Werewolf of London - Legacy

Legacy

The film inspired at least four pop culture entries: Warren Zevon's 1978 hit song Werewolves of London; the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London, the 1997 sequel An American Werewolf in Paris and the 1987 video game Werewolves of London.

The story has been novelized twice. The first time was in 1977, a paperback novel written under the pseudonym "Carl Dreadstone" (now confirmed as Walter Harris) as part of a short-lived series of books based on the classic Universal horror films. The novel is told from the point of view of Wilfred Glendon (whose first name is now inexplicably spelled "Wilfrid") and thus follows an almost entirely different story structure than the film. In particular it has a different ending. Rather than turning into a werewolf, killing Yogami, and then being shot by Sir Thomas, Glendon decides to cooperate with Yogami and they both attempt to control their transformations through hypnotism. However the plan fails, the hypnotist is killed, and Glendon and Yogami both transform and fight to the death. Glendon wins, killing Yogami, and returns to human form afterwards. The novel then ends with Glendon, alive, contemplating using the hypnotist's gun to commit suicide rather than go on living as a werewolf.

The second time was in 1985, as part of Crestwood House's hardcover Movie Monsters series, again based on the old Universal films. This time, the author was Carl Green, and was considerably shorter, followed the plot of the film more closely, and was illustrated extensively with still photos from the movie.