Teen Wolf

Dir: Rod Daniel

1985

****

Werewolf films became popular again in the early 80s with Wolfen, The Howling, Silver Bullet, Full Moon High, The Company of Wolves and An American Werewolf in London all doing well at the box office. 1950s music, film and art – style in general – was also popular again and many films revisited common 50s themes, particularly from low-budget b-movies. Jeph Loeb was clearly influenced by 1957’s I Was a Teenage Werewolf and at the time the studio was looking to make a comedy film that would do well with minimal money spent on it after the success of Nicholas Cage’s Valley Girl and everything seemed to come together. Costs were low – really low – and in the end Teen Wolf cost the studio $1 million and the entire production from start to finish took just twenty-one days. The premise was very much of its day and was always going to be popular but the studio struck gold when they managed to persuade Michael J. Fox to play their lead. Fox accepted the lead role because his Family Ties co-star Meredith Baxter-Birney became pregnant, which created a delay in the show's filming that allowed him time to make the film before returning to the show. Director Rod Damiel got the job as he was the only person interviewed that suggested the film was about a father and son relationship rather than just a werewolf movie. Fox plays Scott Howard in the film, a seventeen-year-old high school student who is sick of being average. It’s fairly formulaic. Scott plays for his failing school basketball team ‘The Beavers’ and chases after a girl in school who is dating his arch rival who plays for ‘The Dragons’, an opposing basketball team who tends to bully him on the court. Scott’s best friend Boof is far more attractive than his crush Pamela but as with all teen dramas, he can’t see it and doesn’t realise she is, and always has been, in love with him. Scott begins to feel a little strange and begins to grow a lot of hair. This was shrugged off as a puberty thing even though Fox was really 23 years old at the time (Mark Holton (Chubby) was 26 while both Jerry Levine (Stiles) and Mark Arnold (Mick) were 27). Later that day they all go to a party and Scott and Boof end up being locked in a closet by the others to try and make them make out. Something happens to Scott and he gets rough when they begin making out, accidentally clawing Boof's back. When he returns home, he undergoes the transformation we’d all been waiting for. It’s not quite to American Werewolf in London standards but it’s not terrible. His father Harold confronts him with a dog whistle and reveals he too is a werewolf, and that he'd hoped Scott wouldn't inherit the curse because "sometimes it skips a generation". Scott confides in his friend Stiles who promises to keep his secret but after a particularly heated basketball match Scott changes and goes on to win the game as a werewolf. No one questions the werewolf thing in typical 80s movie style and soon wolf fever takes over the school. Stiles merchandises "Teen Wolf" paraphernalia and Pamela finally begins paying attention to Scott. After he gets a role as a 'werewolf cavalryman' in the school play alongside her, she comes onto him in the dressing room and the two have sex. Later, after a date set up to intentionally make Mick jealous, Pamela tells Scott that she's still seeing him and is not interested in Scott as a boyfriend, much to his disappointment. With the upcoming spring dance, Boof agrees to go with Scott, but only if he goes as himself, not the Wolf. Scott goes by himself as the Wolf and has a great time. Boof, however, isn't impressed. She takes Scott out into the hallway and they kiss, which turns Scott back into himself. When they return to the dance, everyone pays attention to him, including Pamela. Mick gets upset and taunts Scott until the Wolf comes out and attacks him. His fans then turn on him and chase him out of the dance. Basically it’s a story about being yourself and letting the real you shine. Thing is, the wolf is the real Scott and the way he treats Boof in the film is horrendous. He doesn’t deserve to win the day in the end, we only really like him because he’s Michael J. Fox. That is the real key to Teen Wolf’s success. I do have fond memories of it and I will defend it to the end but it is a cheap film with many glaring holes in it. It is Michael J. Fox’s sweaty mild panic when he changes into the wolf that really sold the movie as it was so close to the sweaty mild panic we saw when Marty McFly realised he had just traveled through time. Teen Wolf was finished before Back to the Future had started filming but they waited until Back to the Future was out and successful before realising it. It was a canny move. I remember the film being popular with my class mates and Teen Wolf is up there as one of the more famous 80s movies but the critics hated it. Michael J. Fox hated it. However it still managed to gain a cult following and even though its not great on retrospect, I still love it and I still want to realise my dream of dancing on top of a moving van. The less said about the sequel the better though.