Number of Views: Multiple
Release Date: April 10, 1981
Sub-Genre: Werewolf
Country of Origin: United States
Budget: $1,500,000
Box Office: $17,985,893
Running Time: 91 minutes
Director: Joe Dante
Producers: Michael Finnell, Jack Conrad
Screenplay: John Sayles, Terence H Winkless
Based on: The Howling by Gary Brandner
Special Effects: Rob Bottin, Rick Baker (consultant), Roger Beswick, Roger George
Score: Pino Donaggio
Cinematography: John Hora
Editing: Mark Goldblatt, Joe Dante
Studio: Avco Embassy Pictures, International Film Investors, Wescom Productions
Distributor: Avco Embassy Pictures
Stars: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, Elisabeth Brooks, Margie Impert, Noble Willingham, James Murtaugh, Don McLeod, Dick Miller and Robert Picardo as Eddie Quist
Cameos: Roger Corman and Mick Garris

I have to be totally sincere. My reasoning behind appraising this superior piece of werewolf folklore is totally selfish. I was utterly seduced by its sleeve artwork. There are very few images which stick quite so prominently in the mind than that of Joe Dante’s howl-fest. Narrowly pipping both An American Werewolf in London and Company of Wolves just because of ‘that image’ Dante’s film has since had to suffer the indignity of preceding some of the most wayward, awkward and wasteful franchise movies of the entire horror spectrum. I have the painful task of sifting through the rubble to attempt at some sort of constructive critique at some point (not for some time I trust) and I’m open to being caught unawares as I hear part 6 is the cream of a crop way past its harvest. I’m not crusading; it’ll get a fair hearing but for now we’re in familiar territory.

Many things spring to mind when I reappraise this growling beast. Firstly, Dee Wallace reading the news in our finale. Sorry to go ass about face but I have just appraised Pulp Fiction (#67) so that’s how I’m living. Her peepers would sit next to Meg Foster’s in a draw by my bedside and they’d watch me pleasure myself regularly.

The second distinguishing feature would have to be the make up F/X. Rick Baker aside, the transformation effects on display here are of the very highest calibre. Rick was actually named as a consultant but the truth is he very nearly took the reigns, deciding instead to work on John Landis’ movie. Good fortune meant that effects maestro Rob Bottin took centre stage and he did a marvellous job with his deft hand and mastermind. Some of Baker’s magic clearly rubbed off although in years to come Bottin would step out of his shadow and reach the pinnacle of his field on his own merits.

I recall fondly that wonderful image of a wolf’s silhouette as it closes in on its quivering prey. The image was the sole screenshot on the rear of Embassy Video’s UK VHS sleeve and it served perfectly to cement one’s desire. The desire I speak of is that of making The Howling the next tape in your player. There’s a thick line of dark humour running right through proceedings and it works well, tempered by sufficient menace and some truly unsettling moments. It finds the right balance and never veers too far from either.

After their earlier collaboration on Piranha Dante and John Sayles again joined forces, this time in far more intimidating fashion with a contemporary take on the Werewolf tale, which managed to sidestep cliché and instead focus on lycanthropy folklore. The bipedal creatures were pretty terrifying although this was offset against sardonic, satirical humour which was of the blackest variety.

The main spotlight of the plot was on news anchor Karen (Dee Wallace), who had attracted the fixative attentions of a demented serial killer and unwittingly agreed to offer herself up as bait in a bid to bring him to justice. After the encounter went awry she began to suffer from lucid dreams and nebulous recollections of that nights events. Taking her psychologist’s advice she and her spouse headed off to an out-of-the-way Californian commune, where they took up temporary residence in a therapy retreat.

Rather than assuaging her distress, things got even less salutary as she began to meet the locals, a collection of fruit cakes if ever I saw one. Also, the sound of titular moans from the dense adjoining forest and the seduction of her husband by one of the malevolent woman-beasts compounded her anguish. Thankfully, a kindly reporter pal agreed to help her unravel the mystery of the commune.

