Psychological Hygiene for a Teenage Werewolf

By

Anthony M. Caro

Opinions and reference supplies that discuss with Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) as a “campy” movie are head-scratching. Whereas the absurd Frankenstein follow-up had unintentional comedic components, Michael Landon’s portrayal of the adolescent lycanthrope Tony Rivers conveys a darkish and tragic story. There’s little to giggle about when watching the teenage werewolf’s plight unfold as a result of issues didn’t should prove the best way they did. Teenager Tony had his struggles and couldn’t overcome them as a result of he didn’t take heed to the adults who gave him good recommendation.

It’s as if Tony’s sophisticated life is one half basic horror and one half 16mm psychological hygiene movie.

Teenage Werewolf Lament ‘57

From a cinema historical past perspective, the discharge of I Was a Teenage Werewolf stands as a landmark second within the horror style. 1957 and 1958 have been very important years for horror, because the style stalled, stepping apart to accommodate the burgeoning science-fiction motion. Alien craft and over-sized radioactive bugs dominated film theaters as previous horror movie monsters stopped being scary within the shadow of the atomic bomb. New movies that featured basic horror monsters typically changed supernatural components with scientific ones.

The previous Common Monsters seemingly had little worth and have been dumped into syndicated tv for disposable viewing. How short-sighted. The TV airings drew huge audiences and helped the style return to prominence. The discharge of Hammer’s Horror of Dracula (1958) and AIP’s I Was A Teenage Werewolf additional resurrected the fading style. Hammer reinvigorated fright options with full-color gothic horrors, whereas the black-and-white-centric AIP tapped into the teenage audiences.

{The teenager}-appealing components resonated.

Earlier than I Was a Teenage Werewolf, no horror film featured adolescents in distinguished roles. Extra importantly, the movie targeted on critical teenager laments, putting an emotional wire with its younger, Insurgent And not using a Trigger-loving viewers.

Teenage Tony Rivers has issues. These troubles plagued him lengthy earlier than “regressing” right into a werewolf. Tony struggles with anger administration points and turns into susceptible to preventing with little provocation. He’s not a “unhealthy child,” however he suffers from horrible despair after his mom’s passing. Tony Rivers’ is a “latchkey child” who spends most of his time alone whereas his blue-collar father works double shifts to place meals on the desk.

When his anger will get the perfect of him at a celebration, he by accident strikes his girlfriend, making him notice that his anger points turned him right into a figurative monster. He seeks assist from an abusive hypnotherapist whose bizarre method turns the lad into an precise werewolf.

Scores of teenagers who shared Tony Rivers’ angst flocked to see the movie. They have been primed to see such a melodramatic characteristic unfold. In some ways, I Was a Teenage Werewolf mimics a Nineteen Fifties psychological hygiene movie youngsters noticed of their lecture rooms, however one with added components from the basic horror movies the teenagers remembered from childhood re-releases.

Roll Out the 16mm Projector

“Psychological hygiene” movies are recognized by their different colloquial nickname, “classroom scare movies.” The nicest identify for the one or two-reel movies was “social steerage movies.” The glory days of classroom scare movies ranged from the late Nineteen Forties to the late Seventies. When lecturers broke out the 16mm projector, a brief movie with an essential message about drug abuse, reckless driving, venereal illness, and different risks performed out through a projector’s bulb.

Coronet Movies was a high producer of those direct-to-the-classroom brief topics, beginning with the landmark Shy Man movie in 1947. Sid Davis was one other producer/director of such one-reelers. A number of of his shorts preserve a cult following to the current, together with The Harmful Stranger (1961, about youngster molesters) and Seduction of the Harmless (1961, concerning the gradual descent into drug dependancy.) Much less salacious movies produced through the years included Find out how to Be Effectively-Groomed(1949) and Let’s Be Good Residents at Faculty (1954).

Whereas some psychological hygiene movies typically obtain criticism and laughs for his or her over-the-top or reactionary method to their subject material, quite a few movies present easy recommendation to teenagers about topics they could not obtain at dwelling. Mother and father avoiding delicate matters stood again and allowed psychological hygiene movies to step in to do the job.

Outdoors of classroom scare movies, little or no media addressed the frequent issues and issues younger individuals might face about their struggles. Whereas Nineteen Fifties tv typically portrayed a very upbeat picture of American household life, Hollywood generally swayed into controversial materials with such tasks as The Blackboard Jungle (1955) and the landmark Marlon Brando movie The Wild One (1954).

