Robert Eggers has quickly become one of my favorite directors working today.

From The Witch to The Lighthouse, The Northman, and Nosferatu, the guy has a way of making movies that feel like you've stumbled into some ancient nightmare that you probably weren't supposed to see. His attention to detail, obsession with folklore, and willingness to make things genuinely uncomfortable are exactly what I love about his work.

So naturally, when I heard his next film was going to be about werewolves, I was pretty fucking excited.

Werwulf hits theaters Christmas Day, December 25, 2026, and I can't think of a better Christmas present. Eggers taking on medieval England, old-world superstition, and one of horror's most iconic monsters? Sign me up.

I've also been reading Gary Brandner's The Howling lately, which has only made me want to revisit some of my favorite werewolf movies.

Werewolves have always been one of my favorite movie monsters. There's something about the transformation, the loss of control, and the idea that the monster is hiding inside an otherwise ordinary person. Plus, when they're done right, werewolf effects are some of the coolest practical effects in horror.

So, while we wait for Eggers to unleash his latest nightmare, here are my ten favorite werewolf movies. Some are terrifying. Some are ridiculous. A few are both.

And yes, there's a movie on here about a werewolf playing basketball. Deal with it.

1. The Monster Squad (1987)

Let's get the most important thing out of the way.

Wolfman's got nards!

I'm gonna keep recommending this gem until you guys really start to appreciate all of it's glory. It's basically The Goonies with Universal Monsters. 

If you grew up loving the Universal Monsters, The Monster Squad is basically a love letter to everything that made those creatures awesome. Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, the Mummy, the Gill-man, and, of course, the Wolfman all show up to cause trouble for a group of monster-obsessed kids.

Fred Dekker somehow made a movie that feels like The Goonies crashed into a classic Universal horror marathon, and it's every bit as awesome as that sounds.

The Wolfman is particularly fantastic. He's vicious, terrifying, and apparently capable of surviving just about anything you throw at him. Including dynamite.

The creature designs are incredible, the kids are great, and the whole thing is packed with the kind of practical monster effects I wish we saw more often.

Fun fact: The creature effects were created by Stan Winston's studio, and the Wolfman was played by Carl Thibault. That transformation is still one of my favorite moments in the movie.

2. Ginger Snaps (2000)

Being a teenager is already pretty miserable. Throw in a werewolf curse and things get considerably worse.

Sisters Ginger and Brigitte Fitzgerald are obsessed with death, don't particularly fit in at school, and generally seem pretty unhappy with the world around them. Then Ginger gets attacked by a strange creature, and suddenly puberty comes with some considerably more unpleasant side effects.

Ginger Snaps is one of those movies that takes a familiar monster and actually does something interesting with it.

The relationship between the sisters is the heart of the film, and watching Ginger slowly change into something dangerous makes the whole thing feel more tragic than your average monster movie.

It's nasty, funny, surprisingly emotional, and has some great practical effects.

Fun fact: The movie spawned two follow-ups in 2004, including Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, which takes the werewolf story all the way back to the 19th century.

3. The Wolf Man (1941)

You can't make a list of werewolf movies without paying your respects to the original Universal classic.

Lon Chaney Jr. plays Larry Talbot, a man who returns to his family estate in Wales and finds himself cursed after an encounter with a mysterious wolf. Before long, he's wandering around in the fog, covered in hair, and having a pretty terrible time adjusting to his new nighttime activities.

There's something magical about these old Universal monster movies.

The foggy forests, gothic atmosphere, dramatic performances, and incredible makeup work give them a personality that's hard to replicate today.

And Lon Chaney Jr.'s Wolf Man is one of the definitive movie monsters. He's frightening, but there's also something genuinely sad about the character. Larry doesn't want to be a monster. Unfortunately, the moon doesn't really give a shit what Larry wants.

Fun fact: Makeup legend Jack Pierce created the Wolf Man's iconic appearance, building the creature's look using yak hair and painstaking makeup techniques.

4. Dog Soldiers (2002)

A group of British soldiers heads into the Scottish Highlands for a training exercise and ends up dealing with a considerably bigger problem than whatever the military had planned.

Werewolves.

Big, pissed-off werewolves.

Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers is one of the most entertaining creature features of the 2000s. It takes a simple setup, throws a bunch of soldiers into an isolated farmhouse, and proceeds to beat the absolute shit out of them for the rest of the movie.

The werewolf designs are fantastic. Tall, lean, horrifying creatures that look like they could rip your head off without particularly trying.

The dialogue is great, the action is relentless, and the practical effects give everything a wonderfully nasty quality.

If you've never seen this one, do yourself a favor and fix that.

Fun fact: Dog Soldiers was Neil Marshall's feature directorial debut. He followed it up with The Descent, another movie about people having a very, very bad time somewhere they shouldn't be.

5. An American Werewolf in London (1981)

Two American backpackers are wandering through the English countryside when they're attacked by a mysterious creature. One dies. The other survives.

Unfortunately, surviving a werewolf attack isn't exactly winning the lottery.

John Landis somehow made a movie that's genuinely terrifying, incredibly funny, and surprisingly tragic all at the same time.

David Naughton's performance is fantastic, the dream sequences are completely insane, and the movie has one of the greatest werewolf transformations ever put on film.

Seriously, Rick Baker's effects work is fucking incredible.

Watching David transform in a brightly lit living room, with every bone stretching and snapping into something monstrous, is still uncomfortable to watch more than forty years later.

That's how you do practical effects.

