Introduction: Bark at the Moon

The introduction discusses the aims of Phases of the Moon, and particularly its intention to move the study of the werewolf in screen media beyond the conception of the werewolf as ‘the beast within’. To do so, it examines the history of the werewolf myth and scholarly responses to it, with particular emphasis on cultural interpretations of literary werewolves and their 'real' counterparts: individuals accused of werewolfism throughout history. The second half of the chapter then establishes the work's aim to perform a similar task for film studies, where psychoanalytical readings have remained dominant. It discusses the concept of 'the beast within' and proposes that an alternative cultural approach to werewolves in popular culture allows for the monster to be understood as a diverse and evolving metaphor.