Rating: 
Summary: Cute
Review: I heard that this movie gives you nightmares-deluxe......I thought it was nowhere as intense or scarry and wonderful as Dog Soldiers, another werewolf movie but from about 2 years ago.There are some cool scenes, and as most reviewers all ready gave the movie away, I san safely say that the scene in the doctors office, and right before it was kick as. The only gripe I have is not enough character development, and the werewolfs werent only changing at night during full moon, but in broad daylight, with birds chirping and bees buzzing, they also looked like super tall rabbits, and the girl at the very end, looked just like my persian cat, so I thought they were all very cute, but still bit nasty, I mean they did eat people. Not bad, but not scarry in my oppinion.
Rating: 
Summary: Let Us Prey...
Review: TV news anchor Karen White (Dee "E.T. / Cujo" Wallace) is set to meet with a brutal serial-killer named Eddie (a shaggy Robert Picardo) in a porn shop. She's wearing a wire, but her transmission is lost due to interference. Eddie shows her something in one of the movie booths that sends Karen into a state of shock and amnesia. The cops arrive, shooting through the booth's door, hitting Eddie several times. Karen is taken home, while Eddie goes to the morgue. A self-help guru (played by Patrick Macnee) talks to Karen and convinces her to stay at "The Colony", his therapeutic summer camp for neurotics. Upon arrival, Karen and her husband are introduced to a variety of oddballs, including a suicidal old man (John Carradine) and the ultra-sexy, nymphomaniacal Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks). Karen begins having very bad dreams and waking to bizarre noises in the night. Her husband is rather quickly seduced by Marsha, culminating in a fire-side lycanthropic romp! Karen calls her friend, who comes to help her and to do some snooping of her own. The friend finds out too much and is shredded for her trouble by the very-much-alive and very-much-a-werewolf Eddie. Ultimately, Karen discovers the secret of The Colony and it's inhabitants. This leads to a fiery and extremely hairy confrontation. Will Karen survive to tell the world? Watch it and find out! Joe Dante fans and B-movie / 50s sci-fi horror nuts will love his use of Dick Miller (Bucket Of Blood), Kenneth Tobey (The Thing From Another World, It Came From Beneath The Sea), Kevin McCarthy (Invasion Of The Body Snatchers), and uber schlock-meisterburger Roger Corman in cameo roles! THE HOWLING has enough good stuff to balance out any cheese factor. Highly recommended...
Rating:
Summary: SCARY
Review: I cannot agree enough with the other reviews...this is the best visual of a werewolf, very real and scary. The movie isn't bad either and the book is also great. The scene in the lab where Karen's girlfriend is on the phone and going to the filing cabinet is the BEST!!!
Rating: 
Summary: B-Movie Classic Howler
Review: THE HOWLING came out in April 1981 and featured the first "on-camera" werewolf transformation, beating AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON by about four months or so.
(Director John Landis had written AMERICAN WEREWOLF around 1969 and got Makeup Effects genius Rick Baker onboard, so he hit the roof when he found out Baker's protege, Rob Bottin, did the effects for THE HOWLING and "stole his thunder," as Baker recalled in a interview).
Whether it was bad timing or shrewd marketing strategy, the two best modern werewolf movies both came out in 1981. THE HOWLING is still a fun horror movie, winking at its drive-in movie roots while effectively mixing both horror and humor. I enjoyed the extras but thought the documentaries repeated stories that were included in the commentary. (I was also confused that the late Christopher Stone is present for the commentary--since this was a new DVD edition--but I've read that the commentary was recorded a few years back for a laser-disc edition).
Elizabeth Brooks, who plays the sexy but psycho nymphomaniac werewolf Marsha, has also passed away and I didn't see any mention of that. Sometimes they talk about these things, sometimes they don't.
And I was a little disappointed that Director Joe Dante said several times, "I wish I could remember more about this." But that all sounds like quibbling. I ended up having more affection for THE HOWLING than I thought I would. The interviews with Dante and screenwriter John Sayles are interesting for their approach to the material and I loved all the little cameos and stories about Roger Corman, Forrest J. Ackerman, etc. I also loved the stop-motion footage that was discarded and the story about the flying werewolves that left smoky "contrails." A fun movie and a great DVD for the horror movie fan.
Rating:
Summary: Tone those abs, relax, & get in touch with your Inner Beast.
