The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Like Vampires, Werewolves have origins in folklore and were more or less very different compared to today's lycanthrope.

to become a werewolf in folklore one must have either wore a pelt of a wolf or drank rainwater from the pawprint of a wolf, some origins mention a seventh son.

in modern fiction it was either a scratch or bite or a werewolf that infected its victim.

werewolves have changed with time to suit modern audiences although the classics still inspire awe and fear.

werewolf of london (1932) was the first film to feature a bipedal anthropomorphic werewolf, the film was not a large box office success but inspired a the legendary cult film "an american Werewolf in london" other films came out such as the wolf man.

The werewolves of these films depicted the wolf as a rampaging monster that is usually killed directly or indirectly by the person they love and who in turn loves the werewolf, it is sometimes said that a werewolf can only be killed by some who loves them.

This trend (with or without the love/death part) continued for many decades with different wolf forms and weakness.

Silver Bullet.

Silver Bullet was a film about a small town plagued by a werewolf and a young crippled boy becomes his target after he discovers his identity. the Lycanthrope in this film was biped, had black fur and was intelligent, using weapons such as a baseball bat. a comment by the sister of the protagonist suggests that the reverend (the werewolf) is always like this but the more the moon is shown (half or full), the more he becomes wolf-ish, he is killed by a silver bullet to the eye after a brutal fight with the boy's uncle.

Bad moon: a film that is about a man trying to use family love to cure himself of the werewolf. After being invited to stay with his sister, the werewolf hopes that family love will free him of his curse but to no avail, it seems the wolf in him affects his personality as he starts becoming darker in behaviour and personality, the family dog, a German Shepard called thor takes a strong dislike to him and at the films climax, a vicious fight between dog and werewolf, which surprisingly ends with the dog more or less winning. the wounded dog tracks down the badly injured werewolf who is now in human form and says to the dog "do it" in which the dog finishes him off.

the werewolf of this film was similar to that of silver bullet, bipedal but with white fur instead of black and it seems silver bullets are not needed to kill a werewolf as the one in bad moon killed the one who scratched/bit him with a shotgun blast to the head and the dog of the family kills the werewolf at the end.

Van Helsing: Werewolves of this film are controlled by Dracula and the only way to kill Dracula is a werewolf bite. the title character transforms into a werewolf and fights Dracula and wins, unfortunately, these werewolves are rampaging monsters and van helsing ends up killing one of his companions

Underworld: there are three breeds/types of lycans in this film, the original is William, a white eyed and white furred lycanthrope so powerful he is even able to go toe-to-toe with the hybrid Michael. the second gen lycans are similar to William in that they have more fur than the modern counterpart and are unable to regain human form. the third gen lycans have less fur and can change back to human form and are in complete control of themselves. older lycans can change at will.

Dog Soldiers: a brilliant film about a squad of soldiers that are in a training exercise in forests of Scotland, they encounter vicious werewolves that are nigh invincible.
The film features an amusing and fun fight between the soldier called Spoon and a werewolf, spoon battles this werewolf in hand to hand combat.

The Werewolves of Dog Soldiers are extremely intelligent and it is implied they are in complete control of themselves.

current werewolves.

The current type of werewolf looks just like a normal wolf but have supernatural powers and may or may not be of an increased size. these kind appear in the twilight series, Vampire Diaries and True Blood.
it should be said that the werewolves of twilight were not true werewolves but shape-shifters.
Like Vampires, the lycanthrope has become less monstrous and scary, becoming more tragic and humane.

Recent films like The Wolf Man has gone back to the rampaging werewolf formula, as the lycanthropes in these films has no control over themselves.