By the time The Howling reached its climactic transformation the kitty was bare (Veteran B-listers Slim Pickens, John Carradine and Dick Miller don’t come free y’know) meaning that the scene had to be shot close-up and in an unused office as Dante could no longer afford sets. Bottin performed miracles with his effects, and the resulting scene stood proudly alongside his master’s efforts. The werewolves themselves were never ashamed of their heritage, not fussed with fitting in and were contented in those fog-shrouded woodlands, the self-accepting lycanthropes displayed none of the self-loathing normally associated with becoming hairy on the inside (Teen Wolf aside).

In the improvised words of Robert Picardo ‘I want to give you a piece of my mind’…
The Howling really was ahead of the pack. It offered post-Network insight into the media and Dante explored the conception that the American public were desensitised enough by 1981 that shock tactics became necessary for television to preserve viewing figures. Where occurrences took place outside of the media’s reach, our news anchor wanted to shout from the rooftops on her return but in a society inundated by relentless mass broadcasting, she struggled to make her voice heard. Folk were too urbane to believe any claims she made showing how complacent and deeply cynical the social order had become by the Eighties.
Amidst all this biting social commentary was a good old-fashioned werewolf movie. Forget about its sequels as they really don’t amount to a petite pile of marsupial dung; but overlook The Howling at your own peril.

Crimson Quill’s Judgement: 8/10

Grue Factor: 3/5

For the Gorehounds: There is judicious gristle on the bones of Dante’s delectable dark fancy and some astounding shape-shifting to sink your molars into.

SYNOPSIS: TV anchor woman, Karen White, is traumatised when serial killer, Eddie, is shot dead moments before he can attack her. While recuperating at the Colony, she is tormented by ‘the howling’ and begins to suspect that the retreat is somehow linked to Eddie’s killing spree, and that her fellow patients may be more than they seem.

WEREWOLF TRIVIA: Rick Baker was the original effects artist for the film, but left the production to work on the John Landis film An American Werewolf in London, handing over the effects work to Rob Bottin.

FULL REVIEW:

Your imagination fills in the gaps. This is the secret of good horror. Give enough to create a framework, and let the viewer complete the picture with their own nightmares. Give them too much, and the framework fills itself with what’s on screen, and this is rarely as scary as our own, personal nightmares. On re-watching Joe Dante’s The Howling for the first time in at least ten years, this is what strikes me: just how much my imagination has filled the gaps.

The Howling is first and foremost a lean film. So lean, that it recycles itself during its own 91-minute running time. The title credits are a montage of sound clips from the movie you’re about to see. Throughout, the protagonist – Karen White – is plagued by flashbacks from the opening scenes. Eddie Quist’s drawings in his woodland cabin at the colony are a Xerox of those in his abandoned city apartment. The howling itself is recorded and replayed on an 80s cassette player. Terry Fisher’s murder is taped too, and itself played back on the same recorder. There’s so much recycling that it makes you wonder how much you’d need to reduce the running time to, if you were only allowed to include each piece of footage or sound-bite once.

There are technical weaknesses. The passage of time hasn’t been kind to the transformation sequences. Soft-porn-Marsha and Greg’s midnight tryst and ensuing hairing-up fire-side coitus comes off just plain weird. The money-shot Eddie Quist transformation – all pulsating latex on static model head – can’t even be saved by one of the best werewolf lines in lycanmovie history (‘I want to give you a piece of my mind’). It’s best not to mention the brief use, a couple of times, of cartoon wolf painted onto film. And as for the kind of wolf that Karen makes (a wet nosed puppy) right at the end of the movie….

There’s a dubious attitude towards sex and women too. The repeat viewings of the porn gang-rape which Eddie forces Karen to view in the opening scenes are disturbing, and exploitative. Stranger though is that Karen’s single refusal of husband Bill’s amorous advances at bed time (even in 1981 it’s a bit much to expect to be swinging from the lampshades with your wife just days after she’s been attacked by a notorious serial killer) is enough to excuse his almost immediate transformation into Marsha’s lapdog. Marsha herself is a man eater – in both senses – all leathered up and bursting at the seams. And Eddie Quist is a good old fashioned ripper-style woman-killer.