Classroom psychological hygiene movies straddled the center, generally succeeding of their shows, generally delivering absurd outcomes.

Whereas I Was a Teenage Werewolf tapped into teen curiosity within the thrills related to catching a wild horror movie on the drive-in, the movie additionally tapped into anxieties and nerves younger individuals typically skilled and fogeys, lecturers, the police, and politicians ignored.

In some methods, I Was a Teenage Werewolf affords cautionary insights about teenage conduct, together with anger administration points and the shortcoming to slot in with friends. Not like a normal scare movie, I Was a Teenage Werewolf has a cynical method to trusting adults. It additionally featured a sensible protagonist who confronted on a regular basis issues that underscored the movie’s darkish fantasy components.

Beastly Rages

Tony Rivers stays adrift, unable to deal with his mom’s passing and the stress of dwelling in a single-parent family at a time when such preparations have been “lower than” a conventional nuclear household setup.

Dr. Alfred Brandon unethically experiments on Tony as a result of the younger man’s fragile psychological state makes him most vulnerable to devolving right into a violent, primitive state. Dr. Brandon suffers from “mad scientist illness.” He comes up with a crackpot plan to power humanity to behave higher by beginning the method of de-evolution again to savagery. (Good luck.)

Selecting the proper take a look at topic, a younger man with a violent mood and psychological issues, additionally contributes to the disastrous consequence. Tony Rivers is a violent and indignant man who begins a struggle when a classmate provides him a pleasant pat on the again or performs a prank. As a police officer warns, Tony will discover himself in issues with the regulation or worse if he doesn’t get his act collectively.

The werewolf’s curse doesn’t flip an harmless man right into a violent beast. The curse shifts the form of a violent child into one thing worse.

Hardly anybody would counsel the lycanthropes in Werewolf of London (1935), The Wolf Man (1942), and The Mad Monster (1942) have been congenial. The highschool-age wolf-monster of I Was a Teenage Werewolf is ferociously merciless. Earlier were-creatures, together with the same science-based beast-man of The Werewolf (1956), stalked and hunted people like an animal would search prey. Tony Rivers’ werewolf is way totally different personality-wise as a result of his werewolf has an underlying aggressiveness that comes by way of its snarling, salivating kind.

Not like his older compatriots, the teenage werewolf is exceptionally indignant. And the way is that this shocking? Look how indignant Tony Rivers behaves earlier than he shifts into werewolf kind. These earlier cinematic monsters suffered from a curse that turned them right into a raging beast. Tony Rivers rages lengthy earlier than devolving into his beast persona.

Nothing supernatural drives the teenage werewolf. Angst is actual and a curse discovered amongst youthful earthbound people. Physician Brandon professed that the bestial rage displays people at their prime primeval worst.

And Tony Rivers’ werewolf reveals its worst.

Essentially the most provocative and disturbing scene within the movie is the brutal assault on the younger gymnast. The younger woman wears commonplace gymnast apparel, making her provocatively underdressed for a Nineteen Fifties movie. Tony Rivers stands off to the facet and watches her leeringly. Whereas he does nothing to disturb the woman, he clearly enjoys watching the gymnast in her state of restricted gown.

When the varsity bell rings and inexplicably forces Tony to vary into the werewolf, there’s a disturbing component to his assault on the younger girl. Whereas killing her beneath a tarp helps cowl up the violent demise, it additionally creates a suggestive picture.

Did the werewolf sexually assault the gymnast? Whereas not overtly advised, the trace exists.

The brutal assault is stunning however not shocking.

Tony Rivers turns into a vicious, savage animal when remodeled right into a werewolf. However was he not a vicious, savage human being earlier than turning right into a werewolf? Whereas his previous conduct by no means rose to homicide and sexual assault, his indignant rages contributed to repeated and escalating violence. Was he headed down a path of turning into a psychopath?

How a lot is fueled by the werewolf’s savagery vs. teen rage and angst? Whereas nothing can calm a senseless werewolf, was there something that might have contained Tony Rivers’ rage?

With out taking steps to take care of his troubled psychological state, Tony Rivers may have graduated from by accident hurting his girlfriend to turning into a deliberate abuser. Properly, he seeks assist, however he’s led to the mistaken physician.

