Fifty Horror Clichés That Need to Die in a Fire

#19: Sugarcoating Werewolves

  If you really think about it, werewolves have to be the most unfortunate horror creatures out there.  Although they do not transform until the day of the full moon each month, the transformation process from man into wolf when it does occur is true bodily horror.  Your bones literally break and reshape themselves over and over again, with no escape from the pain.  If you thought getting a hairline fracture was bad, imagine how much worse the pain must be for a werewolf when they experience an unending wave of a pain ten times more defined.  Fangs rip out of your mouth, long claws flay away at the skin near the nails, and fur grows out like a thousand pointy needles.  Then you start to lose a complete sense of your very self and all the morality you held dear for many years.  All that is left is a rabid animal ready to feed on innocent civilians, potentially even their loved ones, for a long eight hour full moon night.

  Then there is the psychological impact this change has on the individual, both during and after the transformation.  The infected person has to live with the constant guilt that their actions may have ended the lives of multiple people in bloodlust.  There is no one else but other werewolves who can relate to this level of guilt, pretty much dooming the individual to an eternity of endless heartache.  That is not even mentioning the PTSD the person in question is going to feel from the painful shock of the transformation, which they will have to experience without end in a cycle of twelve days each year, potentially thirteen if there are two full moons in one month.  The individual in question is going to need more than a psychologist to even slightly get over their trauma.

  To most of you, this description of a werewolf probably is outright horrifying.  You'd never wish this level of pain on your worst enemy, let alone yourself.  From what I just described, any person would easily go insane from the unending torment of the transformation on their body and mind.  Suddenly becoming a werewolf sounds like the worst thing ever.

  And yet time and time again, horror stories completely miss the mark when depicting the most important part of a werewolf story; what makes the whole idea of turning outright scary.  Instead, a five second transformation that is utterly painless is presented to the audience, skipping over an essential part of the story that needs to be told in order to add true elements of horror.  While this can be fine in a more fantasy-related setting or if the story's tone is more lighthearted, it is a problem when trying to achieve the perfect elements for a true horror story.  A true horror story needs the full process of the werewolf transformation and realistic psychological effects these transformations will put on the individual.  Skipping over those parts of the tale will just rob the audience of a truly terrifying experience.

  There is a very strong reason as to why the werewolf is an iconic part of the horror genre.  They dish out a strong balance of bodily horror and psychological scares to the story.  That is a huge reason why Europeans feared the idea of werewolves hundreds of years back, especially with the idea of becoming one themselves.  It was a fate worse than death for many of these people, and the idea of possibly consuming other people made them fear the idea of being permanently outcast from salvation.  This is not even mentioning the multiple innocent people who went through the cruelties of a werewolf trail, which were as widely popular as those for suspected witches.  To medieval people, being a werewolf meant torment.  It was through these experiences that The Wolfman became an iconic horror monster in the same vain as Dracula or Frankenstein's monster.

  When writing about any horror creature it is important to know the basic elements that make them scary to the average viewer.  If you miss even one vital element to the whole thing, such as glossing over the werewolf transformation, the whole thing that makes the creature scary fails to intimidate audiences.  Not one thing can be sugarcoated if you wish to truly get a strong response from the audience you are trying to fill with fear.