I Was a Teenage Werewolf

Dir: Gene Fowler Jr.

1957

*****

Released in 1957 as a double feature along with Invasion of the Saucer Men, I Was a Teenage Werewolf was described with the tagline, “We dare you to see the most amazing picture of our time!”. I Was a Teenage Werewolf really wasn’t the most amazing picture of that time or any subsequent time but it has aged remarkably well. Don’t get me wrong, it is extremely outdated in terms of effects, acting, script and direction, but in terms of cult following, it’s one of the biggest successes that cinema has ever seen. It was produced by b-movie legend Herman Cohen and was the directional debut of Gene Fowler Jr., who is better remembered for the films he edited, rather than the ones he directed. Gene Fowler Jr’s first gig was working for Fritz Lang, he went on to edit It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World – one of my favourite films of all time – for the great Stanley Kramer, but he never quite made it as a director, giving up two years and six films later. However, if you’re going to be remembered for one film, you could do a lot worse than I Was a Teenage Werewolf. Not only was it hugely influential in the werewolf genre, it also started a trend in high-school horrors. It was the first of four films made by AIP productions that featured teenage monsters, the second being I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, which was followed by Blood of Dracula and How to Make a Monster. It was the first time ever in the history of film where a teenager transformed into a murdering monster. Producer Samuel Z. Arkoff said later that he experienced a huge amount of resistance because of it, it was the first time the word ‘teenager’ had been used in a film and it was seen as particularly negative in its sensationalism. It because the first of a new-wave onslaught of exploitation film directed at teenagers – specifically ones with cars who would drive down to their local drive-in and tune in on their radios. These types of film were credited for the growth in popularity of the drive-ins and are still visible in pop culture today. The title refers to older films, such as I Was Monty’s Double and I Was A Male War Bride but it led a trend that went on for several decades later ( such as I Was a Teenage Thumb, I Was a Teenage Zombie, I Was a Teenage Mummy, I Was a Teenage Serial Killer, I Was a Teenage Intellectual) that was used in other media, such as books (I Was a Teenage Dominatrix, I Was a Teenage Dwarf) comics, television (I Was a Teenage Dinosaur) and music (I Was a Teenage Anarchist, I Was a Teenage Delinquent!). The film is also quite famous for a couple of scenes in Stephen King’s IT, his terrifying miniseries of the early 90s that featured a shape-shifting villain called Pennywise. While Tim Curry’s Pennywise spends most of the film as a clown (playing on what the children are most frightened of), he also takes the guise of the Werewolf from Teenage Werewolf after the children are seen watching the movie. However, my favourite influence was on a 1987 episode of Highway to Heaven. Michael Landon played an angel in the show and had to perform various good deeds in order to get back into heaven, after being kicked out on probation. In this particular episode, his partner watches the film and remarks that he looks a little like the character when he isn’t a werewolf, and later on in the episode, his character turns himself into a werewolf to scare off some teenage bullies. The episode is directed by Landon and is titled ‘I Was a Middle-Aged Werewolf’. Landon of course played the teenage werewolf and his performance is what got him noticed, hurtling him towards a string of hits, and eventually television greatness - Little House on the Prairie and the aforementioned Highway to Heaven. I remember crying my eyes out when Landon died in 1991, he was a huge part of my childhood entertainment and he was brilliant in what was essentially, a cheaply made, sensationalist, exploitation horror/sci-fi. Of course it wasn’t him as the werewolf that really impressed people, it was his portrayal of a troubled teenager with a short and furious temper that really got the audience’s attention. Landon’s anger, the transformation scene, the party and Playboy centrefold Dawn Richard doing a bit of gymnastics are just some of the scenes that make the film so memorable but what really makes I Was a Teenage Werewolf stand out form the rest is that it is one of very few films of the era with such a sensationalist title that actually lives up to its name.