nightroses
This is one of the best werewolf movies out there. The idea of a werewolf community in the middle of a wood, in isolation, is just so scary but awesome. The special effects were ghastly and gruesome. The characters were quite cheesy but it was fun. The werewolf characters are the coolest. The ending was a shock but I won't spoil it!
Fella_shibby
I first saw this on a VHS in the mid 80s. Revisited it recently on a DVD. After a very unpleasant incident involving a serial killer, TV reporter Dee Wallace takes some time off and goes to a retreat, but it's a place with horrifying secrets. The movie starts very slow with lots of chatting n nothing happening but eventually picks up the pace towards the end. The editing is bad as scene transitions r abrupt n the tension gets away too. The cinematography is decent. Nothing great to create the atmosphere. Joe Dante takes his time to build up the film n the werewolves. The transformation scenes are long and agonizing and go on forever. But the special effects by Rob Bottin r very good. Some may just laugh at the teeth of the werewolves. Viewers may find weird when they witness the werewolves' victim just standing there the whole time during the transforming instead of running for their lives. Notable was Elisabeth Brooks as she remains one of the hottest of all screen werewolves. And her campfire sex scene is one of the greatest love scenes of the 80's.
dee.reid
The 1981 Joe Dante-directed horror-thriller "The Howling" is a much, much better film than I remember it.Maybe I should try to explain that statement.You see, when I was in high school about this time 14 years ago, I went through a phase of consuming every piece of horror movie heaven I could get my hands on. One of the titles that made it into my circulation was "The Howling."I had first heard about "The Howling" through John Landis's landmark horror-comedy "An American Werewolf in London," which was released later on the same year as "The Howling"; "An American Werewolf in London" was the other in a trio of high-profile werewolf movies released in 1981 - that film, "The Howling," and "Wolfen." And when all is said & done, "An American Werewolf in London" won the first competitive Oscar for Best Makeup in 1982, and that film remains my favorite werewolf movie ever and nothing I've seen has topped it.But what about "The Howling"? Yes, "The Howling." "The Howling," when I first watched it, I honestly was not that impressed. Perhaps the reason was because I expected it to be a horror-comedy like "An American Werewolf in London." And why shouldn't you expect "The Howling" to be a horror-comedy - it WAS directed by Joe Dante (the 1978 "Jaws" clone "Piranha," 1984's "Gremlins," and the 1989 Tom Hanks comedy "The 'Burbs"), after all. So while "The Howling" does have some small comedic bits here & there and does, in fact, actually end on a punchline (in addition to containing a lot of in-jokey references to the werewolf movies of the past), it is, by & large, a straight-forward horror film, and a rather thrilling one, at that.Based on Gary Brandner's 1977 novel of the same name, Karen White (Dee Wallace) is a well-respected, well-known Los Angeles TV news anchor who is attacked by serial killer Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo) one night. Quist is killed by the police when he tries to attack Karen in a seedy downtown adult video store. Instantly traumatized by the event, Karen and her husband Bill Neill (Christopher Stone) go off to the "Colony" - sent there by pop psychiatrist George Waggner (Patrick Macnee) - a quiet seaside resort located somewhere up the California coast, for some much needed rest & relaxation.But something is not quite right about the Colony. Aside from some of the slightly bizarre characters she meets there, including a seductive black-leather-clad nymphomaniac named Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks), Karen is troubled by some strange "howling" noises she hears at night, to which Bill is highly skeptical of. Meanwhile, Karen's colleagues Chris (Dennis Dugan, who would later become a director of several blockbuster Adam Sandler comedies in the '90s) and Terri (Belinda Balaski) uncover a shocking connection between the deceased serial murderer Eddie Quist and the Colony..."The Howling" is a thrilling film. Of course, the reason you go to this picture in the first place are those special effects. Yes, the special effects that were created here by Rob Bottin, who was a protégé of Rick Baker; Baker was originally given the job of doing the special effects here, but left the project to work on John Landis's "An American Werewolf in London," and entrusted everything to Bottin. (Rick Baker won the first Oscar for Best Makeup for his work on "An American Werewolf in London.") But just because Rob Bottin had been entrusted with "The Howling's" special effects, that does not automatically mean that he was inferior in any way to his mentor and close friend. In fact, Bottin's effects here are on par with Baker's Oscar-Winning work on "An American Werewolf in London"; it's disappointing to know that Rob Bottin's special effects weren't even nominated alongside Baker's because the werewolf transformation sequences here - utilizing air-bladder make-up effects and latex applications - like Baker's work in "An American Werewolf in London," are eye-popping and still hold up 35 years later (and still blow away many of the CGI-laden horror vehicles of today)."The Howling" is an excellent horror-thriller to see again after all these years, and I'm thankful to have been given a chance to re-evaluate my overall opinion of it. Yes, I do enjoy its companion piece "An American Werewolf in London" much more, but I'm glad that I can watch the two movies and still see them as two completely different works of werewolf-horror, from two incredibly talented directors who know how to make us scared one minute, and have us laughing the next.8/10
