1985 Directed: Rob Daniel, Written: Jeph Loeb, Matthew Weisman

Score 3.5/5

This movie was filmed in November, 1984, and released on August 23, 1985. Everything about this hit the sweet spot between the 1983 video game crash and the 1985 (limited) release of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Michael J. Fox might have played E.T. on the Atari 2600 but he’d probably never heard of Mario. I don’t know why this movie has me thinking of that right now. History’s interesting, everything’s always overlapping.

Anyway, Teen Wolf is fun. I love that it’s never really an issue that Scott (Michael J. Fox) is a werewolf. No one’s seriously like “lock this kid up for being a werewolf!” In fact, no one’s like “wait, werewolves exist?!” It’s awesome. I’m here to watch a movie about a kid that turns into a werewolf and be really good at basketball, I appreciate that they respect their own premise enough to not be dragged down by worldbuilding/lore.

The adults in this movie are hilarious. The self-aggrandizing authority figure going “you may think you’re hot stuff, but I’m still the vice-principal”, the coach having an open-door policy for kids to ask for help with anything and then the instant Scott does going “listen I don’t have time for this, the IRS is breathing down my neck” while obliterating a piece of gum between his teeth. It all just fits together so well.

I think Scott looks dumb as hell as a wolf though. -1.5 points.