Presented by Steven C. Miller’s Werewolves, Bloody Disgusting is looking to the stars and howling at the moon with Werewolves Week. Today, Luiz H.C. grabs a handful of silver bullets as he revisits six iconic werewolf deaths in horror history.
Personally, I’ve always found monster movies to be more thrilling when they give the protagonists a fighting chance. This tiny sliver of narrative hope usually comes in the form of a specific weakness that can be exploited in order to defeat whatever creature happens to be attacking, with one of the most famous examples being werewolves’ “allergic reaction” towards silver – with even young children being aware of this fatal weakness.
However, there’s more than one way to skin a cat (or a lycanthrope), and in honor of Steven C. Miller’s upcoming Werewolves, which depicts a world where a Supermoon event has turned millions of people into monsters, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating 6 of the most iconic werewolf deaths in film. After all, things would get pretty boring if every single creature feature ended with a silver bullet to the heart, and we’ve actually seen plenty of creative deaths in the century or so since the very first werewolf movie.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing more on the impact of the werewolf deaths themselves than the overall quality of the movies that they came from. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite werewolf deaths if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the best werewolf deaths in film!
6. Well-Aimed Bazooka – Project Metalbeast (1995)
Project Metalbeast: DNA Overload is a deeply weird movie. Blending horror and sci-fi as it tells the story of a re-animated werewolf super-soldier armed with bulletproof skin, this schlocky creature feature simply has to be seen to be believed. And while the absurd premise alone is already worth the price of admission (though having genre veteran Kane Hodder bring the titular monster to life doesn’t hurt), the kick-ass finale is what lands the flick on this list.
In a desperate last stand, a group of scientists trap themselves in a high-security facility and attempt to kill the murderous beast with silver-tipped rockets. After a thrilling battle, our lead character finally manages to score a direct hit to the monster, exploding it into tiny bits of deliciously cheesy gore!
5. Silver Eye-Shot – Silver Bullet (1985)
Silver Bullet has no right to be as much fun as it is. Roger Ebert once described it as more of a parody of the Stephen King novella that it’s based on than a sincere adaptation, but I feel that there’s a certain earnestness to the flick’s cheesy effects and charmingly offbeat characters.
And while that bear-like werewolf costume is still just as divisive in the horror community today as it was four decades ago, even the film’s harshest critics have to admit that the final confrontation between Marty Coslaw and Reverend Lowe is a battle for the ages. After having already blinded the creature in its left eye with a rocket earlier in the film, Corey Haim‘s wheelchair-using character finishes the job with a well-placed silver bullet to the right eye!
4. The Kitchen Fight – Dog Soldiers (2002)
After Simon Pegg withdrew from the project due to his commitment to Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead, veteran actor and trained boxer Darren Morfitt ended up stepping into the shoes of Dog Soldiers’ Private Spoon. Impressed with Morfitt’s background, director Neil Marshall decided to expand the role by giving the character one of the most badass moments in the entire movie.
A brutal melee that’s cut short by the arrival of furry backup, Spoon’s improvised battle against a werewolf is the stuff of cinematic legend. And even if that final frying pan to the face didn’t quite finish the creature off, it was certainly demoralizing enough to count as a death.
3. McKinley’s Werewolf Massacre – Late Phases (2014)
I’m kind of bending the rules with this one, as Nick Damici technically takes out a whole pack of werewolves during this climactic battle, but this list just wouldn’t feel complete without talking about one of the most underrated werewolf movies of all time.
Telling the story of a visually impaired Vietnam veteran who prepares for war after a werewolf kills his seeing-eye dog, Late Phases culminates in a badass display of guerilla warfare as our grizzled protagonist booby traps his house and proceeds to murder the hell out of his monstrous attackers.
And all this two years before Don’t Breathe!
2. Flaming Decapitation – The Wolfman (2010)
It may not have been a hit upon release, but I’ve always enjoyed Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman as an over-the-top creature feature with a disproportionately talented cast. In fact, one of the film’s greatest ideas was having Sir Anthony Hopkins portray Benicio Del Toro’s villainous father, with the two ultimately settling their moral differences in a climactic werewolf battle that ends in a flaming decapitation.
Sure, there’s an unfortunate overuse of CGI here (which feels even worse due to Rick Baker’s masterful application of practical makeup effects), but you’ve got to admit that this is a kick-ass finale to an already thrilling scene. Just make sure that you track down the unrated version if you feel like watching this one!
1. Silver Cane Bludgeoning – The Wolf Man (1941)
After decades of stylish werewolf kills, the tragic finale of George Waggner’s original The Wolf Man – where Larry Talbot is beaten to death with a wolf-headed cane – might not seem all that impressive, but you have to remember that this was the first time moviegoers witnessed silver being used to take down a lycanthrope.
Not only that, but the added emotional impact of having Sir John realize that the monster he just killed was, in fact, his son makes this one of the most memorable deaths in werewolf cinema. Don’t be too sad about it, though, as Lon Chaney Jr. would inexplicably return in a plethora of Universal Classic Monsters sequels!
Werewolves claws into theaters this Friday. Get tickets now and enter to win a custom werewolf head by legendary SFX maestro Alec Gillis.