C. M. Rosens

I have dug into The Comprehensive Werewolf Filmography list on Letterboxd once more to bring you werewolf films from the 2010s. It feels to me like this is the decade where we decided what we wanted werewolves to be, and moved away (somewhat) from the indie 00’s eclectic experimentation. Tastes changed, crudeness was on the way out again, and things moved on.

We kicked the decade off with a highly anticipated remake of the 1941 Universal Monsters universe film, The Wolfman, with Benicio del Toro in Lon Chaney Jr.’s role as Lawrence Talbot/the Wolf man. I don’t know if this set the tone, but there were a lot more ‘serious’ werewolf films this decade than before, or at least, more hard-hitters.

Films Featuring a Werewolf That Are Not “Werewolf” Films

• The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) dir. David Slade.
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011) dir. Bill Condon
• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (2012) dir. Bill Condon
• Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010) dir. Dario Piana.
• Going Postal (2010) dir. Jon Jones. Sgt. Angua of the Watch is a werewolf.
• Dylan Dog: Dead of Night (2011) dir. Kevin Munroe. Supernatural private eye goes around investigating the monsters of Louisiana.
• Monster Brawl (2011) dir. Jesse Thomas Cook. Wrestling tournament featuring 8 monsters, with their diabolical managers, interviews, trash talk, and monster brawl bouts.
• The Cabin in the Woods (2011) dir. Drew Goddard
• Hotel Transylvania (2012) dir. Genndy Tartakovsky. Animation for younger viewers.
• Hotel Transylvania 2 (2015) dir. Genndy Tartakovsky
• Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018) dir. Genndy Tartakovsky.
• Dark Shadows (2012) dir. Tim Burton. Burton ballsed this right up, but the Carolyn werewolf reveal is fairly true to the show…
• The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) dir. Harald Zwart.
• What We Do In The Shadows (2014) dirs. Jemaine Clement, Taika Waititi.
• Goosebumps (2015) dir. Rob Letterman.

Gothic Romance/Relationship-focused Werewolf Films

• The Wolfman (2010) dir. Joe Johnston. Lavish Gothic remake of the 1941 film, The Wolf Man, set in the 1800s.
• Neowolf (2010) dirs. Yvan Gauthier, Jonathan Carloff. Contemporary rock star romance (but with werewolves!)
• Le poil de la bête/The Hair of the Beast (2010) dir. Philippe Gagnon. Set in 1665, New France (French-colonised Canada).
• Red Riding Hood (2011) dir. Catherine Hardwicke. My favourite version of this folktale.
• 늑대소년 / A Werewolf Boy (2012) dir. Jo Sung-hee. South Korean Fantasy-Romance, where an elderly woman reminisces about a boy she met 47 years ago.
• Jack & Diane (2012) dir. Bradley Rust Gray. Not sure what to make of this one – it centres on a sapphic relationship but it’s not really a ‘lesbian werewolf film’. Possibly more of a coming-of-age drama; also has a rape backstory.
• Dances with Werewolves (2016) dir. Donald F. Glut, Dan Golden. I really don’t know what to make of the description on Letterboxd, so here it is: When Cassie flees an abusive relationship, and falls victim to a moon-worshiping 600-year-old Romanian Countess, a troubled paranormal investigator of Native American heritage finds himself in a deadly love triangle with a battered-woman werewolf.
• Carnivore: Werewolf of London (2017) dir. Simon Wells. Low budget British indie film, in which a couple attempting to salvage their relationship in a remote cottage are stalked by a terrifying secret.
• As Boas Maneiras / Good Manners (2017) dirs. Juliana Rojas, Marco Dutra. Brazilian queer film centring on a lesbian nurse. Clara, a lonely nurse from the outskirts of São Paulo, is hired by mysterious and wealthy Ana as the nanny for her unborn child. The two women develop a strong bond, but soon Clara discovers a terrifying secret about the child.
• November (2017) dir. Rainer Sarnet. Estonian film about Liina, a werewolf, and Hans, the man she loves, and their village, where people use magic and Faustian bargains to survive the winters.
• Alpha Wolf (2018) dir. Kevin VanHook. Married couple werewolf drama when an attack during an idyllic rural getaway results in terrifying consequences as it brings out the worst in the husband.

Coming-of-Age Werewolf Films

• Når dyrene drømmer/When Animals Dream (2014) dir. Jonas Alexander Arnby. A Danish film in which a teenage girl living on a small island begins to experience strange changes in her body.
• Wolves (2014) dir. David Hayter. A teen boy becomes a drifter after the murder of his parents, and is set on the path to a town called Lupine Ridge, where he will learn the secrets of his past.
• Uncaged (2016) dir. Daniel Robbins. Teen comedy with a boy going through some strange changes.
• Skyggenes dal/Valley of Shadows (2017) dir. Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen. A Norwegian Gothic fable, in which a young boy ventures into the forest in search of mysterious sheep-eating creatures.
• Wildling (2018) dir. Fritz Böhm. A German/Swedish/US collab, where a young girl who has been held in captivity discovers the truths and lies of the outside world. A werewolf version of Raw (2016).

