25 Best Werewolf Movies Ever Made

Generally a phenomenon of European folklore and Europe's colonial descendants, the werewolf has nevertheless made it into the cinema of the wider world thanks to this weird Japanese fantasy action flick from 2004.

Kibakichi (sometimes known as Werewolf Warrior) takes the classic Yojimbo setup of the itinerant wandering warrior's arrival in a strange town dominated by warring factions. In this case it is a village in a fantastical version of Edo period Japan in which shapeshifting demons have a long-held antagonism with regular humans.

The movie's effects can rarely keep up with its inventive imagination and the full reveal of the werewolf is perhaps held back until late in the day as much because it's a very cheap costume of matted hair than for any narrative tension. Although made in the twenty-first century, this is as much of a throwback to Japan's cheesy pulp movies of decades earlier as WolfCop is to the action B-movies of North America. And, like WolfCop, it retains the midnight movie cult entertainment of the films it seeks to emulate.

Kibakichi was successful enough to spawn a "this time it's personal" sequel a couple of years later in which the samurai werewolf was out for revenge. So this oddity obviously found its audience.