You are now listening to Post Mortum with Mick Garris, where the most influential voices in horror cinema will spill their guts to the renowned horror director, writer, and producer.

Now here's your host, Mick Garris.

From Nice Guy Productions, World Headquarters Overlooking the Glamorous San Fernando Valley,

I'm Mick Garris, and this is Postmortem.

What's your favorite monster?

Dracula, Frankenstein, zombies, Norman Bates, Freddie Kruger, ghosts, serial killers.

One of the most venerable creatures of cinematic horror remains the werewolf.

Though most of the rules that lycanthropes follow were invented by the great screenwriter Kurt Siodmak

in the screenplay for Universal's 1941 classic, The Wolfman, furry lupine shapeshifters have been around in legend for centuries.

It's long been a part of European folklore running alongside the beliefs in witches and witchcraft.

In the second century BC, the Greek geographer Pausenius related the story of King Lausone of Arcadia,

who was transformed into a wolf because he had sacrificed a child in the altar of Zeus Lysias.

There were actually werewolf trials, similar to the the witch trials as early as the 15th century,

though the legends reached their peak in the 18th century before becoming a staple of early chapbooks and later popular fiction before becoming a staple of the modern horror film.

And the legend of the werewolf still has plenty of life.

Recently, werewolves within made its mark as a festival and fan favorite.

But 2021 marks the 40th anniversary of a true high watermark year in Werewolf movies.

1981 marked the release of three lycthropic classics within weeks of each other. The Howling, an American

Werewolf in London, and Wolfen. The directors of the first two, Joe Dante and John Landis,

were also guests on the second episode of this podcast and returned to celebrate 40 years

of the reigning champions of shape-shifting man or woman beasts after this.

Available now from Dread, Howling Village. From the visionary director of The Grudge and the Grudge

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