Can Werewolves still be scary?

[SilentPony]

Sometimes yes, and sometimes no. Depends on how its used or how you're doing it. I'm going to bed now, so we will finish this conversation some other time.

There can be overlap between scary and threatening, yes. However by admitting these two things can overlap, you're confirming that they're not the same thing. If they were the same thing there would be no need to overlap, because they're already each other. Smelly cannot overlap with smelly, but it can overlap with gross. So to with scary and threatening.

To give an opinion lets take the Grudge/Woman in Black movie series. The ghosts in them are threatening, but to me not scary. Once they establish they're uncompromising, unthinking, can never be stopped ghosts they lose all sense of scary to me, because to me you have to have a chance to escape and live to be scary. There has to be a chance of making it out alive, of losing more life. They're threatening, and they're gonna get me, but so is an avalanche and time, and I'm not scared of those.
Something I find scary but not threatening are those precious moments dolls. Because you know the tortured souls of murdered orphans with cancer are trapped in those dead, haunted porcelain eyes. And those droopy eyed half smiles, as if they're all saying "What skinned puppy in what satanic alter?" Scary as fuck. But they're also porcelain dolls the size of a coffee cup. I know who wins if they try to throw down.

 

[Saint of M]

A wolf pack in defense of its den is capable of killing a brown bear. They are a much, much hardier animal than a domesticated doberman with a bad temperament. They're also a shite sight smarter. Lone wolves have also been observed taking down moose, bison and muskoxen. How do you rate your physical capability against any of those animals?

Don't mistake a wolf for a 'bigger dog'. They are very much more than that.

The are intelligent in different ways. Try to give a command to a wolf, better luck having a 4 year old with a tantrum eat their veggies. But a dog can understand up to 200 different commands if I remember right. They also recognize human expressions better than say our great ape cousins.

However to survive in the wild, wolves have to think differently, act differently, be differently.

Personalities are also different. Compared to wolves, dogs are still eager to please eternal puppies. Play, licking faces, and other things often associated with dogs are common with wolf cubs but not the adults.

There can be overlap between scary and threatening, yes. However by admitting these two things can overlap, you're confirming that they're not the same thing. If they were the same thing there would be no need to overlap, because they're already each other. Smelly cannot overlap with smelly, but it can overlap with gross. So to with scary and threatening.

To give an opinion lets take the Grudge/Woman in Black movie series. The ghosts in them are threatening, but to me not scary. Once they establish they're uncompromising, unthinking, can never be stopped ghosts they lose all sense of scary to me, because to me you have to have a chance to escape and live to be scary. There has to be a chance of making it out alive, of losing more life. They're threatening, and they're gonna get me, but so is an avalanche and time, and I'm not scared of those.
Something I find scary but not threatening are those precious moments dolls. Because you know the tortured souls of murdered orphans with cancer are trapped in those dead, haunted porcelain eyes. And those droopy eyed half smiles, as if they're all saying "What skinned puppy in what satanic alter?" Scary as fuck. But they're also porcelain dolls the size of a coffee cup. I know who wins if they try to throw down.

I am not scared or intimidatded by most horror movies. I think the last time something scared me was watching Hellraiser a for the first time a 10 years ago, or having a oh shit moment in Resident Evil Game. Context works, and I can see how this might get the heart racing in a few areas.

DOOM 2016 is full of scary monsters, but because even when you are like me and die alot, you get the impression you are a one man army literally tearing the hoards of hell apart. Compare that to the first time you go through RE4. The villagers can scar you, namely the doctor, as you have limited weapons, and limited rounds of ammo. Second playthrough, largely not concerned.

The one exception was when you fight that tiny man's bodyguard. You are locked in the room with it. I was unloading round after round with the shotgun and it did nothing but stand there. I thought the game was glitching so I stopped shooting to wait. It was then it waved its finger in the air; this told me the game still had a way to mess with me, and gave me an oh shit moment.

Yet I also remember seeing my first legendary lightning dog in Pokemon GOld and went oh crap.

 

[09philj]

Lycanthropy has a lot of scope to be frightening.
1. Werewolves are very hard to kill without a silver weapon, and where will you get one of those?
2. They are body horror, a human involuntarily contorting and twisting to become a monster they cannot control.
3. They could be anyone. You won't know until the full moon.
4. If their bites are infectious, then you or your loved ones could become one of them, and turned into something unrecognisable.
5. The wolf form is inscrutable. It is not a wolf, nor a human. It does not think like us, but it does not think like an animal.

