After a traumatic experience, news anchor Karen White is sent by her psychiatrist to a small community to recover; where Werewolf attacks begin to occur.
One of the things I like a lot about The Howling is that it's not an in your face Werewolf story. It starts out as something else entirely, that eventually weaves its way into that. This is probably one of the reasons why you see some today call this film boring. A nasty trend with the younger crowd that has hit several classics of the genre over the last few years. I must say to hell with modern Hollywood for imprinting the idea into people's brains that something is boring if it doesn't have a jump scare every minute and a lightning fast pace. I think this really does spoil some older, perfectly good films for a lot of people. Like I said, I love the build; and a slow burn was absolutely perfect to set the stage for the kind of effects that will be employed. More on those later.
The Howling is overflowing with references to previous Werewolf films. Several characters in the film are named after people who have contributed to this sub-genre, and clips from The Wolfman are are shown several times throughout. Even the score at times may remind longtime fans of the Universal Horror films of yesterday. Numerous other wolf-related puns can be spotted, which brings up the point that the film doesn't take itself gravely seriously, but still manages to keep a nice atmosphere. The film uses subtle humor to lighten the mood, but doesn't allow it to steal the show. A lot of credit to the director Joe Dante for that. The first Gremlins, although a bit more comical than this, also utilized some of this approach well.
For the most part, the performances in the film are very good. I liked Dee Wallace as Karen. She has a classy look about her I think, and I bought her as a journalist. I also thought she did a good job of bringing across the emotions of the character; which are quite varied. Christopher Stone is pretty much Christopher Stone in this film. He was one of those actors who's own personality always seemed to come through into his characters. But, I liked him in this as Karen's Husband Bill. He and Dee are convincing as a couple, because they actually were a couple. Patrick Macnee and Belinda Balaski also turn in nice performances. Also look for Dante regular Dick Miller in a few scenes.
When Karen takes her retreat, the acting from some of the bit players becomes a little hammy. However, Elisabeth Brooks is there to pick up the slack as the mysterious and sultry Marsha, who attempts to seduce Karen's Husband. Along with Dee, I think Robert Picardo gives one of the best performances in the film as Eddie Quist. Pretty creepy, and probably the standout villain of the film.
As promised, we return to the subject of the special effects in the film. I think these were groundbreaking during the era in which The Howling was made. Rob Bottin, who would later go on to do some equally impressive special effects on The Thing, used bladders and elaborate prosthetics to transform the way we looked at a Werewolf transformation on film. The featured transformation scene is a show stopper. That's the reason why I contend that the slow build worked so well. You couldn't toss an effect like that one into the first 30 minutes of this film. If you did, then where else could you go after that? I still like these kind of old school makeup effects better than the CG morphing shots of today. Those just feel empty to me.
The final act of the film is anything but lazy, as it provides the audience with a couple of twists that keep the story moving along quite nicely, and continues to raise the stakes. I doubt the kind of ending this film had would fly today; where everything has to be all sunshine and rainbows at the end of a Horror film, despite that not reflecting how life always is. This film, along with An American Werewolf in London, were the ones responsible for successfully updated the Werewolf genre in my view. It's clear that a lot of creativity and appreciation for the Werewolf went into making The Howling the great film that it is.
Directed by: Joe Dante
Starring: Dee Wallace, Christopher Stone, Patrick Macnee, Belinda Balaski, Dennis Dugan, Robert Picardo, Elisabeth Brooks
Released by: MGM
Special Features
- Fullscreen and Widescreen versions of the film
- Audio Commentary by Director Joe Dante and actors Dee Wallace Stone, Christopher Stone, Robert Picardo
- Dick Miller: Thespian Featurette
- Unleashing The Beast: Making The Howling Featurette
- Making A Monster Movie: Inside The Howling Featurette
- Deleted Scenes
- Outtakes
- Theatrical Trailers
- Publicity Campaign Photos
- Production Photos
