Welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic and today we’re discussing werewolves, including
some folklore and supposed origins, as well as some popular werewolves in pop culture.
To be find the origin of werewolves, we go way back.
Some of the first stories appear in ancient Greece, such as a tribe of people that
transform into wolves for a few days every year.
There is a character named Lycaon, who is turned into a wolf as punishment for killing a child.
There are other folklore and stories told in Native American texts involving people
turning into animals.
Norse mythology included a lot of wolf imagery, including berserker Vikings that would wear
the skin of wolves to embolden them during battle.
These were just myths and stories, with no real superstition appearing until about the
14th century in Medieval Europe.
The word werewolf is of German origin, though of rare use at the time.
In France in the 16th century, we see a few cases of cannibalism that are half-heartedly
attributed to being a werewolf.
When the popularity of “witch trials” began to arise, there were often accusations
of being a werewolf, though not as common as being a witch.
People were sentenced to death or prison for this disease, though it’s likely they suffered
from many other mental disorders that weren’t properly diagnosed back then.
They also used the term werewolf to explain serial killers and unexplained murders, using
this as a reason for the inability to solve them or reason for why someone would murder
so many people.
Now is a good time to talk about the term lycanthropy, which is an actual medical disorder,
though nowadays is assigned to people who believe they have turned into an animal.
In fiction context, the term lycanthropy is used to describe people who actually do turn
into animals, usually wolves.
There is another syndrome called Hypertrichosis which might be a cause for this myth.
This syndrome involves hair growing all over the entire body, in places hair doesn’t
usually grow.
When hair covers the face, this might cause some startling rumors.
Many individuals in the modern age with this syndrome have worked in entertainment fields,
such as becoming circus performers.
Back to the stories and mythology.
There are many disagreements about werewolves, hardly anything is consistent.
Some people believe that becoming a werewolf is a curse for something they’ve done, while
modern stories make it out to be contagious, something you can become by being bitten or clawed.
Being cured of this is also inconsistent, with exorcism being a popular cure, as well
as more random solutions like silver bullets.
This leads us into discussing pop culture and werewolves.
There were wolf-creatures featured in a lot of stories and poems but the first time they
were properly called werewolves was actually in the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, where
Dracula references werewolves as an offshoot of his family, where Dracula can turn into
a wolf as well.
Vampires and werewolves have been connected often since then.
The first popular movie to feature a werewolf is called Werewolf of London in 1935, which
featured a more human werewolf since the actor didn’t want to obscure his face too much.
This is what cemented the idea of a mixed man and wolf, where most images prior to this
have been a wolf completely.
Next we got Universal’s The Wolf Man starring Lon Chaney Jr and this is the movie that skyrocketed
the werewolf into pop culture.
As special effects got better, we started to get elaborate transformation sequences,
including An American Werewolf in London, which is generally considered to be one of
the best transformation sequences to date.
The connection to vampires continued with films like Underworld, which featured an ancient
war between vampires and werewolves, and the movie Twilight, with vampires and werewolves
feuding over a love interest.
In the 80s, we got a comedic spin with the franchise Teen Wolf, which has been revitalized
today as a dark and gritty television series.
One of the most popular werewolf myths that came to be because of film was the use of
the full moon as a catalyst for transformation, which first appeared in the film Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman in 1943.
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And check out this video about vampires and this video about cryptozoology, if you're interested in other creatures that may or may not exist.
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