I prefer the creeping dread of the unknowable as my source of horror, and werewolves can deliver that if you focus on the right aspects.

 

[sXeth]

I think visual execution comes into play here a bit.

Vampires are straight up human looking (or mostly). Zombies or Ghosts can be people with prettyminimal makeup or effects.


Werewolves in the era of HD.... are gonna need a master of practical effects, or be obvious CGI behemoths.


That said, conceptually, they have a lot going for them. A werewolf is most of the time, a human. And comnbatting a werewolf requires overcoming the idea of kiling a human who is well, a victim in their own right of a curse/disease. Whereas typically vampires are a sort of post-human, an entity that has replaced a human beyond a threshold of return. And werewolves generally also have an element of unpredicatability or inability to control, making them a more challenging opponent or dangerous companion

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I think Bloodborne did a pretty good job of making some scary werewolves.

Spoiler: Look at this scary ************ all teeth and claws

And they hunt in packs. You have to fight them in groups, and they'll fuck you up. They ambush you, they jump through windows, they hide on rooftops and drop down on you like drop-bears.

You can absolutely make werewolves scary.

 

[twistedmic]

Try to give a command to a wolf, better luck having a 4 year old with a tantrum eat their veggies. But a dog can understand up to 200 different commands if I remember right

There's a big difference between understanding various commands and obeying various commands. House cats, for example, can learn just as many (maybe more) commands as a dog but they just don't give a fuck what you tell them to do.
Wolves may be the same. They understand what you want them to do but they just don't give a fuck.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

I think the problem with werewolves is the cultural hook.

Zombie prey on our fears of society, and other. Not only from the zombies but how Society falls apart because of them.
Vampires preying our fear of rape or the basic fear of serial killers, someone killing out of the basic need to feed their desires.
Frankenstein's monster is the horror we can make with technology, the fear of going too far.
Sea monsters like the Kraken prey on our fear of the sea and how little we know of it.
The Cthulhu Mythos prey on our existential fears of the universe and if we truly are insignificant.
Michael Myers is our inability to understand the true evils of man.
Freddy Krueger is the fear of the helplessness of being asleep.
Five Nights at Freddy's is claustrophobia, fear of Technology, The Uncanny Valley, and general helplessness.

I can go on and on and on but to get to the point. while werewolves had that hook too, (our fear of being attacked by animals) in today's society it's a fear that we don't have as frequently as the others.

Although it's not as bad as mummies

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Although it's not as bad as mummies

The fear that mummies illicit is the fear that there will never again be enough mummia to snort.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I think Bloodborne did a pretty good job of making some scary werewolves.

Spoiler: Look at this scary ************ all teeth and claws

View attachment 3780

And they hunt in packs. You have to fight them in groups, and they'll fuck you up. They ambush you, they jump through windows, they hide on rooftops and drop down on you like drop-bears.

You can absolutely make werewolves scary.

I was gonna bring those up, but I think they work better in a game since CGI in movies is rarely if ever scary. Our minds seem to have equated CGI in movies with slick, expensive, and cool, which isn't exactly fear inducing. I would love to see an actually giant puppet of Bloodborne werewolves in a movie though.

And while this scene, along with the movie itself, can be a bit silly, that half-way werewolf prostetic looks fucking disturbing and scary.

 

[Saint of M]

The fear that mummies illicit is the fear that there will never again be enough mummia to snort.

I think with most mummy stuff was largly hollywood. Prior to that the extreamly wealthy would have parties showcasing all the wealth and artifacts stolen from Egypt.
Mummies were also used alot in trains as fuel.

I think the problem with werewolves is the cultural hook.

Zombie prey on our fears of society, and other. Not only from the zombies but how Society falls apart because of them.
Vampires preying our fear of rape or the basic fear of serial killers, someone killing out of the basic need to feed their desires.
Frankenstein's monster is the horror we can make with technology, the fear of going too far.
Sea monsters like the Kraken prey on our fear of the sea and how little we know of it.
The Cthulhu Mythos prey on our existential fears of the universe and if we truly are insignificant.
Michael Myers is our inability to understand the true evils of man.
Freddy Krueger is the fear of the helplessness of being asleep.
Five Nights at Freddy's is claustrophobia, fear of Technology, The Uncanny Valley, and general helplessness.

I can go on and on and on but to get to the point. while werewolves had that hook too, (our fear of being attacked by animals) in today's society it's a fear that we don't have as frequently as the others.

