The fall and rise of the female werewolf in cinema. Once bitten, twice shy

The fall and rise of the female werewolf in cinema

. Once bitten, twice shy

Most werewolves in the magical world of the movies are male - and there's a good reason for that. Then again, what are you more scared of? A big hairy monsterman? Or a tiny hairy woman with a baaaad temper?

There's no escaping it - most werewolves are male. Yes, you do find some female werewolves in literature (writer Angela Carter was partial to them) but with two exceptions you never find them on the silver screen.

In a film, a woman is as likely to get bitten as a man. Why not? She's just as likely to walk around in dark dangerous places at night - especially in the world of the film plot.

Yet the female werewolf is all but invisible in the movies. Unless she's curled up and growling in a dark wolf den, biding her time...

Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?

We love horror movies because they take our worst fears and reflect them back at us in a dark mirror. Walking empty streets is no fun at night, but there's nothing like the thrill of a good horror movie, whether you're a suspense, gore or "don't go into the cellar!" fan.

Monsters tend to work because we're all afraid of the big bad alpha male. He's giant. He's packed with muscles. He's better at fighting than us and positively relishes in it. He's unbound by any moral laws and does what he wants. We can't rely on him having a single good bone in his body... and we can't predict what he'll do next.

That sounds like most movie monsters out there, give or take a few fangs or claws.

Like the oh-so-scary alpha male gone bad, werewolves are, on the whole, violent, larger than life, male, extremely hairy and fully in tune with their base instincts - society can go hang itself. Doesn't that sound like the most extreme alpha male of all?

Society is a lot less scared of the alpha female. A big hairy muscled female werewolf just sounds... wrong. To make the female werewolf a scary prospect, screenwriters need to rethink what the werewolf actually is, and why it would add to the plot - and the werewolf genre in general - to make that Big Bad a woman.

Two films show that it is possible to make a ladywolf believable, terrifying and interesting.

Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, 2000) is one brave example of a film featuring a teenage girl werewolf. As a moody

teenager, Brigitte is everything a nice young lady shouldn't be. As a werewolf, she's a moody teenager suffering her time of the month - and lethal.

The film nicely interplays the main themes of the werewolf genre (bodies changing. And blood. Lots of it) with the anxieties of a teenager becoming a woman with the onset of her first time of the month (bodies changing. And blood. Lots of it).

When Brigitte visits the nurse with her descriptions of her were-change, having no idea of its origin, the nurse mistakes the symptoms:

* Nurse: I'm sure it seems like a lot of blood. it's a period.

* BRIGITTE: What about hair that wasn't there before, and pain?

* Nurse: Comes with the territory... you'll have to protect against both pregnancy and STDs now. Play safe!

There is one other film - a British horror film made in the last ten years - which features a female werewolf to clever effect. Unfortunately, telling you which film it is would spoil the plot twist. You'll have to settle down for a whole day with the curtains drawn and a big tub of popcorn to watch all the werewolf movies in the past decade and find out...

Why a woman makes the perfect werewolf

Both women and werewolves change with the phases of the moon.

When that change occurs, it's bloody and savage. Though even the most unlucky victim of a woman in the throes of menses will agree there's no actual throat-ripping in today's polite society.

Female werewolves actually make sense from nature's point of view - it's the lioness that goes and hunts for food, while the lion sits around waiting for the lion-sized portion and mating things.

And why she doesn't...

Well, we've covered the ground about the alpha male being traditionally more scary and ripe for monsterhood.

The film director would also have a headache figuring out how to deal with the costume of a female werewolf because of the nudity angle. Female dogs do, unfortunately, have teats.

If I was being flippant, which I would never be, I might point out that many women can't stand to have hairy legs, let alone hairy bodies.

Still horror works best when you play with the genres and keep the audience guessing. The Wolfman' didn't perform as strongly as expected at the box office. Maybe the horror genre is ripe for a re-imagining of the female werewolf...

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