The article discusses a motive of lycanthropy as a symbolical birth of a new species, appearing in the Slavic folklore and in the contemporary Russian horror literature (e.g., Alexey Ateev, Anna Starobinets and Henry Lion Oldi). Shape-shifting beast, a creature capable of changing into an animal, becomes a descendant both of the human civilization and the kingdom of fauna and flora. Birth is, clearly, the most atavistic phase of human development. American and Western European popculture created the image of a lycanthrope as a fully grown human male, without any references to the child form. Authors endow their characters with characteristics like the ability to shape-shift into a wolf, savagery and absence of their own offspring. Representatives of Russian horror literature do not limit themselves to this image of lycanthropy. The novel Черное дело by Alexey Ateev portraits the shape-shifting of another animal into a bear, the micro-novel Awkward Age (Переходный возраст) by Anna Starobinets depicts metamorphosis into a live anthill, and the short story Вложить душу by Henry Lion Oldi – transformation into a shark. In the works mentioned above the first transformation occurs, when the characters are children. Lycanthropy causes their spiritual incapacitation and loss of human features of their personality. The aforementioned Russian authors show the shape-shifting beast as a creature incapable of living in the human world. Only their offspring, the perfected generation of lycanthropes, gain this ability.