Werewolf Films for Younger Viewers

• The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (2010) dir. Eric Bross
• Big Top Scooby-Doo! (2012) dir. Heather A. Maxwell
• Love Bite (2012) dir. Andy de Emmony. Teen scream horror-comedy.
• おおかみこどもの雨と雪/Wolf Children (2012) dir. Mamoru Hosoda. Family drama anime, in which a single, widowed mother has to raise her two half-werewolf children alone.
• Sabrina: Secrets of a Teenage Witch – A Witch and the Werewolf (2014) dir. Trevor Wall (uncredited as the director on Letterboxd, which has incomplete information for this title). Animation.

Fantasy/Action Werewolf Films

• Red: Werewolf Hunter (2010) dir. Sheldon Wilson.
• Death Hunter (2010) dir. Dustin Rikert
• Outcast (2010) dir. Colm McCarthy. I think of this as a Beowulf-adjacent plot set in a council estate.
• Underworld: Awakening (2012) dirs. Måns Mårlind, Björn Stein.
• Dark Moon Rising (2015) dir. Tristan Price.
• Kung Fu Wizard Jesus vs. Undead Robot Nazi Werewolves (2015) dir. Jerry Williams
• Little Dead Rotting Hood (2016) dir. Jared Cohn. Indie, low budget, and starring Eric Balfour whom I knew from the series Haven. Not too bad as a Red Riding Hood entry. Letterboxd only has this as ‘Horror’ but there’s enough magic and worldbuilding to give it a ‘Fantasy’ designation as well, I think.
• Bride of the Werewolf (2019) dir. Mark Polonia. Werewolf vs Egyptian Mummy, with some romance in the mix somewhere.

Werewolf Comedy Films

• The Furred Man (2010) dir. Paul Williams
• Lobos de Arga / Game of Werewolves (2011) dir. Juan Martínez Moreno
• Strippers vs. Werewolves (2012) dir. Jonathan Glendening
• President Werewolf (2012) dir. Mike Davis
• Breaking Wind (2012) dir. Craig Moss. Spoof version of Twilight: Breaking Dawn parodying the series.
• WolfCop (2014) dir. Lowell Dean.
• Another WolfCop (2017) dir. Lowell Dean.
• Bubba the Redneck Werewolf (2014) dir. Brendan Jackson Rogers.
• Crying Wolf (2015) dir. Tony Jopia. British horror-comedy / werewolf thriller, but also very low budget.
• Helen Keller vs. Nightwolves (2015) dir. Ross Patterson. Indie film, in which nightwolves terrorise a village taking people’s sight and hearing, but one woman fights back.
• Werewolf Bitches from Outer Space (2017) dirs. Nick Zedd, Reverend Jen Miller, Courtney Fathom Sell, Dylan Greenberg. Three werewolf women from Uranus are sent to Earth. Does what it says on the tin. No idea what this is, but it’s low budget, indie, US-made, and one of the directors is indeed an honest-to-God preacher (and performer, artist, poet) from Manhattan, NY.
• Grandma Werewolf (2017) dir. Zachary Willis. Another in the elder werewolf category, joining Mom! (also a comedy) and Late Phases (a thriller).
• The Snarling (2018) dir. Pablo Raybould. British horror-comedy where a sleepy English village is taken over by the cast of a zombie film, but something starts picking off the filmmakers and locals alike.
• Cajun-Fried Werewolf (2019) dir. John Derrick Cooper. Bigfoot vs the Loup Garou in Louisiana.

Anthologies

• Les Contes de la nuit/Tales of the Night (2011) dir. Michel Ocelot. Animated anthology of 6 fables, one of which is a werewolf tale.

War Werewolf Films

• FDR: American Badass! (2012) dir. Garrett Brawith. Franklin D. Roosevelt fights polio-carrying werewolves in WWII. While this is a horror-comedy spoof, I’ve put it here because I’m finding the explosion of werewolves at war films really interesting (taking off from the ’00s, where the rash of these began).
• Battledogs (2013) dir. Alexander Yellen. A werewolf virus threatens New York, and a corrupt general uses it to make super-soldiers.
• Iron Wolf (2013) dir. David Brückner. Another werewolves in WWII film, fighting werewolf Nazis in 1945.
• Werewolves of the Third Reich (2017) dir. Andrew Jones. Low budget British take on this subgenre by a prolific indie director from South Wales (Swansea). I’m not an Andrew Jones fan, but I do appreciate the tenacity.
• Wolf (2019) dir. Stuart Brennan. Roman soldiers cross Hadrian’s Wall to search for missing messengers. Including this under “war” as it’s another soldiers vs werewolves story, just set in Roman Britain.