In places the acting is decent, in others it’s bottom drawer. The dodgy, raised-eyebrow looks that the inhabitants of the Colony share every time a clue is dropped that might give them away. The way that the front line of part-changed werewolves back into the barn – almost arm in arm – as Chris waves a silver-bullet stocked rifle at them. Pretty much everything that Christopher Stone does as Bill.

And there are some simple plot oddities. Why, for example, do werewolves – one of which is apparently strong enough to break out of a steel box in a morgue – have such a problem chewing their way through the balsa wood walls of a barn, rather than burning to death? Why, when they catch up to Karen and Chris in a stalled police car, do the werewolves seem to want to wipe their wolf-hands across the windows rather than smash them and grab?

But there is good stuff here too.

The werewolf design is strong – strongest in fact when it uses good old fashioned puppetry rather than the more modern (for then) special effects. They’re scary. Eight or ten feet of scary. The Terry Fisher/ T.C. Quist forest chase scene is chilling, and then thrilling. Axing off a werewolf hand and watching it pulsate and flip back to human is genius. Terry’s final despatch at the hands of Eddie in werewolf form, whilst her boyfriend Chris listens over the phone, is horrific, neatly finished with a splash of blood across paperwork beneath her twitching feet as she hangs from his grasp. And back to that line – ‘I want to give you a piece of my mind’ – there are snatches of good writing.

Better is what the film (after Gary Brandner’s novel) does to werewolf mythology. It ditches the lone werewolf, full-moon changes, complete transformation and memory loss. The tortured soul who must eventually be destroyed by the curse. These guys can change when they want, and when they’re changed, they are still human on the inside, but it’s raw humanity, unashamedly undomesticated: ‘You can’t tame what’s meant to be wild, doc. It ain’t natural.’ Maybe this is what we’d really be if we had superpowers.

But best is how trim it is. There isn’t a spare ounce of fat here. It does what a horror movie should do – hurtles you forward at pace, so that on first viewing you don’t have time to notice what’s wrong with it. You fix on what works, and fill in the gaps for the rest. Scene after scene, wolf-pun after wolf-pun, it all snaps along at pace, with a few jumps, real scares and some dark, dark humour.

So maybe, just maybe, when the man at the end of the bar right in the last scene of the movie says: ‘Hey Ernie? Put that pepper steak on for me, will ya? And a hamburger for the lady.’

And Ernie replies: ‘How do ya want that?’

And the man at the end of the bar turns and says: ‘How you want it, honey?’

Instead of looking straight down the lens and saying, ‘Rare’, maybe just maybe, Marsha Quist should just say fix those eyes straight on the audience and purr, ‘Lean’ instead.

Here’s the official press release for Voices From The Grave - 

From master horror writer Gary Brandner, author of ‘The Howling’, and filmmakers Richard Stoudt and Laurence Holloway comes a relentlessly harrowing film experience. A trio of horrors that will make your flesh creep and your heart palpitate. 

Deadly spirits, vengeful and maliciously spiteful give fuel to these tales of supernatural terrors. 
‘Invitation’, based on a short story by Gary Brandner, tells the tale of loser Len Krager, who attends a party he’ll never forget! A vengeful spirit exacts revenge in the tale ‘All Hallows’ Eve’! An exercise in suspense and atmosphere. Robert Mundy doesn’t celebrate Halloween since the accidental death of his brother on Halloween night. But this Halloween night, vengeance will rise and seek retribution. Ghostly road hazards endanger a used car owner in the turbo-charged yarn ‘Repossessed’, a spine tingling ‘vehicle’ for absolute fright. Jeff purchases a killer car for a killer deal….unfortunately, the car really is a killer!

A true exercise in style and terror, ‘Voices from The Grave’ will thrill and chill even the most jaded horror fan!

And don’t forget that the official Voices From The Grave teaser trailer is finally here. A new full legnth horror anthology featuring Gary Brandner’s (Howling author) Short story “Invitation”!

From master horror writer Gary Brandner, author of ‘The Howling’, and filmmakers Richard Stoudt and Laurence Holloway comes a relentlessly harrowing film experience. A trio of horrors that will make your flesh creep and your heart palpitate.

