Hemlock Grove (Werewolf Transformation)

(Thanks to our good friend Werefan for the tip!)

Hemlock Grove is a much-hyped horror/thriller TV series produced by Netflix. It'll debut in mid-April, but the a preview clip of one of the main characters turning into a werewolf has already been released. The character is played by Landon Liboiron, who previously played a werewolf in the horribly awful The Howling: Reborn. Did he get a better transformation this time? Watch and see. My comments are below.





The transformation scene in Hemlock Grove was hyped as "something you'd never seen before." Turns out it's just another skin-ripping transformation, but with added gore. Beware of any filmmaker who claims he's reinvented the wheel.

Now, skin-ripping transformations were an interesting novelty way back when The Company of Wolves was released. In that film, men tore off their skin, and the werewolf was formed from their muscle layer; the bedrock of their flesh (as seen here, courtesy of Dutchbull). This worked in the context of the film, because it was dreamlike and surreal. But in a non-surreal film like Van Helsing, skin-ripping transformations just look stupid. Wolves and humans are mammals, and having the wolf somehow develop inside the man, like a butterfly in a cocoon, is too insect-like. (It also makes changing back into a human awkward. The only film to successfully deal with that issue was Romasanta.)

The biggest problem with skin-ripping is that it doesn't give the full sense of a transformation. Instead of seeing a man change into a wolf, you see a wolf burst out of man. Visually, it's a cheat, since the human form isn't seem transforming--it's just shucked off. So, Hemlock Grove has done nothing particularly new or original. Though it's well done, I can't say I like it. Stuff like the eyeballs popping out (another pair were waiting right behind, like shark's teeth?) is gore for gore's sake. But that obviously interests a hack director like Eli Roth more than an actual transformation.

P.S. There are lots of negative comments on youtube as well. However, those who claim that what the character transforms into "isn't a werewolf" are wrong. For hundreds of years European mythology has considered a werewolf any man who turns into a wolf. The two-legged anthromorphic werewolf is a creation of Hollywood. However, I agree with those who dislike the final form because it's an anticlimax--all that gore and shifting, and he just transforms into an ordinary wolf?

"Three Wolves" (Werewolf Transformations)

(Thanks to Mike for the tip!)
Having discussed amateur werewolf animation in our last post, here's an amateur live action example. Three Wolves is a mockumentary interview with three werewolves, each awaiting moonrise. The video is cleverly shot to look like research footage, and the editing is very clever--the jump cuts suggest the look of rough amateur footage and also allow the make-up to change between cuts, creating the illusion of transformation. The make-up has a homemade look, but I find that more charming than slick CGI. Three Wolves originated as a university assignment--if only more dissertations were like this...

Homemade Werewolf Animation (Werewolf Transformations)

Amateur/homemade animation is an area we've slightly neglected on this blog, but we hope to make amends. There are several videos of this type on youtube, and though we won't be able to cover them all in this post, we'll make a start.


I'm slightly cheating with our first example, since it's from a professional animation studio, but I suppose it qualifies as "homemade". Plus, it gives you a useful behind-the-scenes look at its creation:




Ending on a similar amusing note is our second example, which is a genuine amateur effort:





Our third example qualifies as fan-art, since it shows a character from the show Code Lyko turning into a werewolf. This was obviously a hand-drawn labor-of-love, and we salute the artist's attention to detail:


For a look at the fan-art that inspired this video, take a look at this werewolf-themed deviantart folder.



The fourth example is my personal favorite. The artist was obviously inspired by the Oozaru transformation scenes from Dragonball--the nicely masculine metamorphosis is slowly depicted, body part by body part:

Mr. Young (Monster/Growth Transformation)

Mr. Young is a Canadian childrens' sitcom about a 14 year old who teaches high school. In the (Season 3, #4) episode "Mr. Hyde," Mr. Young drinks a potion that turns him into hulking monster. The special effects are bargain-basement, but they have a sort of goofy/stupid charm. Any effort is always appreciated around these parts...

Lobo (Werewolf/Wolfman Transformation)

Someone’s finally done the right thing—they hired a good-looking guy as a werewolf and actually showed him transforming into one!

I’m referring about the first episode of Lobo, an Argentinean telenovela that finished airing a year ago. It’s about a tall, dark, good-looking guy who turn into a real beast-man, thanks to a curse that kicks in when he turns 30. He's played by the already wolfishly handsome Gonzalo Heredia.

