Teen Wolf News Special Report:
- EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the third in a series of articles on one of the more interesting aspects of Teen Wolf Fandom. User Calicokat approached me with the idea of introducing folks to the "META" concept of Teen Wolf. There are many facets (as there are with each portion of the fandom) but the simple premise behind the META movement is that there is a hidden narrative across the seasons. These articles are not designed to be a comprehensive treatise on the subject, we're only touching on the basics. These articles should in no way be considered canon.
Guest Author: Calicokat
The previous two articles I did on the meta side of Teen Wolf were about popular fan theories on what might be going on within a secret subtext of the show. Today I want to talk about the more obvious meta layer the writers have placed within the show by writing in popular culture, specifically film, to add depth.
There's a lot going on in the background in Teen Wolf. In a subtle example, viewers who look closely at the blackboards and walls of Beacon Hills High School will find them covered in details and subtle commentary on events that play out on screen.
However, it's the extended bibliography and filmography, shown through specific scenes and within dialog, that's really captured my attention.
- One of the first ideas we had when developing the show was to give it an opening that was a kind of an homage to Stand by Me – kids going out into the woods to find a dead body. – Jeff Davis
What we're seeing on screen is a concerted effort, both vocally and visually, to honor the material that inspires the writers and directors.
- Stiles - Uh, Haven't you ever seen The Wolf Man?
- Scott - No.
- Stiles - Lon Chaney Jr.? Claude Rains? The original, classic werewolf movie?
- Scott - No! What?
- Stiles - You are so unprepared for this.
This is one of the earliest shoutouts to a film (in episode 2, Second Chance at First Line). Then, seasons later in 3B, we see shots from that film replicated, used as subtext to flesh out Stiles' possession experience.
In Riddled, Stiles sees himself snared in the bear trap that stopped the mid-film rampage of Lon Chaney Jr.'s classic werewolf, Larry Talbot, from killing again.
In Eichen House, he finds himself bound to a chair like Talbot is bound by a father determined to show him his "transformations" are tricks of self-hypnosis – right before Larry's tragic, deadly, climatic escape that forces his father to see the truth, that his son is a werewolf, and end Larry's life.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much shares a similar name and a parallel climax to the Hitchcock classic The Man Who Knew Too Much. In Hitchcock, Dr. Benjamin McKenna and his wife Jo McKenna receive warning of a political assassination from a dying spy.
When the assassin makes his move, Doris Day's character can't watch the targeted Prime Minister die and tries to help. She screams over the crescendoing orchestra, startling the concert's guests and saving his life.
In Teen Wolf, the target of the assassination isn't as fortunate, with Lydia's banshee scream alerting the wolves to Lydia's own plight but heralding the pianist's death.
Terminator is a film mentioned twice in the dialogue, and then used to draw a comparison between the unstoppable cyborg and Jackson in the S2 finale.
Sometimes the characters move through movies without fully acting them out. Tumblr user vidronoliquidificador pointed out to me the Bride of Kill Bill passes from a glitzy night club into a snowy garden like Scott's pack in The Divine Move, but the resolutions of the conflicts there are physical in one and psychological in the other.
Other films reflected within Teen Wolf include Star Wars, The Shining, Jacob's Ladder, The Dead Pool, The Matrix, Village of the Damned, Batman (1989), The Dark Knight Rises and Vanilla Sky.
For more on the phenomenon check out these links -
- wigglemore has made a pair gif sets matching other shots from popular films to shots recreated in Teen Wolf: (x )
- hoechloin compares Void Stiles to Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight: (x )
To me, The Ring and The Ring Two seem to be especially important. You can see iconic moments reiterated throughout the series, including these scenes.
If you're interested, there's more at wigglemore's tumblr.
For me, The Ring is where the metashow and fan meta meet, because both films have an underlying aquatic theme that could shed light on the use of water in Teen Wolf. If you want the full scoop I can go on all day, and I've gone: (x )
The short version? The dead dwell in the "waters of the world beyond this one" with Samara – or Sadako, in the Japanese originals – clawing her way back unable to let go of her previous life.
The hallmark of the dead is that, like the possessed Stiles in 3B, they never sleep.
I at least find the possibility of a parallel spirit world linked through water salient. With the slew of drownings and near-drownings in Teen Wolf, the connection seems particularly strong to me.
For more on the intersection between the obvious Meta and the Fan Meta -
- vidronoliquidificador has detailed the parallels made with Saw: (x )
- sublimeglass runs us through some of the parallels to The Shining: (x )
The big question on my mind when it comes to these films reflected in Teen Wolf: Is it more significant to the fabric of Beacon Hills than just a cinema buff's guide to the plot?
For me, this again calls into question the nature of reality in Teen Wolf, this time posing the question how many of the supernatural events of the show are projected onto Beacon Hills from the depths of the minds of the characters themselves, playing out across reality around them.
With the characters repeatedly stating their familiarity with the material they're living, it's easy for me to believe they don't recognize what's happening if they're living through their dreams but hints at something deeper than purely meta-level homage.
Next Week - I'll run through the bibliography of Teen Wolf, hitting highlights from the dozens of examples of popular and classical literature presented on the show.
Parts 1 and 2