Crime Drama/Thriller Werewolf Films

• Half Moon (2010) dir. Jason Toler. A killer is on the loose targeting sex workers, and when one woman goes to the hotel room of a client, she suspects he is either the killer… or a werewolf.
• Wer (2013) dir. William Brent Bell. A defence attorney suspects her client maybe more than meets the eye. Not often we get the perspective of a lawyer in the crime end of werewolf films? From the director of The Boy, Brahms: The Boy II, Lords of Misrule, and Orphan: First Kill.
• Late Phases (2014) dir. Adrián García Bogliano. Set in a retirement community hiding a secret. A rare one with older people involved in the werewolf curse; I suppose we can also count The Wolf Man (2010) because of Talbot senior. Included here as the sheriff is the main character unravelling a mystery.
• Blood Moon (2014) dir. Jeremy Wooding. Horror Western! Two outlaws hold up a stagecoach only for them all to get stalked by a mythical beast when the Blood Moon rises… Added this one to my “Crime Doesn’t Pay: When the Hideout/Mark Goes Bad” Letterboxd list.
• FANG (2018) dir. Adam R. Steigert. Another one for my “Crime Doesn’t Pay: When the Hideout/Mark Goes Bad” Letterboxd list. After participating in a robbery and unplanned murder, Chloe Romero and Joe Spencer set out to hide at a distant relative’s house only to be stalked as prey and hunted by creatures and forces unknown.
• Among the Shadows (2019) dir. Tiago Mesquita. Lindsay Lohan stars as a Private investigator descended from a line of werewolves, trying to solve the murder of her uncle.

Horror/Thriller Werewolf Films

• 13Hrs/Night Wolf (2010) dir. Jonathan Glendening. British-made werewolf thriller released under two different titles, set in the countryside. Starring Tom Felton.
• Monsterwolf (2010) dir. Todor Chapkanov. Ecohorror, in which the monsterwolf of the title is a spirit arising to protect the ecological balance of the land from those who threaten it.
• The Big Bad (2011) dir. Bryan Enk. Red Riding Hood inspired.
• The Howling: Reborn (2011) dir. Joe Nimziki.
• Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012) dir. Louis Morneau. Set in a 19thC village, a local doctor goes on the trail of a wolf-life creature terrorising the countryside.
• Werewolf Rising (2014) dir. BC Fourteen. Indie no budget film set in the Arkansas hills.
• Blood Redd (2014) dir. Brad Palmer. A Red Riding Hood-inspired Horror Thriller, alternative title Little Red Werewolf.
• Werewolf Massacre at Hell’s Gate (2015) dir. James Baack. Indie, low/no budget film.
• Howl (2015) dir. Paul Hyett. British werewolf thriller on a broken-down train in a forest. It’s my favourite werewolf film alongside Dog Soldiers. You’ll have seen this in my monthly media round-ups!
• Silverhide (2015) dir. Keith R. Robinson. Set in the Welsh mountains, another low budget British film. I’ve added it to my list “Welsh Gothic/Horror/Noir/Dark Drama” on Letterboxd. My lists aren’t recommendations.
• The Shattering (2015) dir. Jason Boritz. Indie, low budget. A lot of these coming out of the USA in this decade but they shy away from being softcore porn as in the previous decade, it seems.
• Return to Nihasa (2016) dir. Christopher Angel Brannan. Another low budget indie film from the USA. Its digital release was in 2016, and it premiered at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival in 2017 where it was an Official Selection.
• The Howling (2017) dir. Steven M. Smith. A group of teens out late at night on remote farmland are about to discover a horrific myth is real. Low budget USA indie film, also listed as Science Fiction on Letterboxd.
• Lycan (2017) dir. Bev Land. Indie US-horror about a group of college students rediscovering a Georgia (US state) legend.
• And Then There Was Blood (2017) dirs. Curtis Everitt, Matthew R. Horton. There is more info on this film on IMDb than there is on Letterboxd. IMDb lists it as a Thriller, and has the following description: Seven strangers are brought out into the middle of nowhere because of sins from their pasts.
• Bonehill Road (2017) dir. Todd Sheets. Another US-made indie low budget film.
• Wolves of Wuhan (2018) dir. Kirby Mason. Set in Wuhan, China. The lead Wu Wei is the frontman of Chinese Punk band SMZB. No budget labour of love for the director.
• Betsy (2018) dir. Shawn Burkett. US-made low budget indie film. A woman is attacked in the city, and moves to the country to recover… but the attack has changed her in more ways than one.
• Beast Within / Werewolves Awaken (2019) dirs. Steven Morana, Chris Green.

Previous Werewolf Posts

01: Werewolf films 1910-1949
02: Werewolf films 1950-1959
03: Werewolf films 1960-1969
04: Werewolf films 1970-1979 (Part 1) – Monster Mash/Fantasy Horror films
05: Werewolf films 1970-1979 (Part 2) – Crime/Thriller Horror films & Exploitation
06: Werewolf films 1970-1979 (Part 3) – Horror Comedy & Folklore and Religion
07: Werewolf films 1980-1989
08: Werewolf films 1990-1999
09: Werewolf films 2000-2009