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Strange Botany in Werewolf of London
Authors: Robert Spadoni
DOI: 10.1386/host.1.1.49/1
Keywords
classic horror cinema,werewolf films,Werewolf of london, queer studies,gender studies,gender inversion
Abstract
Werewolf of London (Walker, 1935) depicts a man struggling, unsuccessfully, to control urges that would make him an outlaw in society at large and especially, the film makes clear, in his already troubled marriage. The film transforms the werewolf legend (in large measure by infusing it with liberal doses of botany) to create a portrait of a werewolf as a gay man, to represent homosexuality as a form of gender inversion, and to explore the horrors of being a gay man living in a violently repressive society.
