As we reported on previously, Season 2 of the Netflix Original Series Hemlock Grove features one of the most intense werewolf transformations scenes ever put on screen. The scene was made possible by the people at MASTERSFX, led by Todd Masters.
Masters and his team are some of the best in the industry, and, judging by Hemlock Grove, they know what goes into a good werewolf transformation. As such, we thought it would be fun to reach out to Masters and ask him what some of his favorite werewolf transformation scenes from movies and television are.
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What follows is Masters’ favorite werewolf transformations.
1. An American Werewolf in London
Perhaps the most well-known werewolf movie of all, John Landis’ 1981 classic An American Werewolf in London tops Masters’ list. The films’ effects team, led by Rick Baker, worked practical effects magic, using no CGI at all. The scene drives home the weirdness of the situation by focusing on David Naughton’s strangely elongated hands and feet, and really shows the characters vulnerability when he rolls over on his back like a dog showing submission.
2. The Howling
This transformation scene from 1981’s The Howling really displays the “otherness” of a werewolf transformation. The scene was created by an effects team led by Rob Bottin. The audience is forced to watch the long process of the werewolf’s transformation through the eyes of another character who is watching. There are a lot of scenes that linger on the creature’s mid-transformation face and form, which really drives home the creepiness.
3. Hemlock Grove
You can’t blame a guy for being proud of his own work. Masters’ and his team really went all out on this scene, going as far as to create a human head just so that a wolf head could burst out of is. You really get a sense of the savageness in Hemlock Grove’s transformation.
4. Fright Night
The transformation scene in 1985’s Fright Night, created by an effects team led by Steve Johnson, Ken Diaz and Randy Cook, is unique among the others for a couple of reasons. First, we see a wounded werewolf changing back into human form. Second, rather than being strictly savage or frightening, it’s actually quite sad, as this creature – at least partly human – transforms in his death throes.
5. Company of Wolves
While these other sequences mostly show humans unwittingly forced into werewolf form, 1984’s Company of Wolves stands out because how the human seems savagely complicit in the transformation. Christopher Tucker’s team has werewolf ripping off his human flesh to reveal a grotesque, skinless man who slowly completes his wolf transformation just in time to have his head cut off.
Hemlock Grove Season 2 is now available for streaming on Netflix.
