Seen in many cultures across the Northern Hemisphere, werewolves have been terrifying people for thousands of years. From folklore to modern cinema, the werewolf has haunted humanity in the nights with their restless, unsettling howling. Unlike the popularity of vampires, Frankenstein’s monster, and ghosts, werewolves have not been shown the same appreciation throughout modern popular culture. However, they represent an important fear that has been addressed time and time again throughout horror literature and cinema, duality and the capacity for both good and evil inside us.

The oldest known origin of lycanthropy, or the supernatural transformation of a person into a wolf, is in ancient Greek myths of people changing into wolves once a year. However, there is very little known about these legends. Fortunately, there are plenty of other cultures with their own legends surrounding the vicious wolves. Werewolves can also be seen in early Nordic folklore, with some legends claiming of a father and son who had the ability to transform people into wolves, who then went on to killing and rampaging villages throughout the forest. Also in the epic of Gilgamesh, there is evidence of werewolves, when Gilgamesh found out that his love interest had turned her previous lover into a wolf.

There are several ways to become a werewolf, according to these folktales. From terrible curses to horrendous werewolf bites, people can become werewolves from basically anything, stemming the fear of these tales into truth for many individuals during the time of their origins. During the times when these legends were being told to villages across ancient Europe, people were living in fear from disease, strange animals in the forests, as well as other tribes. The tales of the werewolves increased this fear, and fed into the frenzy of finding and killing all werewolves in the area. Many corpses were exhumed, as they were thought to be potential werewolves, similar to what happened with the vampire frenzy in Europe, as well. People were living in so much fear that a werewolf would come eat them in the night, that they were willing to remove buried loved ones and mutilate their bodies, in hopes to stop the potential threat.

With this rich cultural history, it would only make sense that the horror genre would pick up this idea and run with it. During the early 20th century, gothic horror authors were composing all sorts of scary monsters to haunt people in their dreams. However, there are less references to werewolves in these writings and when there is, it is ambiguous and unclear. The most popular reference to what werewolves represent in gothic horror literature is “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” which also focuses on themes of duality and the capacity for a person to possess both good and evil inside them. As all monsters, werewolves represent a very real fear that people have, which is why horror uses them, while minimally. The idea that a normal, caring individual can become a horrible monster terrifies everyone, and at times might be a bit too real for some individuals to handle. This may be why there are fewer references to werewolves in modern horror. However, in older folk tales, werewolves may have represented a fear of the devil and those who follow him.