THE HOWLING - #3 IN A TERRIFYING TRIO OF CLASSIC HORROR FILMS FINALLY TICKED OFF ON MY 'MUST-SEE' MOVIES LIST

 

German publicity poster for The Howling (© Joe Dante/International Film Investors/Wescom Productions/Embassy Pictures/Studiocanal – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

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.

 

My 2-disc Special Edition DVD of The Howling (© Joe Dante/International Film Investors/Wescom Productions/Embassy Pictures/Studiocanal – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET - #2 IN A TERRIFYING TRIO OF CLASSIC HORROR FILMS FINALLY TICKED OFF ON MY 'MUST-SEE' MOVIES LIST

 

Publicity poster for A Nightmare On Elm Street (© Wes Craven/New Line Cinema/Media Home Entertainment/Smart Egg Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Previously at Shuker In MovieLand I reviewed The Silence of the Lambs (click here to read it) – the first in a terrifying trio of classic horror movies that it has taken me far too long to get around to watching. Today, here are my thoughts regarding the second of those movies – A Nightmare On Elm Street.

On 7 August 2022, after buying its DVD on a whim in a charity shop the previous day, I finally viewed the supernatural/fantasy slasher movie A Nightmare On Elm Street – but it was nothing like what I'd expected it to be.

Directed and written by Wes Craven, and released in 1984 by New Line Cinema, A Nightmare On Elm Street is an enduring favourite flick among horror aficionados. So perhaps it's just movie-hardened me from two years of binge watching during the two years of Covid lockdowns, 2019-2020, here in the UK, as well as much movie viewing thereafter too, but I didn't find it even remotely frightening. In fact, it came over as dark comedy more than anything else.

The blood-drenched plot (its filming featured over 500 gallons of fake blood!) centres upon Freddy Krueger (played by Robert Englund), a facially-scorched serial kid killer who was murdered by his victims' parents when they burned him alive but whose evil spirit now manifests itself from beyond the grave, specifically within the dreams of a bunch of teens living in and around Elm Street (whose precise location within the USA is never revealed). Krueger wears a special glove with long razor-sharp knives attached to its fingers that he uses to slaughter the teens one by one, killing them in their dreams, so they never wake up.

Yet the execution of this premise (which was inspired by Brugada or Asian Death Syndrome, a genuine medical condition in which people die during nightmares) and the accompanying special effects are wildly OTT.

The lascivious tongue emerging from the landline telephone of this movie's lead teenager character Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), for example, is both hilarious and ridiculous! And the blood geyser scene in which Nancy's boyfriend Glen Lantz is killed (more about Glen below) is Grand Guignol of the most grandiose kind!

 

My close encounter of the Krueger kind! (© Dr Karl Shuker)

Equally, Englund's Krueger is positively camp and as hammy as a prize porker at times. And some of the acting from certain other stars is so wooden that it's in dire danger of attracting a termite infestation – yes indeed, Johnny Depp, in your movie debut! Depp plays Glen, winning the role over the likes of Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, C. Thomas Howell, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen, and Kiefer Sutherland, who were all considered for it.

But far from being faults, these very same attributes were what I found so enjoyable, albeit highly unexpected, in a film that I hadn't previously thought I'd ever even watch, let alone be entertained by. The magic of Movieland working its marvels and miracles yet again!

Incidentally, in precisely the same way that I alluded to regarding Dr Hannibal Lecter in my afore-mentioned review of The Silence of the Lambs, the villain of A Nightmare On Elm Street is conspicuous by his remarkably rare screen appearances in this movie – Krueger's total on-screen time is less than 7 minutes out of a total movie run-time of 91 minutes. Less is more, clearly.

If you wish to wander down for a few briefest of moments the terror-shadowed but very tongue-in-cheek (not to mention tongue-down-telephone!) path of Elm Street (which btw was named after the street in Wheaton, Illinois, where Wes Craven went to college), be sure to click here to watch on YouTube an official trailer for A Nightmare On Elm Street.

