One of the top grossing film franchises of all time belongs to those young pale-faced actors in “Twilight” while one of 2010’s hottest television shows was about zombies. With the exception of the Benicio Del Torro remake, the werewolf rarely gets used as the star of a movie anymore. Here is a toast to all those great werewolf films.

10. Teen Wolf

I was born in the year 1980 so I reserve the right to overrate any cheesy movie made in the 80’s. That is why “Teen Wolf” makes the list as the tenth best werewolf movie. Every time I see “Teen Wolf” it makes me want to surf on top of the van. I don’t know any other movie that gives me that kind of feeling.

9. The Curse of the Werewolf

In “The Curse of the Werewolf” a young boy turns into a werewolf while hunting. The urges to turn into a werewolf subdues and he doesn’t have a problem for a while. Later in his life he meets a young woman and falls in love. Unfortunately it is shortly after that he turns into a werewolf again. Chicks aren’t really into that.

8. The Company of Wolves

In “The Company of Wolves” a young girl falls asleep and then stories of werewolves are told in her dreams. One of the stories is a re-imagining of Little Red Riding Hood with Angela Lansbury playing the part of granny. Well that’s no fun. She’ll have no problem discovering the wolf is the murderer.

7. Ginger Snaps

“Ginger Snaps” is a dark horror movie about two sisters that don’t want to grow up. The two sisters don’t want to grow up so badly that they have a suicide pact with each other. To make things more difficult Ginger begins to go through puberty at the same time that she is attacked and bitten by a werewolf. The changes she goes through as a werewolf then becomes a metaphor for the changes through womanhood.

6. Wolf

What “Wolf” lacks in a good title, it makes up for with its stellar cast. The cast of Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Christopher Plummer is easily the most critically acclaimed cast on the best werewolf movies list.

5. The Howling

“The Howling” was directed by “Gremlins” director Joe Dante and was based on a novel by Gary Brandner. “The Howling” was a fun horror movie that paid nice homages to previous werewolf films. Dante went as far as to name the characters in the movie after directors that made other werewolf films.

4. Wolfen

When a NYPD detective starts to investigate a string of murders he funds out about Indian legends about “wolf spirits”. The Indian angle that is often used with werewolves is one of my least favorite werewolf stories but “Wolfen” was still a string film despite that.

3. Dog Soldiers

Normally in werewolf movies the monster preys on regular civilians that don’t stand a chance. In “Dog Soldiers” a creature has killed an entire Speical Ops Squad. Another squad of British soldiers is on a training mission when they find the werewolves’ victims. Now the squad must survive the werewolves attack.

2. The Wolf Man

Before werewolf movies there were some people that actually believed werwolves existed. The traditional folklore is much different from movie werewolves and “The Wolf Man” and also “Werewolf in London” introduced many of the werewolf concepts that are accepted now. “The Wolf Man” introduced the werewolves’ weakness of silver are carried on the shapeshifting at full moon concept that “Werewolf in London” introduced.

1. An American Werewolf in London

“An American Werewolf in London” has a little bit of everything. It’s a little bit American and a little bit British. It’s a little bit comedy and a little bit horror film. Over the years “An American Werewolf in London” has become a cult classic to horror fans and is critically one of the most liked werewolf films. On Rotten Tomatoes “An American Werewolf in London” scored an 88%.

Lee Andrew Henderson has been writing for the Yahoo Contributor Network since 2006 and also writes a blog called Six Men, One Eagle.