Deadly spirits, vengeful and maliciously spiteful give fuel to these tales of supernatural terrors.
‘Invitation’, based on a short story by Gary Brandner, tells the tale of loser Len Krager, who attends a party he’ll never forget! A vengeful spirit exacts revenge in the tale ‘All Hallows’ Eve’! An exercise in suspense and atmosphere. Robert Mundy doesn’t celebrate Halloween since the accidental death of his brother on Halloween night. But this Halloween night, vengeance will rise and seek retribution. Ghostly road hazards endanger a used car owner in the turbo-charged yarn ‘Repossessed’, a spine tingling ‘vehicle’ for absolute fright. Jeff purchases a killer car for a killer deal….unfortunately, the car really is a killer!

A true exercise in style and terror, ‘Voices from The Grave’ will thrill and chill even the most jaded horror fan!

You can check out their official Facebook page here. Now check out the teaser trailer:

What do you think? Are you ready for another horror anthology?

Stay Bloody!!!

Gold Medal 1-4470-4, 1st printing

A beautiful girl with a terrifying past.
A murderous wild leopard stalking the city.
Driven by bizarre desire, the girl begins to change…

A paperback original first edition by Gary Brandner, based on a the 1942 screenplay of the original film by DeWitt Bodeen. 1982 movie tie-in with Nastassia Kinski photo cover.

Cat People movie posters, 1942 & 1982

One of the stories includes Agnes: A Love Story by David C. Hayes, which tells the tale of a lawyer named Jack who feels unappreciated at work and by his wife so he starts a relationship with a photocopier. They get along well until the photocopier starts wanting the lawyer to kill for it. The thing I liked about this story was how the author makes you feel sorry for Jack. His two co-workers are happily married and love their jobs while Jack is married to a paranoid alcoholic and he hates and works at a job he can’t stand. You completely understand how he can fall in love with a copier because he is a lonely soul that no one understands except the copier of course.

Another story in Help Wanted is Work Life Balance by Jeff Strand. In this story a man works for a company that starts to let their employees do what they want at work. It starts with letting them come to work a little later than usual, then the employees are allowed to hug and kiss on the job. Things get really out of hand though when the company starts letting employees carry knives and stab each other, as long as it doesn’t interfere with their job. This story is meant to be more funny then scary but still has its scary moments. Jeff Strand does a great job mixing humor and horror in this story.

Another good story in Help Wanted: On The Job Terror is The Chapel Of Unrest by Stephen Volk. This is a gothic horror story that takes place in the 1800’s and has to deal with an undertaker who has the duty of capturing and embalming a ghoul who has been eating dead bodies in a graveyard. Stephen Volk through his use of  imagery in describing the graveyard, the chapel and the clothes of the time, transports you into an 1800′s gothic setting that reminded me of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

One more story in this anthology that I have to mention is Expulsion by Eric Shapiro which tells the tale of a mad man going into a office to kill his fellow employees. This is a very short but very powerful story that gets you into the mind of a disgruntled employee but manages to end on a positive note. Though there were stories I didn’t like in Help Wanted, all in all its a very good anthology. I highly recommend this book but if this one doesn’t appeal to you the people at Evil Jester Press have some other good anthologies available including: Evil Jester Digest Volume 1  and Attic Toys.

The other anthology I want to mention is from Biting Dog Press called Dark Blessings by John Paul Allen. Included here are short stories dealing with a road trip to hell, a child with an unusual appetite and a closet lover with deadly intentions. Dark Blessings was really a surprise for me, I hadn’t heard of John Paul Allen but I read some good reviews and decided to give it a shot.

The first story in this anthology is called Pit Stop at Hoo Hoo Hollow which follows a young couple on their way through West Virginia who have made a career out of scamming the elderly out of money. During  a stop at Poogan’s Pass they end up where they didn’t expect to go and pay for their misdeeds. While this story is not bloody like some horror stories, it manages to scare in away you wouldn’t think about and makes a point that even if you think you are going to get away with something, karma will get you in the end.

