Werewolf of London Year: 1935 Director: Stuart Walker Written by: John Colton Threat: Werewolf Weapon of Choice: Gun Based upon: none IMDb page:

Other movies in this series:
None

The tyranist's thoughts
Pre-dating The Wolf Man by 6 years, Henry Hull is commonly thought to be the first werewolf on film. I'm no film historian, but I love the horror flicks and I love to see earlier takes on movies I enjoy. This one even spawned a sequel, She-Wolf of London, that I might get around to reviewing someday.
A botanist journeys to Tibet looking for a very rare flower that is brought to life by the light of the moon. Well, needless to say, he's attacked by something and on his return to London finds life isn't quite what it used to be. And now he seems to be developing hairy patches when the moon is full.
Henry Hull plays a man nowhere near as sympathetic as Lon Chaney Jr.'s later werewolf, but I still found myself rooting for him. Perhaps that is a measure of how shallow the rest of the characters were. Really, it wasn't a bad first attempt and on some levels is more purely a horror film than The Wolf Man ended up being. Interestingly, this was released the same year as the classic Bride of Frankenstein which had perhaps the most sympathetic, tragic monster of all time.
There are some funny moments, both intentional and unintentional. The pace is nice and the cinematography simple. The script suffers a couple times both from a lack of research and a lack of faith in their audience, but then this was during the early days of the horror film and I suppose a certain amount of caution is forgivable. Still it was somewhat daring in that most of the dialogue in the first few minutes of film is in a language that is definitely not English. I couldn't actually tell you what language it was, but it was a choice that even today most filmmakers are frightened to make.
This is probably a must-see for werewolf flick fans. It all came from this after all. For Universal Monster fans it is a decent addition to the canon. For the rest of you, well, I guess you are on your own.
Posted: August 24, 2004

Total Skulls: 5

Sequel
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth
Warning goes unheeded
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood spatters - camera, wall, etc.
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell?