate with a lifestyle doesn't mean I can't enjoy the characters, you know? Switch up the age groups a bit more.

Other than those points, good effects, cast, soundtrack, camera works, etc., is ideal for a 'best movie ever,' but even films like The Blair Witch Project got away without...any of what I just mentioned. YEAH! There's an idea: take everything I just suggested and make it Blair-Witch-style, excluding half the shaky camerawork for the sake of motion-sick audience members. :droolbld: That would be different, though it would either get a lot of attention or very little, depending on how many people are sick of movies like Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield, and whatever else has been done that way.