The Weekend Geekout channel avatar The Weekend GeekoutRachael & Dan

Blog · 20 Sep 2026

The Best Werewolf Films Ever?

On Straight Off The Shelf, Dan pulls favourite werewolf movies from the collection. The YouTube description names the films below — press play for his ranking and which one he’d keep. We’re not inventing a verdict here; we’re arming you with geeky fact sheets while you watch.

Thumbnail: The Best Werewolf Films Ever?
Watch on YouTube Films hub

Titles verified from the upload description: The Wolf Man (1941), The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), An American Werewolf in London (1981), The Howling (1981), The Company of Wolves (1984), The Wolfman (2010).

Fact sheets for the films Dan named

Geeky fact sheet

The Wolf Man (1941)

Year
1941
Director
George Waggner
Principal cast
Lon Chaney Jr., Claude Rains, Ralph Bellamy, Bela Lugosi, Maria Ouspenskaya
Budget (reported)
About $180,000 (reported)
Box office (reported)
Worldwide theatrical gross not clearly published on the Wikipedia infobox

Geeky trivia

  • Universal monster classic that cemented Lon Chaney Jr. as Larry Talbot.
  • Maria Ouspenskaya’s Maleva delivers the film’s famous werewolf lore lines.
  • Jack Pierce’s yak-hair makeup became the template for decades of screen wolf-men.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Public goof round-ups for this 1941 title are thinner than for modern blockbusters — we couldn’t find a short list of widely repeated continuity howlers worth treating as gospel here.

Budget from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_Man_(1941_film)

Geeky fact sheet

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

Year
1961
Director
Terence Fisher
Principal cast
Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller
Budget (reported)
Not clearly published on the Wikipedia film page
Box office (reported)
Not clearly published on the Wikipedia film page

Geeky trivia

  • Hammer Horror’s full-colour werewolf outing, directed by Terence Fisher.
  • Oliver Reed plays the cursed Leon — a star-making monster turn.
  • Shares Hammer’s gothic DNA with the studio’s better-known Dracula and Frankenstein films.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Couldn’t find well-known, clearly documented goofs for this title in the usual public goof round-ups — shout if you’ve spotted a classic one.

Cast/director from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curse_of_the_Werewolf — budget/box office not clearly listed there.

Geeky fact sheet

An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Year
1981
Director
John Landis
Principal cast
David Naughton, Jenny Agutter, Griffin Dunne, John Woodvine
Budget (reported)
About $5.8 million (reported)
Box office (reported)
About $62 million worldwide (reported)

Geeky trivia

  • Rick Baker won the first competitive Academy Award for Best Makeup for this film (54th Oscars).
  • Landis wrote an early draft in 1969 and shelved it for years before PolyGram financed it.
  • First film allowed to shoot in Piccadilly Circus in 15 years — Landis wooed Met Police with a Blues Brothers screening.
  • Moors scenes were shot around the Black Mountains in Wales; the Slaughtered Lamb exterior was a Crickadarn cottage.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Like most practical-effects horrors, careful rewatches turn up continuity niggles around the transformation and London chase — but the documented “wow” is Baker’s makeup, not a famous blooper reel.

Budget/box office/trivia from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_American_Werewolf_in_London ; Oscar note also via Oscars.org / Academy records.

Geeky fact sheet

The Howling (1981)

Year
1981
Director
Joe Dante
Principal cast
Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy
Budget (reported)
About $1.7 million (reported)
Box office (reported)
About $17.9–$20 million (sources differ slightly on the total)

Geeky trivia

  • Released the same year as American Werewolf — peak practical-werewolf season.
  • Joe Dante’s cult favourite leans into satire as much as scares.
  • Rob Bottin’s creature work is the other half of 1981’s werewolf effects arms race.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Couldn’t find well-known, clearly documented goofs for this title in the usual public goof round-ups — shout if you’ve spotted a classic one.

Figures from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Howling_(film) — Wikipedia notes a $17.9–20 million box-office range.

Geeky fact sheet

The Company of Wolves (1984)

Year
1984
Director
Neil Jordan
Principal cast
Angela Lansbury, David Warner, Sarah Patterson (principal among a larger ensemble)
Budget (reported)
About £2 million (reported)
Box office (reported)
About $4.3 million in the USA (reported; worldwide not clearly summarised the same way)

Geeky trivia

  • Fairy-tale horror from Neil Jordan, adapting Angela Carter’s wolf stories.
  • Dream-logic Red Riding Hood vibes rather than a straight Universal-style wolf-man plot.
  • A UK gothic oddity that sits nicely next to Hammer on a physical-media shelf.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Couldn’t find well-known, clearly documented goofs for this title in the usual public goof round-ups — shout if you’ve spotted a classic one.

Budget/US gross from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Company_of_Wolves

Geeky fact sheet

The Wolfman (2010)

Year
2010
Director
Joe Johnston
Principal cast
Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving
Budget (reported)
About $150 million (reported)
Box office (reported)
About $142.6 million worldwide (reported; some tallies round near $140M)

Geeky trivia

  • Lavish Universal remake of the 1941 Wolf Man, with Rick Baker returning to the makeup world.
  • Danny Elfman’s score was famously bounced then reinstated after a more electronic temp approach didn’t fit.
  • Despite the pedigree, it is widely discussed as a costly box-office disappointment relative to its budget.

Mistakes & goofs

  • Couldn’t find well-known, clearly documented goofs for this title in the usual public goof round-ups — shout if you’ve spotted a classic one.

Budget/box office from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolfman_(2010_film) and Box Office Mojo title page for tt0780653.

Related: Were YOUR Werewolf Film Picks Any Good? (viewer suggestions).

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