The Howling (Special Edition)

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Werewolves ever!
Review: This film - as others have stated - is up there with An American Werewolf in London. For me, this is the scarier film and has the better transformation. They are a landmark and makes you cry at the thought of it being redone today via dodgy CGI (American Werewolf in Paris, Bad Moon etc).

The werewolves are also the coolest EVER! Standy uppy, giant werewolves have always been my favourites but they go even further that as the head, mouth, teeth and ears are all shaped as I imagined the "perfect werewolf" to be.

Though lacking the dry humour of AMIL, this is a stand out film in it's own right. the only reasons why it gets 4 instead of 5 stars is because of:
a) the dodgy animated love scene by the camp fire; and
b) the cute poodle that Dee Wallace becomes at the end. Apparently, it seems that the studio guessed we would have more sympathy if she looked somewhat cuddly.

These werewolves are bad arse! They shapeshift at any time - night or day - and can seriously f**k you up!

The coolest scene was when Eddie Quist (as werewolf) casually picks a file out of a nosey woman's hand, before gently placing it down and then giving her an almighty back hander...whilst roaring in that menacing, freaky way they all do.

Just watch it for the transformation scene of Eddie Quist alone.
That and a cameo by Dick Smith.

Amazing!
Amazing!
Amazing!

Rating:
Summary: It's a scream!! Classic horror at it's bone-chilling best.
Review: Along with AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, this early 80's horror flick qualifies as one of the best werewolf movies ever made. It's definately one of the scariest. This movie scared the pants off me when I first saw it as a young kid. It's now 20 years later and the film still succeeds in raising a couple of hairs and giving me a few goose-bumps. Thanks largely to the films hideous but effective werewolf make-up and the ingenious and gruesome transformation scene which still leaves me speechless.

The film's plot centres around Dee Wallace (before she was Stone'd). A famous television news reporter who is being stalked by a psycho. She decides to help her local police in capturing him and agrees to meet with the stalker in a seedy, porno theatre. The encounter leave poor Dee tramautized and on her Docter's insistence, she along with her husband go to a small forested community for some alone time and relaxation unaware that the townspeople are not as friendly as they appear to be.

The film starts off well but looses a bit of steam during the middle so a little bit of patience is required. However, once the film gets going, there's no stopping it. The film's main highlights are the bone-chilling transformation scenes and a great performance by Dee Wallace.

So for those of you wanting a good, scary, first-rate shocker, THE HOWLING will not disappoint. It's still fresh and chilling, even after 20 years.


Rating:
Summary: The Classic Badass Wolf Flick
Review: This is one of my favorite Werewolf films.The Howling is a milestone in special effects,nothing came close to it at the time until American Werewolf in London was released.I saw this film when I was very young, and it gave me nightmares.After seeing it to the point I was'nt as scared of it anymore,I was completely mezmorized by the makeup effects.The Howling is a classic in it's own right,and the story is simple enough,but you really want to see this film for "the scare" and the "Werewolves".Not many good Werewolf films out there being made.Lots of Vampire movies,cause they are easier to make&make believable.Well worth watching and adding to your dvd collection.

Rating:
Summary: 4.5 STARS
Review: Best Werewolf movie of all time! The greatest special effects too. This film was released around the same time as John Landis' "American Werewolf In London" but this is by far a scarier film.

Great movie!

Rating:
Summary: Club Werewolf: No Pain, no Gain
Review: 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 that 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 follows the advice of celebrity Dr. Wagner(veteran actor Patrick Macnee, who brings aplomb and class to the proceedings), and takes 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, rather than running for the hills. But for me, that simply adds to Dante's dream-like film. In the realm of Dream, of course, when the Dark Deadly Thing comes calling, out of your closet or beneath your bed or through the window, you can't run. You remain frozen with terror, scream stifled in your throat, while the Thing's teeth tear free from bleeding, ulcerated lips, as talons distend from its twisted, bloated fingers, as tufts of hair writhe across its body and its spine grows long and twisted. You stand transfixed as it hunches, and begins its low, throaty, rumbling growl. While it prepares to spring...

Rating:
Summary: The Original
Review: This is the original film in what would become a horror franchise in the name of Friday the 13th, etc. Though not as powerful today as when I first saw it years ago as a rental, it is probably the best werewolf movie ever made. The special effects were ground breaking at the time. This is kind of redneck. The later films were highly gothic in origin, except maybe the third PG13 rated film. The best sequel and it looks like others agree is Howling V: The Rebirth. What a turnaround the series made. In Friday the 13thl, only the first sequel is of any quality. In Nightmare on Elm Street Freddy became funny. What could be scary to most audiences I look at as campy fun. I have watched almost every horror film all my local stores have for rent and a lot of disturbing Eurohorror. I have gotten rid of most of my collection, as by buying them on home video and DVD is the only way you can see them. They make B movies like The Howling series seem top of the line.