Although it's not as bad as mummies

Zombies also prey on the uncanny valley. One of the theories why we get unnerved by things that look almost human but not quite, or even people with one too many plastic surgeries like Real Barbie, is we know what a healthy human should look like. So when we see otherwise were try to avoid it for health reasons. Add the fact that the inevitable damage done by decay, insect and other scavenger activity, or even battle damage, and we know what that would translate on a human person.

The vampire I think has an edge in that like a serial killer, you can't really tell them apart from another human being (Nightflyer and Orloc aside) until its too late. How many people couldn't beleive John Wayne Gasy, or any number of other prolific killers did what they did because they knew them...they were their friends, their family.

With the werewolf, you are dealing with the beastly nature that people in a civilized society are suppose to reject.

Depending if they are in control of their bloodlust or not, is another factor. Lets use Skyrim as an example. In one Daedric Quest, you meet a man in prison. He was trying to find a way to control his werewolfism, unfortunately it has gotten so out of control the sight of a sickly little girl compelled his transformation and he attacked her. Because wolves, like any sane hunting animal, prefer to go after prey that can't hurt them or hurt them alot.

Compare this to your transformation. You tearing through a bandit camp like they are gift wrap on a birthday present is fun. Being the one on the other side of that, less so. Same concept as Predator: the biggest badassess are little more than trophies to go back to your triphy room to impress chicks with. Its one of the big things that made Predator work. Arni had proven himself as an action star, and an 80's one at that. The fact that even with his brains and brawn, his crew is killed one by one, and he only wins by dumb luck says it all.

The same can work with the werewolf.

Or reversely, you are the werewolf. You have your wolf part under controle, its not a problem, but you are still hunted down by big bad wannabe werewolf hunters that have passed down their knowldedge from one generation to the next/

 

[Saint of M]

I was gonna bring those up, but I think they work better in a game since CGI in movies is rarely if ever scary. Our minds seem to have equated CGI in movies with slick, expensive, and cool, which isn't exactly fear inducing. I would love to see an actually giant puppet of Bloodborne werewolves in a movie though.

And while this scene, along with the movie itself, can be a bit silly, that half-way werewolf prostetic looks fucking disturbing and scary.

There is plenty to be said about practical effects. Its there, you can interact with it. You don't have to try to stiffle giggles or try to imagin it: its right there. One of the things i liked about Underworld, and in the case of Dog Soldiers that made me a werewolf movie fan, was the practical suits and how hard it was for the performers in them.

One of the best, if not the best werewolf transformation is still An American Werewolf in London, where it looks like the transformation, with the tissiues rearanging, and the bones breaking and stretching, looks as very painful.

CGI has its place. I took a look at a still image of Blue from Jurasic world, and was surprised how realistic it look. But for now, its best to use it for when the suits have limitations, and to use angles and shadows, and even being sparing with the monster to keep the scar factor up.

 

[Thaluikhain]

I think with most mummy stuff was largly hollywood. Prior to that the extreamly wealthy would have parties showcasing all the wealth and artifacts stolen from Egypt.
Mummies were also used alot in trains as fuel.

Used as fuel during the depression, when people were getting a bit desperate, though.

The mummies themselves...don't know how scary they are, but a common theme is a Scary Ethnic man, often who wants to abduct s White Woman (who is the reincarnation of someone or other). Which...ok.

Also, I think colonialism helped, you need the mummy to be scary to overshadow the fact that the guy is killing has nicked a fortune from Egypt to be killed over.

But that's still rather weak nowdays, assuming it wasn't always.

 

[Saint of M]

Used as fuel during the depression, when people were getting a bit desperate, though.

The mummies themselves...don't know how scary they are, but a common theme is a Scary Ethnic man, often who wants to abduct s White Woman (who is the reincarnation of someone or other). Which...ok.

Also, I think colonialism helped, you need the mummy to be scary to overshadow the fact that the guy is killing has nicked a fortune from Egypt to be killed over.

But that's still rather weak nowdays, assuming it wasn't always.

Unless someone can point to something earlier, I think Boris Carlof, the man of a thousand faces, sold it when he did it durring the Classic movie monster erra. Maybe the supposed traps and curses laid by the Ancient Egyptians can still have milage...maybe. Again it has to have the effort put into it.

The trilogy with Brandon Frasier was a fun romp mostly, but there were some elements that could be nightmare fuel, such as being harvested piece by peice by an undead threat. THen again that is the main plot with the Jeepers Creepers movies, and unless we can get someone not a rapist to do any more of those, we're stuck with what we have.

Haven't seen the Tom Cruise one so can't comment on that as of yet.