“Goodness, what big eyes you have!” Little Red Riding Hood exclaimed.
“The better to see you with, my dear,” said her grandmother.
Except we know it’s not really her grandmother, don’t we?
It’s the Big Bad Wolf in disguise.
Little Red Riding Hood was my first introduction to the wolf
as more than an animal. This wolf walks and talks, he has very human emotions
and he’s sneaky and crafty. Is he really a wolf, or is he more... perhaps the
forerunner of the loup-garou? More commonly known as the werewolf, or wolf man?
Outside of fairy tales, I
think my first encounter with wolf men came with the Lon Chaney, Jr. film. His
werewolf was a scary dude, and very hairy. Not to mention he was a total beast.
And I mean that literally. As a werewolf, no remnant of Larry Talbot’s humanity
was evident once he changed. He acted on pure animal instinct, and people were
scared spitless at the sight of him.
There have been a number of
films in this genre, with pretty much the same horrifying scenario of the man
forced to turn into a hideous beast at the tug of the full moon, usually the
result of a curse of some sort, or the bite of another werewolf. There was
nothing romantic about these creatures.
And then along came An
American Werewolf in London, which took werewolves in a new direction, and
revitalized the genre and breathed new life in it (with more than a touch of
humor), leading to such films as Van Helsing and Underworld, among others.
Meanwhile, in the world of
fiction, the werewolf underwent a more startling transformation. Romance
writers created tortured souls that were also incredibly sexy, and gave a whole
new meaning to the word. The first sexy werewolf I can remember was actually on
TV. Quentin Collins, in the old soap opera Dark Shadows, was sexy David Selby.
He’s the first werewolf I remember thinking was hot. Okay, there was Oliver
Reed too, in Curse of the Werewolf, but he was also scary lol.
Werewolves are now a staple
of paranormal romance writers, rivaling the vampire in popularity. At any given
time, usually one of these creatures dominates the field as far as who’s the
top of the polls. But werewolves have actually devolved into two camps – the
werewolf and the shapeshifter – and these are not the same thing, not at all.
What’s the difference, you ask? The werewolf is a slave to
the pull of the full moon. Come rain or shine, hell or high water, no matter
where he is or what he’s doing, when it’s time, he’s going to change, and
there’s not a damn thing he can do about it. But the shapeshifter controls his
change, and he’s generally in command of his faculties when he does, so he has
the advantage of the hapless werewolf.
What brought about this sudden surge in shapeshifters? I
think it was laziness, personally, because some writers didn’t want to deal
with having their heroes wait until the Full Moon – they wanted guys that could
change at a moment’s notice. And they didn’t want to be confined to once a
month. Technically speaking, shapeshifters are not werewolves by their very
nature. Doesn’t make them wrong, just different.
Not only that, but suddenly there are shapeshifting men for
every species of animal you can imagine, and maybe a few you never expected to
see in a book (or outside of one lol) I remember reading something about
treeshifters! Not your every day variety of shapeshifter, you have to admit.
Werewolf or shapeshifter – both are fun to read about and to
write about. I think they’re here to stay. I know I enjoy writing about them.
_02.jpg)
.