During the past few days at Shuker In MovieLand I've reviewed The Silence of the Lambs (click here to read my review) and A Nightmare On Elm Street (click here to read my review) – two members of the terrifying trio of classic horror movies only very belatedly viewed by me recently. So now it's time for me to post a review of the third member of that trio – and here it is.
My movie watch on 15 August 2022, just a week after viewing A Nightmare On Elm Street for the first time, was yet another classic monster movie never previously seen by me. This one was being shown on the UK TV channel Legend – I sometimes wonder why I buy movie DVDs, as I seem to spend so much time watching movies on Legend!
Directed by Joe Dante, loosely inspired by the eponymous 1977 novel by Gary Brandner, and released in 1981 by Embassy Pictures, this horror film was the hugely influential 1981 werewolf movie The Howling. [But Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, 1988, is a more faithful cinematic version of Brandner's novel.]
After narrowly escaping being murdered by a serial killer stalker named Eddie Quist (played by Robert Picardo in his big-screen debut), TV anchorwoman Karen White (Dee Wallace) and her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) follow the advice of Karen's therapist Dr George Waggner (Patrick Macnee) and book themselves into a remote resort deep in the countryside for Karen's traumatised mental state to recuperate.
Not such a good idea, however, because they soon discover to their horror that in reality it comprises a secret colony of murderous lycanthropes (one of whom, Erle Kenton, is played by John Carradine), whose leader is none other than said therapist, and whose members include none other than said serial killer stalker! Oops! Incidentally, when you watch this movie's shock ending, keep watching – because that's when you see its second, even more shocking real ending!
Despite being an early 1980s movie, The Howling boasts special effects by Rob Bottin creating the werewolf transformation scenes that are still just as jaw-droppingly astonishing (as well as jaw-extendingly effective!) today as they were truly ground-breaking state-of-the-art back in those distant pre-CGI times over 40 years ago. And if you don't believe me, just click here to view the most famous, dramatic example, featuring killer Eddie transforming after confronting a petrified Karen. Equally famous, but not for the same reason, conversely, is the decidedly different lycanthrope make-up displayed by a certain other character – less werewolf, more wookie?
Originally, special make-up effects wizard Rick Baker was slotted to create this movie's transformation scenes, but as an associate of director John Landis he opted to perform this function for Landis's own in-progress werewolf movie instead, An American Werewolf In London, released just five months after The Howling, so his assistant Bottin stepped into the breach for the latter movie. Worth noting is these two movies' very different depiction of the transformed werewolf morphology – quadrupedal like a wolf in the former, bipedal like a human in the latter. Interestingly, however, after having already designed the bipedal version for The Howling before leaving to work on An American Werewolf In London and being replaced by Bottin, Baker planned to do the same in that movie too, but was overruled by Landis, who wanted a quadrupedal 'hell hound' look for it.
Chronologically speaking, The Howling (March 1981) led a veritable pack of high-profile lycanthrope-themed movies released during the 1980s. These others include: Wolfen (July 1981, reviewed by me here), An American Werewolf in London (August 1981), Full Moon High (October 1981), The Company of Wolves (September 1984), Teen Wolf (23 August 1985), Howling II (28 August 1985), Silver Bullet (October 1985), Howling III (13 November 1987), and Teen Wolf Too (20 November 1987. It is also notable for the plethora of wolf-related in-jokes and sight-gags included; for the naming of several characters after horror-movie directors (plus the inclusion of famous horror-movie director Roger Corman in a cameo role); and for being the first English-language werewolf movie in colour to contain any female werewolves.
I was sufficiently impressed by The Howling after watching it on Legend to purchase its 2-disc Special Edition DVD, as well as some of the several other entries in its long-running movie franchise (currently standing at eight movies). Among the ones that I purchased is Howling III: The Marsupials (1987), which, as you'd surmise correctly from its title, is set in Australia and features shape-shifting predators with pouches, but is not linked in terms of its plot or characters to other films in this series. And as a longstanding lover of movies featuring mysterious carnivals and circuses, I also bought Howling VI: The Freaks (1991).
Be sure to click here to watch on YouTube an official trailer for The Howling, providing a tantalizing glimpse of the therianthropic thrills that it has in store for its viewers.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
Always loved The Howling and I rewatched quite recently. Patrick Macnee is excellent as always. I am also presently rewatching the Avengers TV series with Patrick Macnee on dvd and thoroughly enjoying them. he really was an under rated actor.
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