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Werewolf NovelsWerewolves in Modern Fiction includes literature and other media which feature werewolves prominently. In many cases the werewolves are used as antagonists, monsters to menace other characters, but in some cases they are presented in a more positive or at least neutral light. Werewolves in modern fiction The process of transmogrification is portrayed in many films and works of literature to be painful. The resulting wolf is typically cunning but merciless, and prone to killing and eating people without compunction regardless of the moral character of the person when human. The form a werewolf takes is not always an ordinary wolf, but is often anthropomorphic or may be otherwise larger and more powerful than an ordinary wolf. Many modern werewolves are also supposedly immune to damage caused by ordinary weapons, being vulnerable only to silver objects (usually a bullet or blade). This negative reaction to silver is sometimes so strong that the mere touch of the metal on a werewolf's skin will cause burns. Current-day werewolf fiction almost exclusively involve lycanthropy being either a hereditary condition or being transmitted like a disease by the bite of another werewolf. Werewolves have been used in many movies, short stories, and novels, with varying degrees of success. The genre was made popular in recent times by the classic Universal Studios movie The Wolf Man (1941), starring Lon Chaney Jr. as the werewolf Larry Talbot. This movie contained the now-famous rhyme: "Even a man who is pure in heart / And says his prayers at night / May become a wolf when the wolf-bane blooms / And the autumn moon is bright." This movie is often credited with originating several aspects of the legend which differ from traditional folklore (including invulnerability to non-silver weapons, contagiousness, and association with the moon). More recently, the portrayal of werewolves has taken a significantly more sympathetic turn in some circles. With the rise of environmentalism and other back-to-nature ideals, the werewolf has come to be seen as a representation of humanity allied more closely with nature. - A prime example of this outlook can be seen in the role-playing game in which players roleplay various werewolf characters who work on behalf of Gaia against the destructive supernatural spirit named Wyrm, who represents the forces of destructive industrialization and pollution.
- Author Whitley Strieber previously explored these themes in his novels The Wild (in which the werewolf is portrayed as a medium through which to bring human intelligence and spirit back into nature) and The Wolfen (in which werewolves are shown to act as predators of humanity, acting as a "natural" control on their population now that it has been removed from the traditional limits of nature).
- The novel Howling Mad by Peter David takes the unusual approach of featuring a wolf who has been bitten by a werewolf, becoming a "werehuman" as a result. The werehuman provides the reader with a unique perspective on human civilization.
- Joss Whedon's TV program Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured a likeable young werewolf, Daniel 'Oz' Osborne, who humorously was part of a rock band called "Dingoes ate my Baby." Oz often assisted Buffy in fighting evil while in human form and insisted on being locked away during his transformations.
- The film Ginger Snaps made use of lycanthropy as an analogy for puberty, portraying the unsettling physical and emotional changes of human adolescence through the device of lycanthropic transformation.
Unsympathetic portrayals of Werewolves as monsters also continue to be common in popular culture. - Silver Bullet a 1980s horror film, featured a reclusive parish priest - who was actually a homicidal werewolf.
For lists of fictional films featuring werewolves, see werewolf films. Listing of novels featuring werewolves:
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