Shudder Sunday: The Howling

Director: Joe Dante

Year: 1981

Genre: Horror

Summary: After a bizarre and near fatal encounter with a serial killer, a television newswoman is sent to a remote mountain resort whose residents may not be what they seem.

2/5 Pineapples

Review:

1981 was the Year of the Werewolf with the release of An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, and Wolfen.

An American Werewolf In London comes in hot with an IMDb rating of 7.6/10 and a 10 million dollar budget that tripled it's revenue in box office sales. The sFX were wildly ahead of it's time, and the story of two friends backpacking Europe, being murdered and turned into a werewolf and then tormented by the ghosts of the dead is spectacular. I watched this film for the first time two years ago, and the quality of it blew me away even today. With it's unique plot line and incredible execution, this film made it's way into my top 10 horror faves instantly.

Whenever I'd mention to someone how much I loved An American Werewolf in London, they would always ask, "Have you ever seen The Howling?!"

Finally, I took the hint. I watched The Howling.

This film got a 6.6/10 on IMDb and overall positive reviews regarding this "underrated cult classic".

I'm confused why it's even being mentioned in the same presence of An American Werewolf in London. The budget was 1.5 million, which is significantly smaller than American Werewolf - and it shows with it's poor quality, script, acting, and story line.

The story begins with a newswoman, Karen White, that's literally and figuratively being "thrown to the wolves" by her news team that's sending her in to face her stalker, Eddie.

Anything for a good story, I guess.

She meets him in an adult video store where they have weird jerk-off closets with one chair facing a screen that plays porn. She opens the door to the closet with a yellow smiley face on it and sits in the chair facing the screen which is playing a rapey porno. As if that's not uncomfortable enough, her stalker is standing behind her in the dark. We're unable to see his face, but we hear his low voice sexually harassing her and telling her not to turn around. It's insinuated that he begins to transform into what can only be assumed is a werewolf, when she turns around to look at him and screams. This triggers the cops near by to storm into the video store and blindly shoot through the door.

Can someone say "lawsuit"? What if they would have hit HER? Also, they had no proof that this man was armed or a threat... All they knew was that Karen was screaming. Stupid writing.

Miraculously, the gunshots missed our heroine, but killed the unseen man-creature. Our main character is whisked away from the scene, but suffers from hallucinations, anxiety, and nightmares following the traumatic event.

Obviously. Whose idea was this? How did no one see the repercussions?

Despite this traumatic sexual experience, her husband, Bill, can't seem to grasp why she doesn't want to sleep with him - or even understand her struggle coping at all.

After a meltdown on air, because her news team decided to put Karen back in front of the camera prematurely, she sees a therapist that suggests she take a retreat in the mountains to de-stress. Her therapist has a camp of his own with several of his patients also taking therapeutic vacations.

When her and her husband arrive, they soon realize everyone else at the camp is very eccentric.

During a night of testosterone-induced therapeutic hunting (eye roll), Karen's husband is bitten by a wolf. He's taken care of, bandaged up, and everyone moves on with their lives, until Karen starts to notice that he's acting different. She tries to sleep with him, and he turns her away. They get in an argument, he get's too physical, and they storm off separately.

Where else might Bill go? Well, he storms right into the arms of the camp's nymphomaniac like any classy man would. Weird werewolf sex ensues.

When did lycanism become an aphrodisiac?

Karen gets extremely uncomfortable with the camp - the people and the way it operates, and reaches out to two of her friends who are also part of her news team. They've already been looking into the case regarding Karen and this strange stalker man-beast, and have been headed in the direction of believing it's related to the lore of the wolfman in some way or another.

So, her friends come to stay with her and visit with her. They come across some peculiar things, and her girl friend gets into the wrong situation and essentially gets herself killed - but not before calling her boyfriend to inform him of what she's found and call for help.

Karen goes looking for her friend after discovering Bill cheated on her with the nympho, and she is trying to leave the camp. She stumbles into an office where, after taking her time to look around, a man appears, and it's Eddie! Her stalker! Not dead! Then she stands idly by as he takes a solid 5 minutes to transform into a werewolf on command. For whatever reason there's some kind of acid near by, so she chucks that at the creatures face and finally attempts to leave.

The next scene is everyone - the therapist and all of his patients - within the campsite conversing about whether or not to kill/sacrifice Karen despite the risk of exposing them for the creatures they all really are to the rest of society.

I don't know about you guys, but I honestly hate any storyline where a community of people - no matter how small - turns out to be secretly "in" on something. I also typically dislike anything involving cults. They just don't interest me. And this entire end sequence felt like a weird werewolf cult going back and forth with a mediocre script.

Karen got captured and brought to this barn where everyone in the camp/colony is arguing about what to do with her. Karen's friend's boyfriend is frantically driving to the camp in response to his girlfriends call for help. His first stop is the same office that his girlfriend died in and that Karen had a run in with Eddie. He too runs into Eddie who is still just hanging out for some reason, and we have the pleasure of watching Eddie take another 5 minutes to transform on command into a werewolf missing half a face because: acid. The boyfriend has a gun with silver bullets, that he got from some odd thrift store book shop, and shoots Eddie.

The next scene is said-boyfriend somehow finding the exact location of where the werewolf cult is hiding out and holding Karen captive. He shoots a couple with silver bullets, somehow manages to shut and lock the door of the barn with most of the werewolves inside, then sets fire to it with the gasoline and lighter the werewolves were going to use to kill Karen and her friends. They make it back to his car and drive home, coming across some werewolves along the way.

After surviving by the skin of their teeth, Karen decides the world needs to know about this werewolf cult colony. Karen goes on air, off script, and begins telling people about this bizarre, fantastical cult. Everyone listening believes she must have lost her mind.

UNTIL she transforms into what can only be described as a Yorkshire Terrier.

The very last scene is of the nympho were-woman sitting at a bar, breaking the forth wall, and ordering a burger "rare'.

The script and blocking were mediocre at best. Karen White's werewolf transformation looking more like a plush house dog impersonation is still geeking me out. The smiley face sticker which makes it's first appearance on the jerk-off closet door in the adult video store and continues to pop up throughout the film is never explained - nor do I feel it served any real purpose. The transformations were excruciatingly long. I understand the budget was low. But there are ways to cut corners when working within a small budget. This film tried so hard to make high quality werewolf transformations with low quality sFX, and it was pitiful. Had the movie had a decent script and decent acting, I may have been able to look past the sFX, but there was almost nothing wow-ing me about this film. Breaking the 4th wall in the closing scene, and seven sequels?! Unnecessary.

Almost every single time that I mention An American Werewolf in London, someone suggests The Howling, but aside from them being made in the same year and being about werewolves, I don't believe the two are comparable in the least. I mentioned Wolfen being released in the same year as well, but that film had even lower ratings than The Howling, so I'm not taking any chances on watching that.

What's your favorite werewolf movie?

Rated 2 out of 5 pineapples because it wasn't SO terrible that I couldn't watch it - but I DID have to watch it in segments. Sorry, I can't stand behind this "cult classic" with what seems to be the majority of horror fans. But, let me know YOUR thoughts. Maybe I was overlooking something, and/or analyzing too harshly.

As always, thanks for viewing!