Review: Note: This is a review of the Special Edition version. If John Landis's "American Werewolf in London" is the funniest werewolf film, and Mike Wadleigh's "Wolfen" is the grimmest, then Joe Dante's twisted and gruesome "The Howling" is by far the sleaziest---and when I say sleazy, I mean it in the nicest possible way. "The Howling" is about investigative news anchorwoman Karen White(played competently though underwhelmingly by Dee Wallace-Stone), who in the course of investigating a notoriously brutal serial killer (she arranges to meet him in a screening booth of a porn shop, no less!), nearly becomes one of her erstwhile subject's 'works of art'. The traumatized White agrees to follow the celebrity Dr. Wagner(veteran actor Patrick Macnee, who brings aplomb and class to the proceedings)'s advice, and decides to take a sabbatical to the Good Doctor's health-spa resort and retreat in the Northern California mountains with her husband Bill (played by real-life husband Christopher Stone). This seems a welcome reprieve from White's high-pressure career, particularly as the most troubling element of our heroine's recollections concern what she thinks she saw of the Killer in the dim and flickering light of the porno booth: a bestial, glittery eyed, fanged creature. White takes Dr. Wagner's advice, packs herself and husband Bill off to "The Colony", and begins a roaringly good excursion with all the amenities of a high-end health spa, such as mud baths, morning exercises, yoga, meditation, and of course---flesh-eating and howling at the full moon. In the process, you're treated to some pretty raucous bloodletting, a densely creepy and deliciously terrifying atmosphere, exquisite werewolf effects by Rob Bottin (a Rick Baker disciple who later produced the goopey effects for "The Thing"), and gratuitous Kevin McCarthy and Slim Pickens. Beneath its sleazy and nihilistic modernist elements, Joe Dante's "The Howling" is stoutly traditional, drawing on all the elements from the classic werewolf films: fog-shrouded forests, lycanthropic legendry, a lady in peril, and the voracious appetite of the transformed Beast. Dante has conjured real terror here. As for the Special Edition, "The Howling" has never looked better, and the 5.1 remastered soundtrack will have you glancing over your shoulder for red eyes in the darkness. The DVD is stuffed with special features, including mercifully deleted scenes, amusing outtakes, bloopers, and interesting commentary from Dante, Wallace-Stone, and John Sayles. You get a Making Of documentary, a promotional featurette, and much more---certainly enough to sate the hungriest Wolf-in-Man's-Clothing. Some have criticized the characters in "The Howling" for behaving unrealistically: standing rooted to the spot while the werewolves transform for instance, rather than running for their lives. But for me, that adds to Dante's vision, which is the stuff of nightmare. In the realm of Dream, of course, when presented with The Horror Which Kills, none of us can run: we remain frozen with terror, unable even to scream, while the Thing's teeth sprout from bleeding, ulcerated lips, while talons distend from its twisted and gnarled fingers, while the ribbons of hair sprout across its body and its spine grows long, twisted, deformed. While it hunches, and begins its low, throaty, rumbling growl. While it prepares to spring... We are frozen in fear. How could we run?
Rating:
Summary: THE HOWLING IS ONE OF A KIND!
Review: Story: A woman is getting mysterious calls from a killer and she and her newscast decide to rig her up with a wire and go and meet the guy. When she arrives to the place he attacks her! It is so dark that she can't see!!! The cops here her desperate cries for help and shoot the guy. When the cops ask her what happened she can't seem to remember a single thing! Her phsyciatrist/docter tells her that she should go up to the country to a place called the colony. Little does she know that the colony is really a group of werewolves!!! She soon discovers the secret and figures out the guy that attaked her is part of the colony!!!
Rating:
Summary: One Terrifying Discovery
Review: The Howling was made in 1981 by Joe Dante and became an instant horror classic. Having just bought the film on the Special Editon DVD without previously seeing it, I myself could see why this movie has molded into horror history. Dee Wallace is amazing as the well known tv reporter Karen White. Christopher Stone is great as her, cautious and scared for his beloved wife, husband. The supporting cast is also extremely effective, yet I do not recognize their names...This DVD is fantastic. This is the second DVD version of The Howling, this Special Edition one being a must have DVD for all collecters. Buy this movie. Its amazingly effective and sends endless chills throughout your body.
Rating:
Summary: UNREAL
Review: The Howling is honestly one of the best horror movies ever made. The script is exciting and funny, and most of the acting is very good. A must own for all you horror fans. Also check out an American Werewolf in London and The Wolfen. It's hard to believe the three best werewolf movies all came out in 1981.
Rating:
Summary: A B-movie horror classic
Review: Forget the numerous lame sequels, forget movies like Bad Moon and An American Werewolf in Paris; the original Howling is a masterpiece of B-grade horror ingenuity with some of the best special effects, makeup effects, and creature effects to ever be seen in the 80's. Director Joe Dante (Gremlins) mixes the film with enough horror, sex, gore, comedy, and various film and genre in jokes to keep enough of the viewer's interest until The Howling reaches it's big shocker finale. MGM managed to pack a very good amount of special features here (just like they did with their release of The Fog) and should please long time fans of this cult classic. Look for B-movie (and Dante) favorite Dick Miller, and a cameo from B-movie mogel Roger Corman.
Rating:
Summary: A Wolf in Werewolf clothing...
