I am a horror connoisseur. I watch a whole lot of horror movies. My favorite mini-genre of horror is the werewolf film. I have been obsessed with werewolves since I was a little guy. Unfortunately, I probably can't even come up with 20 great werewolf movies. Though Hollywood has glutted us with vampire and zombie flicks, the werewolf remains a rarity. I believe part of that is the struggle people seem to have to craft a unique werewolf story. The other part is the challenge of presenting a believable werewolf makeup that looks good. Joe Dante was able to accomplish both of these things (with help from Rob Bottin, of course).
Dee Wallace (who is gorgeous in this movie) is a news reporter who has been receiving phone calls from a serial killer named Eddie Quist. She helps the police to set up a sting operation to try to capture Quist, but it doesn't go as planned and she is almost killed before the police save the day and kill Quist (or did they?). Now, she has memory blocks and nightmares, so her shrink advises her to go to a new age camp to get the help she needs. Only there is much more to this camp that it seems and it might just be a village full of werewolves.
What Dante does well to begin with, story-wise, is to avoid the origin story. This was a prerequisite of most werewolf movies before this, that all followed the blueprint created in WEREWOLF OF London. Hero gets bit by werewolf, hero becomes werewolf, movie focuses on the tragedy of his/ her situation. Literally, they pretty much all followed that blueprint until THE HOWLING. By bringing us something fresh, Dante brought something new to the formula that has helped it to stand the test of time.
Dante, also, crams this movie full of easter eggs for fans. Beginning with the casting choices. Kenneth Tobey (the hero of THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD) is a cop in the beginning. Patrick Macnee as the doctor. John Carradine as an aging werewolf. Slim Pickens as the sheriff. Even more so are the myriad werewolf references. Go through the list of character names and you will notice that almost all of them are named for directors of classic werewolf pictures. The backgrounds are full of little wolf references, from the books they read to the chili they eat, it's like a Where's Waldo of werewolf lore and so fun for a werewolf nut like myself to dig through each time.
The makeup is maybe my favorite werewolf design of all time. Most early films used the "hairy guy" approach (think WEREWOLF OF London or THE WOLFMAN) where we get a guy on two legs with some extra yak hair. There was the cheap way out of using an actual dog (THE BEAST MUST DIE) or even AN American WEREWOLF IN London uses a creature that is basically just a dog. When I imagine a werewolf in my nightmares, neither are the monster I see. It should be an almost perfect amalgamation of the two creatures and THE HOWLING gives us that. Rob Bottin created something damn near perfect for this movie that I still haven't seen topped (DOG SOLDIERS comes close). If I have one nitpick it is the ears, which are too large, but I'm being too picky now.
The film keeps the action tight and the suspense at a maximum. We start to realize that there are more than one monster in these woods and it adds a terror of not just the werewolf(s) at the door, but the very fact that the heroes are up against an entire colony, adding that one vs all mentality that brings a whole new level to the plot complexion. It all wraps up in one heck of a climax.
There are weak spots, brought about mostly from the limitations of the budget. The animation in the sex scene is really bad. It was bad then and looks even worse now. The claymation used in the final chase is, also, very obvious. It's not EVIL DEAD bad, but it's not good either. Still, these small moments do not take away from the mastery of the special effects on display in this movie.
It's a shame that the movie will, really, forever live in the shadow of AN American WEREWOLF. Being released in the same year as what is, admittedly, a superior movie it never got a fair shake, but this movie remains one of the 5 best werewolf films of all time and one of the greatest horror films released in the 80s.
Dee Wallace (who is gorgeous in this movie) is a news reporter who has been receiving phone calls from a serial killer named Eddie Quist. She helps the police to set up a sting operation to try to capture Quist, but it doesn't go as planned and she is almost killed before the police save the day and kill Quist (or did they?). Now, she has memory blocks and nightmares, so her shrink advises her to go to a new age camp to get the help she needs. Only there is much more to this camp that it seems and it might just be a village full of werewolves.
What Dante does well to begin with, story-wise, is to avoid the origin story. This was a prerequisite of most werewolf movies before this, that all followed the blueprint created in WEREWOLF OF London. Hero gets bit by werewolf, hero becomes werewolf, movie focuses on the tragedy of his/ her situation. Literally, they pretty much all followed that blueprint until THE HOWLING. By bringing us something fresh, Dante brought something new to the formula that has helped it to stand the test of time.
Dante, also, crams this movie full of easter eggs for fans. Beginning with the casting choices. Kenneth Tobey (the hero of THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD) is a cop in the beginning. Patrick Macnee as the doctor. John Carradine as an aging werewolf. Slim Pickens as the sheriff. Even more so are the myriad werewolf references. Go through the list of character names and you will notice that almost all of them are named for directors of classic werewolf pictures. The backgrounds are full of little wolf references, from the books they read to the chili they eat, it's like a Where's Waldo of werewolf lore and so fun for a werewolf nut like myself to dig through each time.
The makeup is maybe my favorite werewolf design of all time. Most early films used the "hairy guy" approach (think WEREWOLF OF London or THE WOLFMAN) where we get a guy on two legs with some extra yak hair. There was the cheap way out of using an actual dog (THE BEAST MUST DIE) or even AN American WEREWOLF IN London uses a creature that is basically just a dog. When I imagine a werewolf in my nightmares, neither are the monster I see. It should be an almost perfect amalgamation of the two creatures and THE HOWLING gives us that. Rob Bottin created something damn near perfect for this movie that I still haven't seen topped (DOG SOLDIERS comes close). If I have one nitpick it is the ears, which are too large, but I'm being too picky now.
The film keeps the action tight and the suspense at a maximum. We start to realize that there are more than one monster in these woods and it adds a terror of not just the werewolf(s) at the door, but the very fact that the heroes are up against an entire colony, adding that one vs all mentality that brings a whole new level to the plot complexion. It all wraps up in one heck of a climax.
There are weak spots, brought about mostly from the limitations of the budget. The animation in the sex scene is really bad. It was bad then and looks even worse now. The claymation used in the final chase is, also, very obvious. It's not EVIL DEAD bad, but it's not good either. Still, these small moments do not take away from the mastery of the special effects on display in this movie.
It's a shame that the movie will, really, forever live in the shadow of AN American WEREWOLF. Being released in the same year as what is, admittedly, a superior movie it never got a fair shake, but this movie remains one of the 5 best werewolf films of all time and one of the greatest horror films released in the 80s.