Another season of True Blood is upon us!  This season in particular has been so exciting, because we're getting into my favorite parts of the book series. (Club Dead & Dead to the World anyone?!)

Today, in honor of meeting Alcide and seeing Eclipse this week, I've got wolves on the brain. Let's discuss the school of thought on the  Animal/spirit familiar-wolf-werewolf, shall we?

To begin, we should address the history of  werewolves, either as hominid-proto wolves, or as a actual physical wolves.  The Vault has done a great post on the history of werewolves, which I'll direct you to rather than rehash. Awesome job ladies :)

In regards to True Blood, Alan Ball has stayed true to the #1 rule of TrueBlood Universe -- the supernatural elements must abide by the rules of the natural world.  That's why the vampire fangs are designed off of the cobra's, snapping back when not in use, and all shapeshifters take the complete form of the animal they turn into.  Therefore, his werewolves will be taking the form of real Timberwolves, and not he proto-wolf-man we see in such classic Wolfman horror flicks, or morphing into giant wolves a la New Moon.

Wolves have played an important role in Native American folklore, lending themselves well to Stephenie Meyer's own mythology throughout the Twilight books.  In the Quileute legends mentioned, the wolves were larger than life, presumably because the original spirit-wolf housed both the wolf and the spirit of the man. (p249, Eclipse) From a writers perspective, I'd argue they were created that size to both intimidate humans and to be able to stand up to Meyer's indestructible vampires.  This also adheres to the authors' ideas about supernatural creatures in Forks being driven more by magic than by the rules of real world physics.

This type of transformation speaks to the rules of shape-shifting rather than the traditional man-wolf tranformation.  For example, neither Harris' or Meyer's werewolves are completely bound to the cycles of the moon.  There's some interplay on the mythology which allows the transformation to take place at will.  What's fun as a female viewer of this type of transformation as opposed to the proto-wolf-man transformation, is of course that the creature loses or shreds his clothing upon transforming. Speaking to the dual-nature of the werewolf, they only need clothing when living as a human and half of their life is in the form of an animal.  The romantic implications here lend themselves to these men being protective, loyal and real animals in the bedroom (one can imagine... ;)  Proceed with caution though, Shapeshifters are also wild animals, which could prove to be very dangerous for any brave tail-chaser or furbanger.

Thank you Chiller for broadcasting "The Howling" last night, and re-igniting the werewolf theories I've been posturing on for months.  I've been trying for months to put together a coherent werewolf-related post, and for some reason, they never seem to materialize. There's just so many facets to the werewolf oeuvre, and it's hard for me to focus.  So this will be the first in a series of werewolf posts, which I am determined to bring to life.  Let's get to The Howling & my favorite aspect of the 80's werewolf movies -- the Transformations - shall we?

The Howling is a pretty clever movie for 1981, full of genre-referential humor and innovative special effects. It helped kick off the 80's werewolf/creature feature craze (Even Jack Nicholson did one!)  Check out the wiki entry for some really awesome easter eggs scattered throughout the film. Personal favorite: a copy of Ginsberg's Howl laying on the table.

"... [The film's] most celebrated effect was the on-screen transformation of Eddie Quist, which involved air bladders under latex facial applications to give the illusion of transformation... The Howling also features stop-motion animation by notable animator David W. Allen, and puppetry intended to give the werewolves an even more non-human look..."  source (This team went on to create the Gremlins in 1984.)

Here's my rendition of the transformation for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of seeing it live:

The face bubbles, oozes and pops with painful screaming underscoring the growing snout and massive teeth extruding out of Eddie's skull.  It is shot in the slow, agonizing style unique to this genre, and that is what makes it so great. Eddie's humanity just drips off his face, literally! Since he's been bitten, he's doomed to suffer this pain and deformity, and the filmmakers want you to feel it too. Another great aspect of the slow transform: Karen (or Terri, whoever) just watches dumbfounded even though in that time she could have totally ran away. But, instead she just watches and saves the running for after he's finished. I think it's polite, really.

I must admit I've favored An American Werewolf in London in the past, but after re-watching The Howling, I've gotta give respect.  I am such a sucker for the self-referential humor, and love the ending on 'live tv' which totally endears me to the horror genre as the most memorable films always leave you with questions, in this case, "Did I really just see Karen turn into a werewolf on the evening news?!"  Shades of many great movies & books to come,  [ahem, Charlaine Harris' great reveal ;) ] which leads me to say, Thank you Joe Dante!