The Psychological Hygiene Angle

Not like cult horror films, psychological hygiene movies obtain little reward. From a technical standpoint, little artistry went into these productions. The brief topics have been shot as silent films with a narrator monitor added to clarify the proceedings – all to save lots of prices. Typically, they have been overly melodramatic, simplistic, and, by in the present day’s commonplace, woefully politically incorrect. True, a number of classroom hygiene movies – significantly those made within the Seventies – have been ridiculous.

That’s to not say that some classroom scare movies generally don’t have a good message. Whereas a movie telling teenagers to decorate properly and exhibit good manners could also be excessively preachy, teenagers would profit from dressing properly and having good manners.

Good manners and conduct can go a great distance when coping with battle. As Tony Rivers’ father says, “Generally, you simply should do it the opposite fella’s method.” Somebody may make a brief movie about that philosophy.

If a director minimize and re-edited a number of scenes from the movie, shot a little bit new footage, performed the characteristic silently, and added a brand new voiceover narration, classroom audiences may see a psychological hygiene movie dubbed “The Different Fella’s Approach.”

Tony Rivers doesn’t like doing issues “the opposite fella’s method” as a result of his anger points translate into issues with friends and authority figures. An indignant, dejected teenager received’t doubtless recognize the recommendation to “flow” and settle for life’s crumbs. Anger yields battle and revolt, and Tony received’t take heed to warnings. He doesn’t bend to acceptable norms of conduct, and his fast mood will get him into hassle.

The scene the place Tony strikes his girlfriend serves as a significant plot level – it leads to Tony in search of assist from Physician Brandon, giving the movie a cheerful ending.

Wouldn’t it?

Just some classroom schooling movies had upbeat conclusions, as a downbeat, tragic ending put the scare in a scare movie.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf walks a skinny line between a classroom scare movie and a scary drive-in movie. Evaluating the AIP basic to a hypothetical psychological hygiene movie isn’t a stretch. Changing into a werewolf displays the punishment Tony receives for not listening to the detective on the movie’s starting and never taking his father’s recommendation.

Nonetheless, the movie has a subversive component that enables it to shift away from its psychological hygiene components. Listening to authority figures additionally leads to Tony Rivers’ werewolf predicament.

De-Sanitizing Hygiene

Psychological hygiene moralization falls sufferer to the artist’s curse. The artist paints all the image, controlling all the pieces somebody sees. If the artist needs to get a selected level throughout, something opposite to that time by no means makes it to the canvas.

A psychological hygiene movie comes up with a conclusion and works backward. A youngster with good manners makes extra associates, will get together with lecturers and fogeys, and lives fortunately. That’s how the brief movie concludes, and all the pieces continuing reveals the disasters that unhealthy manners deliver forth and an inciting incident that results in social behavioral adjustments.

Whereas it could be laborious to argue that persevering with down a damaging path is a good suggestion, the overly brilliant world the place friends and adults behave flawlessly doesn’t exist. Nevertheless, characters act in such a method in a psychological hygiene movie to maintain the concentrate on the central bad-mannered character and result in the “ethical of the story” ending.

I Was a Teenage Werewolf breaks from the moralistically idyllic psychological hygiene conventions by exhibiting adults aren’t all the time youngsters’ associates. Dr. Brandon doesn’t have Tony Rivers’ welfare in thoughts when he injects him with the primordial werewolf method. Nor does he care about anybody that Tony might hurt in werewolf kind. Dr. Brandon’s issues lie along with his egocentric pursuits.

Ethical thematics take a flip with Dr. Brandon’s actions. The “different fella’s method” isn’t all the time secure or sane, and even “upstanding” characters, akin to trusted physicians, might be harmful strangers.

The horror method shouldn’t be the one radical stylistic change that separates I Was a Teenage Werewolf from the prototypical psychological hygiene movie. Pure cynical realism hangs over the narrative, and the ending hardly presents a simplistic completely satisfied ending or one the place “unhealthy” youngsters or adults obtain a one-note comeuppance.

Because the detective says, after sending Tony Rivers, the Teenage Werewolf, to his demise, there was “No different method out. Nothing else we may do.”

Fantasy components apart, I Was a Teenage Werewolf affords a stark ethical lesson: like a ferocious wolf-monster, angst can eat its victims in the event that they let it.