1981 was a heck of a year for werewolf movies. Of course, this would still be true had the only one to be released that year been John Landis’ genre-defining classic, An American Werewolf in London. But mere months earlier, another tale of lynanthropic terror hit screens, one which has sadly fallen into obscurity: Michael Wadleigh’s Wolfen.

The two films share a lot in common. Both focus on supernatural wolf creatures cutting a swath of carnage through major urban centers, both make heavy use of then-new Steadicam technology to represent the point of view of the beast as it stalks its unsuspecting prey, and both see the beast come into conflict with that most recognizable guardian of modern society: the police. But as similar as the films are, when one opens the hood and looks deeper, they’ll find that the two films are so ideologically opposed that it becomes hard to believe it wasn’t all part of some higher plan.

read more Beasts in the City: The Opposing Viewpoints of Wolfen and An American Werewolf in London – Sound On Sight | Sound On Sight.