The Howling (1981)

[akiratubo]

I had actually never seen this movie before today, despite wanting to watch it ever since I read the back of the eye-catching VHS box back in 1983.  Let's face it: most werewolf movies just aren't very good.  Neither is this one.  However, The Howling features The Coolest Werewolves Ever.

There's a serial killer terrorizing Los Angeles.  He has contacted TV reporter Karen White and requested a meeting so they can get to know each other.  The police tailing her manage to lose her (it's written into movie cops' contracts, you know) and her hidden microphone fails.  Karen meets the killer and he begins to turn into a werewolf before the police kind of happen onto the scene and gun him down pretty much by accident.

Since Karen is played by Dee Wallace, she's a very weak, emotionally fragile woman and can't get over her encounter.  A psychiatrist friend recommends she stay a while at The Colony, a retreat for maladjusted werewol-- er, I mean a retreat for people who have suffered massive emotional trauma.  That way, she can be inducted into werewolf soci-- er, recover from her experience.

After the movie introduces us to the local color (including John Carradine, yay!) nothing much happens at The Colony for a while.  Back in Los Angeles, Karen's friends on the news crew find out the killer was named Eddie Quist and that he liked to draw pictures of people turning into werewolves.  Oh, and his body has gone missing from the morgue.

Karen's husband is out walking around one night and gets attacked by a werewolf.  He's actually rather blase about the whole thing and, frankly, why not?  After all, he soon heals, finds himself enjoying meat, and upgrades his sex partner from Dee Wallace to Elisabeth Brooks, the prototype of Angelina Jolie.

This freaks poor Karen out even more, so she calls her friends up to give her support (or maybe to take her home, not sure).  Chris stays behind so he can come to the rescue later and Terry heads up to The Colony to become our first on-screen werewolf victim.

Reanimate Eddie has finally made it up to The Colony and he's sure hungry after walking all that way, so he has Terry for a snack.  Finally, we get to see The Coolest Werewolf Ever.  It's all long arms, pointy ears, and it's about seven or eight feet tall.  Cool.

A few minutes later, Karen finds what's left of Terry's body and is confronted by Eddie, who has turned back into a human after his meal.  Isn't it always the way?  No sooner does a werewolf finish eating and revert to human than another stupid person comes along and he's got to wolf out all over again.

The transformation is impressive and, thanks to Karen being a Dee Wallace character who is too wimpy and stupid to run, we get to see every little detail of it.  Good for Karen that there's that big jar of flesh solvent laying around.

Not so good for Karen is the other werewolves deciding to have a good ol' feast with her as the main course.  Now, however, is the time for Chris to show up with some silver bullets and rescue her.

Karen and Chris escape and Karen turns into a bichon-frise during a news broadcast to warn people about werewolves.  The End

On an absolute scale, this movie is dead average.  Compared to other werewolf movies, I'd put it one solid point ahead of average, just for The Coolest Werewolves Ever.  Karen really needed to be a stronger character played by a more forceful actress.  I also would have liked to see Eddie Quist interact with the other werewolves at The Colony.  Most of them are trying to escape their savage nature while Eddie has fully embraced it.  As it is, he's hardly a presence in the movie at all.  He doesn't even have any scenes with his two, nearly as feral siblings.  I like the idea of werewolves struggling with their inner beasts.  After all, as Patrick McNee says, they can't hide forever.  It's not villagers with pitchforks and torches anymore.  Now there are TV cameras, news broadcasts, and paper trails.  They've got to adapt to the modern age and that means quelling their bloodlust.  Unfortunately, the way it's handled borders on the "secret society conspiracy" crap that plauges most modern vampire stories.  There are werewolves in High Places who want to protect The Secret.  Blah.  However, The Howling manages to strike a good balance between brooding werewolves and werewolves who just want to rip people apart.  Maybe I'll put it two points ahead of the average werewolf movie for that.

[Zapranoth]

I liked The Howling.  It has been a while since I saw it, but it did have awesome-looking werewolves.

Now, the sequel, THAT had some tried and true B-movie form to it.  Christopher Lee casting spells.  Sybill Danning ripping her top off.  (Bazillions of times in the credits.   Loved that as a teenager.)  Several fairly nasty special effects, especially that gargoyle thingy that ate people from the inside.  The Huge Werewolf Orgy scene.    It was all just so... gratuitous!

[Shadowphile]

The directors commentary on the movie Dog Soldiers said that The Howling had the best werewolf but a not so great transformation and American Werewolf in London had the best transformation and a bad werewolf.  He tried to combine the two.  I recommend it if you liked the werewolf from The Howling.

[Mr_Vindictive]

I have The Howling on DVD.  My wife bought it as a father's day gift for me this year as I'm a huge fan of Joe Dante's work.  I have yet to check out the DVD and only faintly remember the film from an old VHS copy I rented years back.  I'll see about getting around to watching it soon.

[daveblackeye15]

I've been meaning to watch "American Werewolf in London" for a while now.

I still think the transformation in the Howling was great stuff! And I still think it's the best werewolf movie ever done.

[Shadowphile]

But have you seen dog Soldiers daveblackeye15?

[daveblackeye15]

Yes another very well done werewolf movi, why do you ask?

[akiratubo]

Dog Soldiers was a very good movie, perhaps the best werewolf movie I've seen.  You can't go wrong with somebody as awesome as Sean Pertwee in a movie about badass werewolves.

[Shadowphile]

Or Liam Cunningham.  I was asking because I consider Dog Soldiers to be the best werewolf movie ever.  Seems I have company too!  Thanks for the vote, akiraturbo...

[daveblackeye15]

Dog Soldiers is a really well done werewolf movie.

But I don't remember there being any lengthy transformation scenes, just people starting then they'd go off screen and finish up.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Dog Soldiers was a hell of a film.  My only problem with it was that each character looked and sounded the same to me.  It was a bit difficult to figure out who was who.

[daveblackeye15]

I had that problem when I first watched the movie. But the more I watch it the easier it gets.

[trekgeezer]

I saw The Howling when it first played at theaters and thought it was pretty cool. It and \American Werewolf in London were kinda competing in the transformations scenes. I think the Howling actually was released first.

Anyway, it's a cool movie. "Silver bullets my ass!" from the guy best known for A-1 steak sauce commercials at the time. I also think it's funny that the Eddie character was played by Robert Picardo who became a Joe Dante stock player.

Dog Soldiers is extremely good, especially considering the limited budget they had to work with. That's why you didn't see any lengthy transformation scenes.

[Shadowphile]

Soldiers in uniform are supposed to look alike...

ROBERT 'the holographic doctor'RICARDO played Eddy?!

Damn, I need to watch that film again....

[daveblackeye15]

Well yeah I know they do kind of look alike in Dog Soldiers.

It's their personalities that set them apart, and you notice that more with each viewing.