Why so Many Werewolf Movies Take Place in Europe

Astute horror movie fans might have taken note over the years of the number of werewolf movies that take place outside of the United States like "An American Werewolf in London" and "Werewolf of London." Others have scenes in which the main character is bitten by a werewolf in some far off land. There is a reason for this that dates back to the days of the first werewolf movies.

Legends from Europe

In the early days of werewolf movies, many Americans laughed at the older generations and their superstitions. While most cultures have old legends of shapeshifters, many people in the 1920s and 1930s thought about their older generations that immigrated here from Europe and their "funny" beliefs. Since the werewolf legends were mostly attributed to European nations, it would make sense that the movies would be based there, or would originate in the Old Country.

Xenophobia

One of the major themes of the Universal Studios Monsters movies was xenophobia. Note that "Dracula," "Frankenstein," "The Mummy," and most of the werewolves were from other countries. At the time, the United States was still in a state of isolationism. Americans no longer wanted to military to police the rest of the world. We had taken losses in World War I, and did not want that to continue. Many of the movies at the time took on a tone that anything from outside of the United States was dangerous to feed the xenophobia of the time.

Don't Bring Back the Bad

Werewolves and lycanthropy are metaphors for the diseases that many feared could be brought back to the States by travelers to other countries. Outbreaks of tuberculosis, flues and other maladies were sometimes blamed on travelers from other countries. This fed into the xenophobia of the time, and made the fears of the outside world even stronger. It would only make sense that a "disease" like lycanthropy would fit in with the mood of the time.

The Rules

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, we found that most of the horror movies followed the same "rules" as the early Universal Studios movies. It was not until the 1980s when we saw many horror movies that tried to break the mold that the genre is stuck in. People began realizing in the early days of the Reagan Administration that horror movies were full of clich©s and finally took steps to turn away from them. Note, that we still see these old rules pop up from time to time.