BTW, what's better on the full frame Howling? One of my favorite horror films, and definitely my favorite werewolf film.. I'll have to check it out, as I believe my DVD has both versions. On a side note, the commentary on the special edition is also quite good.
While I always preach widescreen to everyone the majority of the time, The Howling and Return of the Living Dead are films that I prefer watching the open matte full screen versions.
As for what is extra on the full screen The Howling? During the famous transformation scene you get to see all of the puppet head/animatronics in the full screen version as opposed to the widescreen one cutting off the ears. It just gives a much better view of the effects. I just think that it allows the images on screen to breathe a lot more as the widescreen version is just way too tight in some scenes.
Joe Dante back in the early day almost always filmed his movies in full frame and just matted them down for theatrical release.