Rating:
Summary: Promising, but what's the point?
Review: A fan of horror movies I loved the premise of "The Howling", what with the main character being the target of a Werewolf psychopathic killer, but as soon as they moved down to the country I lost interest alltogther. The only characters I liked were the main characters friends in the city, researching the Killer and finding out about werewolves. They were very cool and could take care of themselves quite well. Unfortunately they weren't in much of the movie (more towards the end). The middle dragged on and on (much like I am here, for emphasis of it's dragging) and arrived exactly where it could have been from the very start of the movie. The only saving thing was the incredible makeup effects, but even still, it looks like there were seven different concepts as to what he should look like as he changes, and they picked the best footage from all of them and meshed it into one sequence (His face changes constantly back and forth from looking wolfish, to just like a dead person). At least in the end we knew he HAD to turn into a werewolf or else everyone would be upset. Also, any movie that has the ending credits scroll over a cooking hamburger loses A LOT of points in my book. Great for cult fans, maddening for everyone else.

Rating:
Summary: Wicked Cool Werewolf Movie!
Review: Karen White (E.T.'s Dee Wallace-Stone) is a TV news reporter who's become the object of serial killer Eddie Quist's psychotic obsession. One night, in a daring attempt to catch the killer on live television, Karen comes face to face with the beast inside him. A rookie cop comes to the rescue, and fills Eddie with lead before Karen can be physically harmed, but she's already the victim of psychological damage. Even the famous Dr. Waggner (Patrick Macnee) can't help Karen remember the face she saw that night, which has been locked away deep in her subconscious. Finally, the concerned doctor suggests that Karen and her husband, Bill, spend some time at his "Colony," a retreat in the California woods for some of his patients who need to "unwind." When the two arrive there, however, they find the place is hardly a relaxing setting. Surrounded by strangers who just keep getting stranger, disturbing howls coming from the woods at night, and a sudden rash of animal mutilations, Karen is not having a restful stay. To make matters worse, the Colony's lovely resident nymphomaniac, Marsha, has designs on Karen's frustrated husband, Bill. Meanwhile, back in the city, Karen's friends and co-workers, Chris and Terry, are doing their best to discover the secrets of Eddie Quist, who they find has mysteriously disappeared from the city morgue. Their search leads them on a path of werewolves and the supernatural, and both will have to come to terms with what they believe if they are going to save their friend from the dangers that surround her before it is too late!

Only a few months before the legendary "An American Werewolf In London" was released, Joe Dante gave us the OTHER best werewolf film ever made, the original "The Howling." Rather than the lone, cursed wolf-man figure, The Howling gives us a very different take on the genre, portraying werewolves as pack creatures much like the real-life animals they take their names from. Everything from alpha leaders, to challengers, to mating, hunting, and socializing is shown from the werewolf's point of view, giving us a much more realistically-based depiction. These tall and very impressive looking werewolves are also able to shape-shift whenever they choose, day or not, making them quite the formidable adversaries. But "The Howling" doesn't disregard the traditional Hollywood legends completely. It still takes silver bullets or fire to kill these werewolves, and their condition is still spread as easily as a single bite. The Howling's effects are fantastic, only outshined by "An American Werewolf In London," released that same year, and just as in that film, the material is handled with great love and respect. It's loaded with humor and cute and funny references to wolf and werewolf pop culture, from cartoons and illustrations, to a can of Wolf brand chili. There's no shortage of gore and horror either though, with some genuine scares for any lone, nighttime viewers. The cast is excellent, studded with camp and horror favorites like Dick Miller, Patrick Macnee, Dee Wallace-Stone, John Carradine, Kevin McCarthy, Christopher Stone, Slim Pickens, Dennis Dugan, and Roger Corman, among others. Elisabeth Brooks is breathtaking as the frighteningly seductive temptress, Marsha. Now, for many, the final scene (or rather, the next to final scene) in which we see a VERY different type of werewolf, tends to "ruin" the scary and impressive style of the rest of the film. Don't let this ruin it for you! According to Dee Wallace in a recent interview at thewerewolfcafe.com, this different look of the final werewolf was done to depict the character in question's unwillingness to submit to the evil transformation. Knowing that makes the whole thing much more acceptable (thanks, Dee)! Overall, "The Howling" adds up to one frighteningly good time that I highly recommend!

6 sequels followed "The Howling," ALL of which have an awful reputation. I recommend checking them out and judging for yourself. They're all very different, and a couple might be rather enjoyable to you, but avoid the no-budget part 7 (New Moon Rising) at all costs.