However, it should be said that what he transforms into is a wolfman-style werewolf. I know wolfman transformations are not everyone’s favorite, but when done well they can accentuate the idea of humanity gone feral. By keeping a more humanoid face, the wolfman shows humanity at the very brink of slipping away, but not yet fully bestial.  And because the wolfman's face is still humanoid, with features like overgrown sideburns and eyebrows and excess facial hair, it heavily suggests the metaphor of lycanthropy as puberty gone haywire into adulthood. Anyway, enough blabbing from me, here's the clip:




The wolfman in Lobo reminds me of the one in the Tales From the Crypt episode “Werewolf Concerto.” Both monsters partake of the wolfman form, though with their hyper-masculine faces and torn open-shirts they look like more like debauched rockstars than Lon Chaney Jr.  The wolfman in this episode is played by Timothy Dalton, and the transformation is short but features familiar, beloved standbys like claws tearing out of shoes (Lobo throws in two shots of this!) and the beast’s humped back ripping through his shirt. Personally, I'd rather see a younger actor doing the transforming--not that I have anything against Dalton's acting (he was the best James Bond since Sean Connery). He certainly acts with brio in this scene:




Getting back to Lobo… for those curious about behind-the-scenes details, the effects crew was instructed to design a werewolf that “should retain the physiognomic characteristics of the actor.” In the first stage a mold was taken to copy the features of the actor and his teeth. From the resulting sculpture came the werewolf suit, made of latex and imitation leather, with fur added “hair by hair.” Applying the costume and makeup to the actor took two and a half hours (for a video of the process, click here),  The transformation itself was CGI, created with software like Maya and Mudbox. The press materials brag that the effects are on par with those of American TV, and I would agree. Though there should have been some shots of  Heredia’s face shifting, the stretching fingers and ears and growing chest are smooth and lifelike and don't compare badly to the effects in the recent Wolfman remake.

Unfortunately, Lobo never surpassed its first episode, and the show was cancelled after a rather short run (by telenovela standards) of 53 episodes. Perhaps viewers were disappointed by the lack of werewolfishness—the remaining transformations are disappointing and grow progressively shorter, dribbling out after episode 21. They're also partial and repeat effects from the first transformation. I have links to three of the later TFs, but be warned that they're disappointing:

Partial Transformation 01
Partial Transformation 02
Partial Transformation 03

Lastly, here's a bonus scene. It has no TF content but gives a fuller view of the werewolf...and of Mr. Heredia's posterior, for those of you into beefcake...

Spirou et Fantasio (Werewolf Transformation)

Spirou et Fantasio is one of those massively popular European comics that never made it big in America. Spirou, as far as I can tell, is a dude in a bellhop outfit who has all sorts of crazy adventures. In book 52 of the series, La face cachée du Z, he ends up on the moon and is somehow turned into a wolfman (don't ask me, my French is rusty). This page is a badly edited-together panel compilation by yours truly.

Superman-Batman 66-67 (Bat Transformation)

Issues 66 to 67 of Superman-Batman contain a story arc featuring Bizarro, Solomon Grundy, Frankenstein, and Man-Bat. The latter is of course a classic Batman foe. Here he's seen struggling between his man and beast forms--we very much appreciate artist Scot Kolins' eye for detail.

Man-Bat had several memorable appearances in animation as well. He's in the classic first episode of Batman: The Animated Series, and his transformation can be seen here thanks to our friend Dutchbull. He also made several appearances in the later (and inferior) cartoon The Batman. Those TF scenes, also hosted by Dutchbull, are listed below:
01  02  03  04  05

Wolverine Annual '97 (Werewolf Transformation)

Wolverine Annual '97 pits everyone's favorite feisty Canuck against Ilya Dubromovich Skorzorski, code-named VOLK. An ex-KGB assasin, Volk was experimented on and got his DNA fused with that of a wolf. Violence makes him transform, and he gets into a scrap with his old enemy Wolvie.
As the comic progresses, Volk's werewolf form grows progressively more feral, until he permanently turns into an ordinary wolf (which was the battle-weary lycanthrope's goal all along). We commend the fine linework of artist Leonardo Manco for bringing the beast to life.
 Now, since Volk's transformation from human to werewolf to wolf takes place gradually over many pages, I had to cut and combine several panels into composite pages. So story-wise what you're going to see is messy and a bit incoherent because of my edits. However, you're also getting the undiluted TF content, so enjoy!

 



In case you're curious, Wolverine himself has become a werewolf on several occasions. His comic transformation occurred off panel, but he got a decent TF scene in the old X-Men cartoon from the late 90s. Though seen mostly from the back, there's some good clothes and shoe ripping, and his monster-form is an intimidating wolf-hulk.