An assault leads to childbirth, and the resulting baby boy is raised with love and affection. Once a man, though, he heads out to start his own life and discovers something monstrous within that's been waiting to transform him into a nightmare. The U.K.'s Hammer Studios made all kinds of horror films, but its sole werewolf film is "The Curse of the Werewolf." It's a shame, as Terence Fisher, who also made some of the studio's best Dracula films, delivers a marvelous entry into the werewolf subgenre that ties the monster's presence to emotional suffering. Like Universal's "The Wolf Man" before it, this film's main character didn't choose this life as it was instead thrust upon him through tragedy. That pain makes the horror hit harder. The darkness is balanced out, though, through beautiful production design, thrilling sequences, and fine performances. On that last count, a young Oliver Reed headlines in his first starring role, and he's a spectacular mix of intensity, pathos, and swaggering sexuality. You buy his suffering as easily as you do his animalistic rage, and both lead to an ending that closes the circle with one last tragedy.