Fun fact: Rick Baker won the very first Academy Award for Best Makeup for his work on this film. I'd say he earned it.

6. The Howling (1981)

Apparently, 1981 was a pretty damn good year for werewolves.

TV news anchor Karen White suffers a traumatic encounter with a serial killer and heads to a secluded retreat to recover. Unfortunately, the other guests have some unusual nighttime habits, and the surrounding woods are hiding something considerably worse than your average woodland creature.

Joe Dante's The Howling is a fantastic combination of paranoia, dark humor, and incredible creature effects.

Rob Bottin's transformation work is absolutely disgusting in the best possible way. The werewolves look like actual monsters, and the movie isn't afraid to show them.

I've been reading Gary Brandner's original novel recently, and it's been interesting digging into the story that started it all.

There's something wonderfully unsettling about the idea of an entire community hiding a monstrous secret, especially when the people around you seem perfectly normal.

Well, mostly normal.

Fun fact: The Howling was released the same year as An American Werewolf in London. Rob Bottin and Rick Baker both helped establish a completely new standard for werewolf effects in the same year. Not a bad competition to have.

7. Silver Bullet (1985)

Small towns in Stephen King stories really need to start asking more questions about their residents.

In Silver Bullet, a series of gruesome murders terrorizes a quiet community, and a young boy named Marty begins to suspect that the killer might not be entirely human.

Naturally, nobody wants to believe the kid.

Corey Haim plays Marty, Gary Busey shows up as his wonderfully irresponsible Uncle Red, and Everett McGill gives us one of the creepier werewolf characters of the decade.

This one has everything I love about '80s horror. A small-town setting, kids trying to solve a terrifying mystery, a monster hiding in plain sight, and just enough ridiculousness to make the whole thing fun.

Plus, Gary Busey being Gary Busey.

What else do you need?

Fun fact: Silver Bullet is based on Stephen King's illustrated novella Cycle of the Werewolf. King also wrote the screenplay himself.

8. Bad Moon (1996)

Here's a horror movie where the dog might actually be the smartest character.

A man returns from an expedition overseas after a violent encounter leaves him cursed with lycanthropy. He moves into a trailer near his sister and nephew, hoping to keep his little problem under control.

Unfortunately, the family's German Shepherd, Thor, knows exactly what's going on.

And Thor isn't having any of that shit.

Bad Moon is a wonderfully straightforward werewolf movie with a fantastic creature design and an unusually compelling hero.

The fact that so much of the movie revolves around a dog trying to protect his family makes it surprisingly suspenseful.

Also, that werewolf looks awesome.

There are some questionable digital effects, especially during one transformation, but the physical creature itself is fantastic.

Fun fact: The movie is based on Wayne Smith's novel Thor, which tells much of the story from the dog's perspective. Honestly, that's a pretty great idea for a werewolf story.

9. Teen Wolf (1985)

Look, not every werewolf movie needs to involve people getting torn apart in the woods.

Sometimes a kid just discovers he's a werewolf and uses his newfound abilities to become really good at basketball.

Michael J. Fox plays Scott Howard, an ordinary teenager who discovers that his family has been keeping a particularly hairy secret.

Instead of turning into a murderous creature every full moon, Scott becomes the most popular kid in school.

Because apparently being a werewolf is a pretty effective way to improve your jump shot.

Teen Wolf is pure '80s nonsense, and I love it.

It's goofy, charming, packed with memorable characters, and has absolutely no business being as entertaining as it is.

We also had the chance to meet one of the guys from Teen Wolf at Comic Con, which made me appreciate this ridiculous movie even more. It's always fun getting to meet people connected to the movies you grew up watching.

Fun fact: Michael J. Fox had quite the year in 1985. Both Teen Wolf and Back to the Future hit theaters that summer. Not a bad year to be Michael J. Fox.

10. Van Helsing (2004)

Sometimes you want a thoughtful, atmospheric werewolf movie about the horrors of losing your humanity.

Other times you want Hugh Jackman fighting Dracula while Frankenstein's monster runs around and everything explodes.

Van Helsing is definitely the second kind.

Stephen Sommers threw just about every classic Universal monster into one ridiculous gothic action adventure, and I have a soft spot for it.

The whole movie feels like somebody handed a kid an unlimited budget and told him to make the coolest monster movie he could imagine.

Giant castles, vampire brides, Frankenstein's monster, werewolves, crazy weapons, and Hugh Jackman running around in an enormous hat.

What's not to love?

And while the movie leans heavily on CGI, I still think its werewolf designs are some of the coolest in modern monster movies. They're huge, aggressive, and look like they could absolutely ruin your day.

Fun fact: Director Stephen Sommers also directed The Mummy (1999), another movie that took classic Universal horror material and turned it into a big, ridiculous, incredibly entertaining adventure.

See You Under the Full Moon

There you have it. Ten werewolf movies full of shredded clothing, questionable decisions, incredible monster effects, and a whole lot of people who should probably stay indoors during a full moon.

What I love about werewolves is how many different directions filmmakers can take them. They can be tragic, terrifying, funny, disgusting, or apparently excellent at basketball.

And with Robert Eggers bringing Werwulf to theaters this Christmas, I'm hoping we're about to get another great addition to the pack.

If Nosferatu is any indication, we're in for something pretty damn special.

Until then, grab some snacks, turn down the lights, and throw on a werewolf movie.

Just remember to check the moon before you head outside.

And protect your nards.

Happy Halloween, you weirdos.