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Oh Were, Oh Were Has My Little Wolf Gone?
Skin-changing is part of many myths and much folklore across the world
Even a man who is pure in heart,
And says his prayers by night,
May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms,
And the moon is full and bright
As many of you doubtless know, that verse was part of Curt Siodmaks’ script for the film The Wolf Man (Universal Studios 1941). It sums up what most people would accept as the popular culture lore of the Werewolf. The most common set of connotations involve an otherwise quite ordinary person who is bitten or scratched by a wolf and recovers, only to find that every full moon they transform into a wolf, or some kind of wolf-like humanoid, and run around killing people.
The theme has, of course, had its’ variations, the most common being the ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ theme, which involves less physical metamorphosis and more psychological change. Which is to say that, while Hyde usually appears different from Jekyll, he is still recognisably human. There have been other animal variations. Panthers were used in both versions of Cat People, for instance, though the 1982 version is predictably more erotic than the creepier 1942 one. Hammer gave us The Reptile (1966) while Tigon showed us a were-moth in The…
