This is Jacob Black from the Twilight series of films, based on the book series of the same name, standing to the left (our right) of protagonist and Jacob’s love interest Bella Swan. There’s not a lot to say here in terms of design. Jacob and the other werewolves of Twilight are capable of shifting near-instantaneously from human form into the form of a large wolf. There are no obvious human elements in the design and for the most part they seem to simply be large CGI wolves. I’ve not seen or read any Twilight products save the first few chapters of the first book, but it’s hard not to get hung up on the fact that I know Jacob is kind of a physically-abusive piece of shit to Bella throughout the story. Looking purely at the design, though, there’s nothing to write home about but I’m not necessarily against the just-a-big-wolf style of werewolf design. Giant wolves are cool, giant intelligent shapeshifting wolves moreso. And Jacob’s fur pattern is absolutely gorgeous, which does feel appropriate considering his human form is played by the equally gorgeous Taylor Lautner who is easily the hottest person on that cast.

7/10, an asshole werewolf but a pretty asshole werewolf

This is Midnight Lycanroc, a Rock-type Pokemon introduced in the seventh generation of the franchise (suggested by @umbramatic). Lycanroc has three forms: Midday, Midnight, and Dusk, which depend on what game you’re playing. Midday and Dusk seem to largely just be based on wolves, but the Midnight form is undeniably based on werewolves, with its hunched form, sinister grin, and glowing eyes (though it doesn’t actually transform). Never ones to just adapt an existing mythological beast and call it a day, the Pokemon team manages a pretty unique and creative take on a werewolf while staying true to form. I love its big mohawk-like mane of fur that casts a shadow over the rest of its body, its eyes are beautifully designed, its form is wonderfully lanky, and the use of werewolves as a Rock-type Pokemon of all things would never have occurred to me. I also love all the smaller details of its design, like its creepy curled front claws and the stones jutting out of its lower back.

10/10 finally got a goddamn werewolf Pokemon thank god

This is David Kessler from the 1981 horror/comedy film An American Werewolf in London (suggested by @maxwellelvis). Another rather classically-designed wolf-human-hybrid in a similar vein to Silver Bullet, I can appreciate the almost Halloween-decoration-esque quality to David’s design, his large and poofy silhouette, long shaggy hair, and bulging yellow eyes. While I haven’t seen this film myself in its entirety, having watched the scene of David’s first transformation on YouTube, I can say it is easily one of the more disturbing werewolf transformation sequences I’ve ever seen, in spite of (and, in fact, because of) the cheery music playing through David’s whole screamingly-painful ordeal.

8/10 puts up with too much shit

This is Winnie Werewolf from the Hotel Transylvania series of movies (suggested by @fairytalesandimaginings). Classic horror monsters are all represented by various families who stay at the eponymous Hotel Transylvania movie, including Winnie, her parents, and her great many siblings. I haven’t seen these movies but Winnie seems absolutely adorable. Her voice and even the way she walks in the clips I’ve seen is just darling. She’s got a real punk aesthetic going, with the skull-and-cross-bones shirt, the studded collar (which, though hard to see in this image, seems to have an anarchist circle-A on it!), the earrings, and the sort of mohawk situation going on with her hair. She’s a bit overly cute in the way so many trying-to-design-a-cute-character type animated characters are, but I feel like she’s got some personality and uniqueness that those characters lack. (I like her big forehead, too!)

8/10 cute pupper

And I posted this to the wrong goddamn blog!

This is the Hinterland Logger/Timber Shredder from the card game Magic: The Gathering, specifically the Shadows over Innistrad expansion (suggested by @acceptableduraz, who also suggested a few other Magic wolfbois that I will get to in individual dedicated posts). Usually I focus purely on the big wolfed-out form of the werewolves, but I feel like it’s relevant to show off the human form here, too, since it ties into a really cool aspect of Magic’s werewolves – these are actually two sides of the same card, which is flipped when the werewolf transforms!

This particular werewolf also happens to be a hot, buff lumberjane, and I know that again this is supposed to be about the werewolf form but I can’t help but let that factor into my rating. Although in fairness, she is a hot, buff lumberjane in BOTH of her forms, so technically I’m still in the clear! Otherwise her wolf form is a fairly standard wolf-headed human, but I love that this is a werewolf who uses her abilities for completely practical and nonviolent purposes, and the tied-together flavortext quotes at the bottom of each card are legitimately both funny and badass.

9/10 want to hang out with her and watch her rip trees down

This is Reverend Lowe from the 1985 horror movie Silver Bullet, based on Stephen King’s novella Cycle of the Werewolf (suggested by @rainbowfishbones). This is my first suggested wolf review and I should make it clear I haven’t always engaged directly with the things suggested, and that’s the case here -- I haven’t seen Silver Bullet myself and am going purely off of Wikipedia plot synopsis, images, and YouTube clips. That doesn’t mean I can’t assess the design, though!

