A dark werewolf tale about freedom, cruelty… and discovering too late that you have chosen the wrong prey.
There is something about the werewolf that has always fascinated me.
Not simply the transformation. Not the teeth, the claws or the full moon.
It is what the werewolf represents.
Something wild.
Something that refuses to be controlled.
Something that, no matter how many chains you wrap around it, was never truly yours to imprison.
And that is at the heart of You Can't Cage a Werewolf.
Welcome to Tales by the Fireplace
This story marks the beginning of something a little different for Professor Shadow.
Rather than hiding behind the monsters, the music and the cinematic worlds I normally create, Tales by the Fireplace brings me directly in front of the camera.
Just a storyteller, a fire… and a dark tale.
These are stories about monsters, certainly.
But if you've followed my work for any length of time, you'll know that the monster is rarely the most important part.
I have always believed in horror with a soul.
And sometimes the creature we're supposed to fear isn't the real monster at all.
The Hunt
Somewhere beyond the reach of ordinary people lies a private estate.
A place where wealthy men indulge in a very particular kind of entertainment.
They hunt.
Not deer.
Not foxes.
People.
Their victims are taken, released into the surrounding forest and given just enough hope to make the chase entertaining.
And the hunters have something else at their disposal.
A creature.
A werewolf kept imprisoned and used as part of their twisted game.
They believe they control it.
They believe the cage makes them its master.
Then a stranger called Lucas enters their world.
And on this particular night, beneath the moon, the hunters are about to discover something.
They have chosen the wrong man to hunt.
Who Is Really the Beast?
That is the question beneath the story.
The werewolf is frightening because of what it can become.
But the men hunting human beings for pleasure don't need a full moon.
They don't need a curse.
They made their choice while completely human.
That's something I come back to repeatedly in my stories.
I love monsters.
Werewolves. Vampires. Ghosts. Creatures hiding beneath streets and things waiting in dark forests.
But I'm far more interested in why they are monsters.
And occasionally, I'm interested in asking whether they are monsters at all.
Lucas doesn't simply represent physical power in this tale.
To me, he represents something much more basic.
Freedom.
There are things you can imprison physically without ever truly possessing them.
You can build the cage.
You can close the door.
You can hold the key.
But that doesn't necessarily mean you're in control.
Especially when there's a full moon coming.
From Professor Shadow
I've told stories using thousands of images, cinematic sequences, music and characters over the years.
But with Tales by the Fireplace, I wanted to strip some of that away.
I wanted to sit across from you and simply tell you a story.
The way stories were told long before screens existed.
Around a fire.
One person telling another:
"You won't believe what happened next…"
There will still be monsters.
There will still be darkness.
And occasionally I'll take you back into those cinematic worlds.
But at the centre of these tales will be something very simple.
The storyteller and the story.
And it seemed appropriate that one of the first should be about a creature I've returned to again and again throughout my work.
The werewolf.
Because perhaps there is a reason these creatures have survived in our stories for hundreds of years.
Perhaps somewhere inside all of us is something that understands the desire to run into the darkness…
to escape the cage…
and to be free.
You Can't Cage a Werewolf
Watch the tale above, and if you enjoy it, there will be many more stories waiting beside the fire.
Some frightening.
Some strange.
Some tragic.
And some where the monster might just surprise you.
Welcome to Tales by the Fireplace.
— Professor Shadow
Horror with a soul.
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