Behind the Scenes: Howl of the Werewolf - The Glass Knight

One of the 'creatures' you can fall foul of during the course of Howl of the Werewolf is the Glass Knight. Animated by evil magic, the image of a warrior from a stained glass window comes to life and battles you, attempting to chop you into little pieces with its razor-sharp glass sword.

The idea of the Glass Knight was one that I had been hoping to use in a gamebook for quite some time, but I cannot claim that it was an original one. The encounter was wholly inspired by a memorable scene from the 1985 cinematic feature Young Sherlock Holmes.

During the course of the movie, an old priest is hit by a poisoned dart shot from a blowpipe. As a result, hallucinates that he is being menaced by a stained glass knight. Considering the film was made over 20 years ago, the effects are, on the whole, excellent, especially the creation of the knight which took Industrial, Light and Magic artists four months to create. It was brought to life through computer animation, helped along by John Lasseter of a little known company, at the time, called Pixar.

If you've not seen the film before, it's worth tracking down for a look. It's better than you might have been led to believe. And if you have seen the film, you'll know that already, in which case, perhaps it's time you revisited that particular moment of escapism from your childhood.