In any case, the Reverend has a full-body costume that seems somewhat silly by modern standards but seems fairly impressive for the time. He’s got a surprisingly animated face -- possibly animatronic, though it’s hard for me to tell such things -- with a uniquely-shaped snout. I always appreciate early depictions of wolf-headed-humanoid style werewolves, before depicting them with CGI was fairly easy. I’m never one to harp on against CGI and I think people do so too much, but I can’t imagine making a practical mask that looked and moved even as good as it does here on the Reverend could’ve been a trivial task in 1985! His bulging eyes and oddly-shaped snout seem somewhat silly in some shots and stills, but that’s not necessarily a negative -- in fact, I think his face is quite eerie in some shots!

8/10, a solid if somewhat simplistic murderbeast

That smug bastard is the Beast of Gévaudan, a man-eating animal who terrorized the French province of Gévaudan between 1764 and 1767. Likely to actually have been a wolf, dog, or wolfdog (or quite possibly multiple animals rather than just one), the tales of the creature’s viciousness and seeming resilience to conventional weaponry have lead to its association with werewolf folklore, notably including the fact that a farmer who lived in Gévaudan at the time, Jean Chastel, alleged that he killed the Beast with a silver bullet.

There have been multiple artistic renderings of the creature, but I’m quite fond of this one in particular. Look at that shit-eating grin! He is so proud of ripping all those peoples’ throats out! This picture just has that silly but almost surreal and eerie quality that old bestiary-style artistic renderings of animals have. Maybe this is supposed to just look like a wolf, but the art does have this rounded head-shape that reminds me of a more human look, whether or not that was intended by the artist.

9/10, how can you not love that face?

Though it’s difficult to find a picture that really captures her full beauty, this is one of the better pictures I could find of Ginger Fitzgerald, the eponymous character of the 2000 horror movie Ginger Snaps (as well as its sequel Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed and prequel/alternate-universe retelling Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning). Ginger is a teenaged girl who gets bitten by a werewolf early in the movie, causing her and her sister significant stress as the lycanthropy turns slowly alters her personality to make her more reckless, cruel, and brutally violent. Ginger’s slow transformation in the days leading up to the full moon is rather fascinating and grotesque, with her hair becoming paler, her face twisting and morphing into a permanent, monstrous scowl, and the fact that she’s slowly growing a small, hairless tail on her lower back.

As for her fully-transformed design, however, this picture really doesn’t do her justice. Her face is obviously great -- completely unlike a real wolf’s, but suitably grotesque and uncanny for the horror genre. I know I’ve said this word a lot already, but everything about Ginger is just beautifully grotesque. She’s mostly hairless and mostly just has hair on top of her head, she’s constantly moist with sweat (or slime?), and her body is a wonderfully uncanny amalgamation of humanoid and canine. You can actually see her still-humanlike nipples in some shots, and I think it’s a mark of a good horror movie design when they put boobs on the monster but it is NOT AT ALL sexual. It’s not even, like, the “putting sexy stuff on a monster to make it sort of uncanny and creepy” style of design, it’s just a human body feature on a very inhuman monster, and it works really well.

11/10, my awful slime daughter.

This is Gabriel Van Helsing from the 2004 horror-action film Van Helsing, confronting Count Dracula on the right of the frame. Van Helsing’s werewolves (which also include another werewolf named Velken and an unnamed werewolf we never see in human form) are all big, ripplingly-buff, shaggy beastmen with almost comically-pointed features, particularly in the almost rabbit-like ears and the long, protruding fangs. I’m not against that, though! The big-buff-beastman style of werewolf design has a special place in my queer furry heart. Just look at that handsome angry lad about to kill him a vampire! The ears are a bit silly but I kind of like the sabertooth-esque fangs, and though it’s hard to see in this gif, Van Helsing also has some long, brutal claws that he can extend with a Wolverine-like *snikt* (which is appropriate, considering Van Helsing’s human form is played by Hugh Jackman).

9/10, a solid ruff boi.

This is Remus Lupin as he appears in the movie version of Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban. While the books describe Lupin’s full-moon form as being rather like a big, monstrous wolf, I adore the more grotesque, hybridized design they gave him in the movie. His lanky, malnourished form, sparse hair, and expressive face make him feel more like a sick, scared animal than an evil monster, which ties in well to the use of Lupin’s lycanthropy as a metaphor for stigmatized illness. Plus, it makes for a more uncanny, eerie design that also serves to make Lupin more visually distinct from Sirius Black, who transforms into a large black dog while fighting with Lupin.

10/10 does a great job of being a creepy man-dog. (He’s also this blog’s avatar!)