Teen Wolf (1985)
October 22, 2017 5:28 PM - Subscribe

An ordinary high school student discovers that his family has an unusual pedigree when he finds himself turning into a werewolf.

It's decorative gourd season, motherfuckers. Why not revisit some now-problematic classic teen horror comedies?

Did high school students really have whipped-cream wrestling and closet makeouts? Why did teenagers in the 80s all look like they were in their 20s? Which boutique sold Styles his T-shirts, and did Chris Knight from Real Genius shop there as well? Explanations are probably long overdue.
posted by infinitewindow (11 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Apparently there's nothing in the rulebook that says that a humanoid canid can't play basketball!
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:18 PM on October 22, 2017 [1 favorite]


FYI: In the last shot of this movie an extra is seen fumbling to zip up his pants. He's at the top of the frame. (Also, at the end of Back to the Future 3 one of Doc Brown's kids is making creepy gestures at his crotch. No, really. Jeez, did every 1980s Michael J. Fox movie end with weird wang stuff?)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 3:52 AM on October 23, 2017


This movie is like the first Karate Kid, a 50s movie set in the 80s. Very strange affect.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 9:50 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


Teen wolf! coming out to play...!
posted by ian1977 at 9:58 AM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


Did high school students really have whipped-cream wrestling and closet makeouts
no we were too busy van surfing

Why did teenagers in the 80s all look like they were in their 20s?
everyone smoked and nobody ate organic

Which boutique sold Styles his T-shirts, and did Chris Knight from Real Genius shop there as well?
founditemclothing.com, of course, and yes
posted by entropicamericana at 10:21 AM on October 23, 2017 [6 favorites]


I remember seeing this on vhs shortly after release and found it jaw droppingly weird in a not good way, so just letting future historians know it wasn’t part of the zeitgeist. Early on, I was slightly perplexed by the idea that werewolves would be really good at basketball, but then as the movie progressed, extremely perplexed that they would make a teen werewolf movie and decide it should mostly be about basketball.
posted by skewed at 11:15 AM on October 23, 2017 [3 favorites]


once you realize it was penned by jeph loeb all becomes clear
posted by entropicamericana at 2:19 PM on October 23, 2017 [1 favorite]


It was the summer after I'd graduated from college (this was 2002, just so we're clear). I had a childhood friend who had similarly just graduated from college. We were bumming around our home town waiting for the next thing (me: no plan. him: grad school) and my mom was out of town with whatever man she was dating at the time.

Teen Wolf was playing as a midnight movie at a nearby historic theater. We decided to go.

He picked me up in his family's minivan. The first thing he said was "I forgot to steal my mom's cigarettes." (Let us note: We we 22 at this point.) We stopped at the store and for some reason, he bought Zima (I am still confused about why he bought Zima, specifically -- he generally had better taste in alcohol than this, and there was also many types of cheap beer available.)

So we drank some Zima in the parking lot in the minivan and then stumbled to the 7-Eleven for cigarettes (neither of us were really smokers -- I think we were just leaning into this thing). Then kind of drunk on Zima (as much as you can be drunk on Zima), we went to go see Teen Wolf.

And while I still look upon this friend with much affection, I do have to say "getting drunk on Zima in a minivan and then seeing Teen Wolf when I was really old enough to know better" was probably the lowest point of my life up until that point (I've had many lower points since).

This was probably the most appropriate way to watch Teen Wolf, however. You know, if you're going to.

(I honestly don't remember that much about the movie itself. I had seen it before and I've more or less seen it since. Still don't remember it.)
posted by darksong at 6:11 PM on October 23, 2017 [3 favorites]


This movie is like the first Karate Kid, a 50s movie set in the 80s. Very strange affect.

Not strange in the sense of unusual. There was a measurable temporal vortex connecting those two decades, and you could feel it if you lived in the '80s. (Not so sure about the folks in the '50s, though they did have access to the novel 1984, which accurately predicted some stuff.)

It's interesting to note that Michael J. Fox's name is larger than the title of the film on that poster. I actually clicked on this thread because I thought it might be a biopic about Fox himself, using the Teen Wolf poster design as a riff. (I have never seen Teen Wolf, or if I did, it was completely forgettable.)
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 7:13 AM on October 24, 2017


Please don't miss the indispensable companion piece, by Summer of Tears.

I believe I found this here, years ago.
posted by ODiV at 8:08 AM on October 24, 2017 [1 favorite]


Rest assured, Darksong, that your story is way better than the movie itself. In fact the movie’s only redeeming virtue may be that it led to that story.
posted by phearlez at 8:37 PM on November 1, 2017


« Older Inhumans: Something Inhuman Th...   |  Dirk Gently's Holistic Detecti... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster