dvd review: howling II: your sister is a werewolf

[ToyMan]

Howling 2 is to An American Werewolf in London as Return of the Living Dead is to George Romero's original Dawn of the Dead. That is to say; it's not as smart, but it's more rockin', and perhaps more fun.

This film has a very "80's Mtv" feel to it. It features Christopher Lee, veteran british horror actor, infamous for playing Dracula more times than nearly anyone would bother to count, and more recently you might recognize him as Sauruman from the Lord of the Rings films.

The story centers around Ben White, (Reb Brown, "Space Mutiny") the brother of a character from the first film who turned into a werewolf. Ben's tracking down the truth about what happened to his sister when he meets up with Christopher Lee's character, Stefan Crosscoe, a werewolf hunter.

Meanwhile, Stirba, queen of the werewolves, is attepting to regain her strength, and it's left up to our heros to stop her. Along the way, you'll hear a band called Babel, who want to sound a lot like The Cramps and The Damned, performing their "Howling Theme" in just about every other scene, you'll see an evil dwarf's eyes explode, and you'll see a man have his head attacked by what appears to be a mummified bat creature.

This film definitely fits into the "so bad it's good" category, and is the perfect film to throw on in the background during a raucous Halloween party.

While the disc is pretty light on extras, only offering the theatrical trailer, it does offer both full screen (4:3) and widescreen (1.85:1), each having their own side of the disc.