Review: Deftly combining social satire and horror, Joe Dante's The Howling remains a seminal and important film from the 80's. Unlike Steven Speilberg or Brian DePalma, Dante has managed to maintain his love of the genre and marry it to a modern sensibility. The screenplay by John Sayles captures the character quirks and clever plotting that would later appear in his own work as a writer and director. Sayles essentially junked the source novel keeping the key appeal of writer Gary Brandner's original work--a modern day Werewolf story. Sayles and Dante proceed to satirize the rising self help movement, sensationalism of tabloid television all the while paying homage to the Universal horror films the writer and director grew up watching as kids. Dante and Sayles fill the film with witty references to these old horror films via the names of the characters (almost every major character is named after a horror /werewolf film director) and clips (The Wolf Man and a couple of vintage cartoons and films crop up when you least suspect it) allowing a commentary within the film itself. It's self-reflective filmmaking at its best; it's witty and intelligent without falling into the art film school trap. It's clear that Dante and Sayles have a great love of old films. Dee Wallace Stone plays Karen White a TV newscaster on to the most sensational story of her career; a serial killer (played by the marvelous Robert Picardo) who uses smiley faces as his trademark and has been terrorizing the city wants to meet with her to give her his side of the story. He feels that there's a special connection between them. He selects a porno shop in the seediest part of town. Whey they meet up face to face, he tells her that he has a special gift for her. He then begins to turn into a Werewolf. Her husband Bill (the late and under appreciated character actor Christopher Stone) is alarmed when the station loses contact with her through the wire they have her wearing. The police and her husband arrive in the nick of time to save her from Eddie the serial killer. Traumatized, Karen takes a sabbatical and, at the recommendation of someone else, visits a colony run by a TV psychologist guru George Waggner (the droll Patrick MacNee). She's blocked much of what happened with Eddie and continues to have emotional problems due to her encounter.Waggner suggests that he join her at the Colony where he works with patients in a group setting. She agrees as long as her husband will come along. When she arrives there she notices that everyone is more than a few bricks shy of a full load. She also hears strange howling in the night. With the help of her producer (well played by Dennis Dugan) she begins to piece together what the Colony is really all about (helping Werewolves control their urges) and why she is there. The DVD is a huge improvement on the original video release and Laserdisc. The print used is nearly pristine and the DVD has few if any analog artifacts and minimal compression artifacts. Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1:85.1 (and a pan and scan version on the same disc) MGM has given The Howling the deluxe treatment. Warner Brothers Entertainment could take a few lessons from MGM on repackaging their cult classics. I noticed only a minimal amount of edge enhancement and was very impressed with the sharp image and skin tones. Dante comments in the Unleashing the Beast documentary about the use of color in the film. There's a comic book quality to the use of primary colors but the film never looks cheap or shoddy. Despite the fact that it was made on a low budget, the film looks impressive and belies its origin as a genre B Movie. The sound is almost as impressive. Enhanced with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround audio, the score by Italian composer Pino Donaggio not only sounds impressive but literally jumps right out at you during certain sequences. While there is a bit of compression that makes some of the quieter dialog sequences difficult to hear and the film can't quite take full advantage of the 5.1 mix, the sound still remains impressive and captures your attention almost as much as the improved images. It would have been very easy to repackage this Special Edition with just the vintage documentary. MGM chose instead to present a multipart documentary (which can be viewed in segments or all together). Dante, Sayles, Wallace-Stone, Picardo, actress Belinda Balaski and Dante regular Dick Miller reminisce about the making of the film and its groundbreaking visual style. Although many of the participants are no longer around (Christopher Stone died in 1995 as did animator David Allen) and some of the key participants chose to be interview (Both make up artist Rick Bottin and actor Dennis Dugan are MIA), the documentary gives a complete view of the film from its difficult origins to the final day of shooting done just before prints were to be struck. Like MGM's reissue of The Fog, The Howling gets all the extras it deserves. There's also an Easter Egg on the main menu. Look for Eddie the killer's trademark and click on it for an interview with Dante regular Dick Miller. Miller recounts how he first ended up working for Roger Corman and discusses the character he's best known for overseas (and whose name crops up in many Dante movies) from the film Bucket of Blood. The original featurette is included, as are the publicity materials, a photo gallery and outtakes. Additionally, the audio commentary by Dante, Wallace-Stone, Christopher Stone and Picardo that made its debut on the Laserdisc is lifted intact and included here. It provides an extra dimension. The use of the older audio commentary track also allows the late Christopher Stone to make some wry observations about the making and marketing of the film. This isn't a special edition in name only. MGM has gathered the best of the old and added new material to make this the ultimate edition of The Howling. The picture is stunning and the retrospective documentary provides insight into the making of the film as well as rare behind the scene footage previously not seen. MGM has managed to produce DVDs that range from fair (The Outer Limits) to outstanding (The Fog) over the years. The Howling continues to maintain the high standard we've come to expect from most of their product.
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