According to Screen Rant they are. I hadn’t noticed. Yes, I *did* notice that there were no big screen, big studio movies featuring werewolves in theaters right now, or for the past few years. But fewer werewolves than vampires? Fewer werewolves than appearances by Frankenstein? Didn’t seem like it to me. “The main takeaway from this special [the CREEPSHOW HOLIDAY SPECIAL on Shudder] was that the horror aspects of the classic creature feature have been somewhat lost in favor of a more gimmicky rendition of werewolves.” So says the linked article. They’re right about that. We have seen more comedic takes on the werewolf in recent years than straight, serious depictions, not that this is a bad thig. Not when the result is movies like WOLFCOP. Still, we’d all like to see some good *scary* werewolf movies, right?
Screen Rant puts the blame on TWILIGHT and the TEEN WOLF television show for turning werewolves gimmicky. That’s fair, I suppose. It, or they, also blame oversaturation due to movies like the UNDERWORLD series, the remake of THE WOLFMAN, and RED RIDING HOOD. I’m not so sure about that.
The one thing we are in absolute agreement on, though: we both eagerly anticipate a return to the Horror roots of the werewolf with the forthcoming second remake of THE WOLFMAN from Blumhouse.