The next story in Dark Blessings is called Runs Like Rabbit and follows the story of a native american boy named Runs Like Rabbit that has to give up his heritage and move with his family so his father can take a job in the white man’s world. The family gives up their names and rejects the gods that they once worshiped in search of a better life. The family soon finds out its not easy to leave their heritage behind as they become isolated. Runs Like Rabbit leaves the family and they all pay in the end. The thing I love about this story is it makes you feel the pain and loneliness that Runs Like Rabbit feels but then the story leaves you with a surprise ending that changes your feelings.

Keeping with the theme of John Paul Allen’s anthology which seems to be that all humanity is good but there is a dark self destructive side to it that makes us suffer. My favorite story in this book a love story called Marquee which has to deal with mistreating the ones you love, paying for your mistakes and letting go. The story follows a man named Scott who mistreats a mentally handicapped person named Duffy, but later finds out that he is connected to him through past lives. Duffy holds the key to Scott fixing his relationship with his wife. To talk to much about this story would give it away, it’s a different kind of love story that shows that sometimes to prove you love someone you have to let them go.

Each story here is a gem and shows humanity at its worst and best. Another story here that I found disturbing but illustrates how good comes from something bad was Prader-Willie which tells the story of three boys left to watch a girl with special needs. The story shows that things aren’t always what they seem. Dark Blessings is psychological horror at its best and I look forward to reading more from John Paul Allen.

VOICES FROM THE GRAVE FACEBOOK

• Dir. Philippe Mora
• Released by Hemdale
• Based on the Gary Brandner novels
• Rating *

I can’t recall who published the paperback here in the UK and the  internet is not being helpful with this. I know the sequel, The Return of the Howling was published by Hamlyn, but I’ve got a feeling the first book was originally (UK) published by Sphere or NEL . Nor did the UK paperback, I recall ,have the cover pictured in the first image. Of course Hamlyn did eventually publish The Howling in paperback, but this was following the 1981 movie with a movie tie-in version.

It was a great novel, though – written with real pace that dragged the reader from page to page. I remember it being quite graphic in places, with some lupine sex. The chief character Karyn Beatty is recovering from a rape, trying to rebuild her life and so she, and her husband, Roy decide to move from the city, in the hope that a change of scenery will help Karyn start living again. And at first it seems the change of scenery helps but then Karyn starts hearing a mysterious howling sound at night. Roy feels alienated from his wife and starts an affair with a local woman called Marcia who just happens to be a werewolf. Soon Roy is bitten and Karyn is stranded in a town full of werewolves.

This all leads to a breathtaking showdown against the town of loony lupines. Strange that Brandner never enjoyed the same profile over here in the UK as Stephen King, James Herbert or Dean Koontz ( who back in the day we knew as Dean R Koontz). His books, the ones I’ve read, have all been excellent, breathlessly paced and with the right mixture of  fantasy and reality.

There were two sequels – Howling II (AKA The Return of the Howling) and Howling: Echoes. I have read the second book, but have never come across the third in the trilogy. Though I think I would like to and so it’s off to eBay for a search. Maybe I’ll get a copy of all three books and revisit the world of The Howling.

I’ve seen a couple of the movies – the first one certainly but the book is much better and ain’t that usually the case.  None of the Howling books are currently available on Kindle or for any other eBook device, though there’s little doubt that they will eventually become available digitally, as more and more publishers realise this is a new lucrative market for out of print mass market titles.

Break out the flea collars, because Howling 2: Your Sister is a Werewolf is The Greatest Movie EVER!

Click on the movie poster or the title above to download our review of the film, featuring special guest host Keith Allison from Teleport City.

Review in a Nutshell:  Featuring titanium bullets, new wave rockers, and an eight thousand year old werewolf matriarch, Howling 2: Your Sister is a Werewolf is a stupifyingly terrible film.  It’s the cinematic equivalent of being hit in the helmet by a morningstar-wielding midget.  Watch it with someone you love.

This movie contains:

Christopher Lee in Raver Shades.

Black Magic.

Force Lightning.

Ugly American Tourism.