Next time here at Shuker In MovieLand I'll be offering my thoughts on the third member of this terrifying trio of horror movies very belatedly watched by me – The Howling. Don't miss it!

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.

 

The official DVD of A Nightmare On Elm Street that I purchased and watched (© Wes Craven/New Line Cinema/Media Home Entertainment/Smart Egg Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

 

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - #1 IN A TERRIFYING TRIO OF CLASSIC HORROR FILMS FINALLY TICKED OFF ON MY 'MUST-SEE' MOVIES LIST

 

Three publicity posters for The Silence of the Lambs, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and The Howling (© Jonathan Denne/Strong Heart Productions/Orion Pictures / © Wes Craven/New Line Cinema/Media Home Entertainment/Smart Egg Pictures / © Joe Dante/International Film Investors/Wescom Productions/Embassy Pictures/Studiocanal – all three illustrations reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

With the notable exception of its monster movie/creature feature contingent, horror has never been one of my favourite movie genres, so my viewing history of such films contains as many gaps and holes in it as a piece of fine filigree lace or a hunk of finest Swiss cheese!

Every so often, however, I do make an attempt at amends to my feeble record of horror watching, and during the past 12 months(ish) I finally – finally! – got around to viewing three absolute classics from this genre. Namely, The Silence of the Lambs, A Nightmare On Elm Street, and The Howling. So here over the next few days are my thoughts about them, beginning today with The Silence of the Lambs.

 

 

My 2-disc Special Edition DVD of The Silence of the Lambs (© Jonathan Denne/Strong Heart Productions/Orion Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 13 December 2021, I filled another of the many gaping holes in my blockbuster movie viewing, due to my passion and over-riding preference for seeking out and watching lesser-known, esoteric films instead, by finally getting around to viewing – only 30 years after it was released – none other than the multi-Oscar-winning film The Silence of the Lambs!

Directed by Jonathan Demme, based upon the 1988 Thomas Harris novel of the same title, and released in 1991 by Orion Pictures, any movie that can win all of the 'Big Four' Academy Awards – Best Picture, Director, Leading Actor, and Leading Actress – as well as a fifth one for Best Adapted Screenplay, has to be something truly extraordinary, and this movie definitely was. Indeed, what can I say about it that hasn't already been said at greater length, in greater depth, and including greater detail by others? But here goes anyway.

Unless you've been living on the moon or down a cave since the onset of the 1990s, you'll know that the central character in The Silence of the Lambs is a brilliant but twisted psychologist whose cannibalistic tendencies have led to his being incarcerated within the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, boasting as much security as Fort Knox. However, he is sufficiently intrigued by a young rookie cop and her bravery in visiting his caged cell to seek his assistance in tracking down another warped serial killer for him to actually agree to do so, after a fashion…

 

A singularly chilling publicity poster for The Silence of the Lambs (© Jonathan Denne/Strong Heart Productions/Orion Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Consequently, I was actually surprised by the relatively short amount of screen time occupied by Anthony Hopkins as Dr Hannibal 'The Cannibal' Lecter (less than 25 minutes out of this movie's 118-minute total running time), but he makes every second count, in mesmerisingly menacing fashion, employing a reptile's unnervingly low frequency of eye blinks coupled with a voice that Hopkins memorably described as a combination of Truman Capote and Katharine Hepburn. (Incidentally, other actors who had been considered for the role of Lecter included Sean Connery, Robert Duvall, Robert De Niro, Louis Gossett Jr, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, John Hurt, Jeremy Irons, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Jack Nicholson, and Patrick Stewart.)

