"WEREWOLF!" CRIED THE YOUNG MAN - COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN (Day 14)

Last year, Nickelodeon aired a television film for the halloween season by the name of THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF, which featured some young pop star who goes through some big body change issues as she is becoming a werewolf and Brooke Shields as a monobrowed Eastern European caretaker for an old castle. It was a marginally well done kiddie film that tip toed around pretending to be a scary movie for kids. But it doesn't hold a candle to the scary-goofiness of the original film of the same name from 1973.



I caught this movie a few months ago on the "THIS" network, I believe, at a time when we should all be in bed dreaming of cereal and what socks we'll be wearing the next day. I had never heard of it and so I had to stick around a few minutes to see what it was all about.

Two hours later, I understood all too well. Richie Bridgestone's parents are getting a divorce (prime social issue emerging at the time) and he is having trouble dealing with it. Acting out in ways and just being sad about the whole thing. So, one day, after his dad has been bitten by a werewolf, Richie happens to notice that his dad transforms into a werewolf. Richie promptly tells his mom about this and she finds it hard to believe.

Long story short, wash and repeat. Richie ends up in a psychiatrists' office (another emerging trend of the day) answering questions and reading rorschach tests. His dad kills some folks, all the while trying to kill his own son once the transformations take place. And he makes a pretty good preppy werewolf in his turtle neck sweater and well groomed coat. He really reminds me of one Wile E. Coyote...



But what really made me fall in love with this movie was what I call the Hippies for Jesus! Although I thought it was a tad too soon for John Goodman to be able to play this role, I couldn't help but fool myself into believing that it was him in the role of the head honcho hippie. The guy is big, loud and kind of lovable, so I thought: John Goodman! Here's a scene where the king of the Jesus Hippies tries to work his mojo on the Werewolf the boy cries so much about:



Snazzy stuff, ain't it folks! Too bad it's not available on DVD, but here's an interesting note about the original release of this PG horror flick for nearly all ages--it was the last of the Universal Double Features and it was released on the bottom half of a billing with "SSSSSSSS". See below:



For more on this film see:

KINDERTRAUMA

AND

en.wikipedia.org