The Howling is actually a really peculiar movie, both technically and in terms of plotting.

It is, possibly, Joe Dante’s straightest work. He’s making a regular picture here, with newsroom stuff, with cop stuff. It’s different from anything else I’ve seen of his–when Belinda Balaski is running from a werewolf, he handles it without any humor. It’s beautiful direction, even if there is a strange animated shot at one point (which makes little sense, because there’s some fine stop motion at the end, so why didn’t they just use it earlier too).

But The Howling is actually full of humor. The last shot of the film is a hamburger cooking, it’s goofy. There are constant, omnipresent references to werewolf films–there are ten characters named after werewolf movie directors–there’s a clip from The Wolf Man, there’s even a picture of Lon Chaney hanging on a wall–in story. But these references are somehow detached from the rather serious and straightforward way Dante tells the story. He’s got Kevin McCarthy giving a straight performance–Kevin McCarthy giving a straight performance in a Joe Dante film. It’s incredible.

Where The Howling gets in trouble is Dee Wallace. It isn’t just her performance, which is okay (though she’s never quite believable as a go-getter anchorwoman), but the way John Sayles’s script treats her. The concept–reporter discovers her elite psychiatric resort is really a colony of werewolves–really seems to imply she ought to be the main character. But she isn’t. She isn’t even the first to discover the werewolves. She isn’t even the second… wait, yes, she is. She is the second.

But Sayles avoids giving Wallace much to do and the film suffers for it. There are big plot holes–for example, it’s never explained why Wallace is invited to the werewolf club. It’s also never explained why her husband–played by Wallace’s real-life husband, Christopher Stone–accompanies her.

No, where Sayles finds the most interest–and maybe Dante too–is with Dennis Dugan (yes, Dennis Dugan) and Balaski. Both of them are fantastic, full of chemistry, having a great time, as TV news producers investigating. Their scenes are wonderful–they get the Dick Miller scene and it’s a doozy–and the film comes alive whenever either are onscreen.

The Howling also skirts around being particularly disturbing. Wallace is having real psychological problems, occasionally represented onscreen as dream sequences, but it’s hard to imagine her having a really hard time. Her basic recovery is just too fast.

There’s some good acting from John Carradine and Slim Pickens. Patrick Macnee has less to do than Wallace, if it’s even possible. Stone leaves a lot to be desired… Robert Picardo’s got a small part and he’s fantastic.

What’s nicest about the film is the way it gets so much better in the last third. The first act and most of the second invite all these questions, all this thinking–the last act doesn’t bother with it, but still manages to close with a great scene. Unfortunately, it isn’t the last scene in the film, just the last scene in the narrative. The final scene’s a misstep, because The Howling spends so much time as a rather quiet movie about people, only to go with a big comic finish.

It’s nice for a film to take its entire running time to impress (or close to it–the last shot’s awesome, but it’s a diversion from dealing with the emotional aftereffects of the previous scene); makes the viewing experience all the more rewarding (and somehow exciting).

CREDITS

Directed by Joe Dante; screenplay by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless, based on the novel by Gary Brandner; director of photography, John Hora; edited by Dante and Mark Goldblatt; music by Pino Donaggio; produced by Jack Conrad and Michael Finnell; released by AVCO Embassy Pictures.

Starring Dee Wallace (Karen White), Patrick Macnee (Dr. George Waggner), Dennis Dugan (Chris), Christopher Stone (Bill Neill), Belinda Balaski (Terry Fisher), Kevin McCarthy (Fred Francis), John Carradine (Erle Kenton), Slim Pickens (Sam Newfield), Elisabeth Brooks (Marsha Quist), Robert Picardo (Eddie Quist), Margie Impert (Donna), Noble Willingham (Charlie Barton), James Murtaugh (Jerry Warren), Jim McKrell (Lew Landers), Don McLeod (T.C. Quist) and Dick Miller (Walter Paisley).

Related posts:

• Piranha (1978, Joe Dante)
• Innerspace (1987, Joe Dante)
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990, Joe Dante)
• Gremlins (1984, Joe Dante)
• Small Soldiers (1998, Joe Dante)