It is also without question the best performance by Jodie Foster that I have ever seen (she won the role over the likes of Nicole Kidman, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Meg Ryan). The climactic scene where her rookie FBI officer Clarice Starling (a character that apparently inspired the creation of Agent Dana Scully in The X Files) is trapped with skin-stripping serial killer Jame 'Buffalo Bill' Gumb (Ted Levine) inside his house's pitch-black labyrinthine basement is almost literally heart-stopping – I caught myself physically holding my breath on more than one occasion during it. And the clever twist that reveals her to be there unsupported by any other officers is very slickly presented, big-screen legerdemain of the highest calibre. Ditto for Lecter's ingeniously macabre escape scene. Also, be sure to look out for brief cameo appearances in acting roles by acclaimed horror-movie directors David Lynch and George A. Romero, as well as by this movie's own director, Jonathan Demme.

If I had a moan after watching this movie, it was of a wholly zoological nature, inasmuch as the deathshead hawk moth Acherontia atropos (click here for my ShukerNature blog's coverage of this spectacular insect), which features so intrinsically in it and is so striking in the adult moth form, is barely seen in close-up – only the chrysalis and one very brief albeit key view of an adult moth inside BB's house. Other than that, they simply fly around with no visuals highlighting this species' characteristic deathshead-like thoracic marking, which by contrast is readily visible in most (although by no means all) publicity material.

However, following an investigation of this apparent anomaly, I discovered the likely reason for it. Namely, the moths that were actually filmed for this movie were not genuine deathshead hawk moths – instead, they were tobacco hornworm moths Manduca sexta, with the deathshead marking painted onto a body shield fixed to their thorax! Nor was that the only lepidopteran subterfuge used. For if you look very closely at the deathshead on the moth's thorax in this film's publicity material, you'll discover that it's not the genuine skull simulacrum present on this insect species' thorax but is in fact an exact reproduction in miniature of the famous surrealist picture 'In Voluptas Mors' ('Voluptuous Death') by Salvador Dali, maestro of the macabre, in which the 'skull' is actually composed of seven naked women!

 

Composite illustration showing how Salvador Dali's artwork 'In Voluptas Mors' was subtly incorporated into publicity illustrations for The Silence of the Lambs (© Salvador Dali Estate / (© Jonathan Denne/Strong Heart Productions/Orion Pictures – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Moth manipulations aside, The Silence of the Lambs is a terrific tour-de-force, and became the first horror movie ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Earlier on 13 December, I'd bought on spec for 50p the 2-disc Special Edition DVD of it, with the second disc (still to watch) containing deleted scenes, interviews, and much more, so I had a great find, with both discs in mint condition too. And as a big Edward Norton fan, I've also bought the DVD of Red Dragon (2003), a prequel movie to The Silence of the Lambs, in which his character pursues and finally snares Lecter, thereby ending his killing spree and beginning his caged imprisonment where Clarice later meets him for the first time.

Finally: if you've never watched The Silence of the Lambs (or read the Thomas Harris novel on which it is based), you may be wondering what its title means in relation to the movie. As a youngster, Clarice lived on her uncle's ranch, which had sheep. One early morning she awoke to the sounds of screaming from terrified lambs in the slaughterhouse close by, so she crept inside, hoping to rescue them, but only succeeded in running away with a single lamb. However, she felt that even the saving of one might somehow contribute to the saving of all of them, thereby stopping their screaming and restoring the silence. Now, as an adult FBI officer, she is still heavily influenced by this traumatic experience, inasmuch as she is fervently hoping that if she can rescue Buffalo Bill's latest abductee, a senator's daughter, it will bring to an end his history of kidnap and murder, thereby saving other potential victims and thus restoring to these human lambs the silence of safety.

If like me you have somehow managed not to see this movie during the three decades that have passed since its release, be sure to click here to view on YouTube an official trailer for it in order to discover just what you've been missing – while watching it you could even open a nice Chianti and have an old friend for dinner!

Also, be sure to check out here at Shuker In MovieLand my thoughts regarding the second member of this terrifying trio of horror movies very belatedly watched by me – A Nightmare On Elm Street. Don't miss it!

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.

 

Illustration of a genuine deathshead hawk moth (public domain)