The Howling is commonly known
among horror movie fans as “the werewolf movie that came out in
1981 that wasn’t An American Werewolf in London.” Not for
one moment will I pretend that Howling doesn't deserve its
place in American Werewolf’s shadow. American Werewolf
has better acting, directing, special effects, and a more
compelling storyline than Howling by far.
However, does this mean that Howling
is bad? Hell no. Neither was How Green Was My Valley, a film
that just had the shit luck of beating both The Maltese Falcon
and Citizen Kane for Best Picture, thus assuring it a century
of hatred (still going strong) from anyone who gives a damn about
film history (...at least I assume it was good, I've never actually
seen How Green Was My Valley...).
In the same way, The Howling was not made to do battle with a
titan of the genre.
Dealing with the plot, the storyline is
a bit convoluted. A reporter (Dee Wallace) is traumatized after a
terrifying encounter with a serial killer (Robert Picardo) ends with
the killer being shot by police. She is told by her therapist
(Patrick Macnee) that she needs to go on vacation to a secluded
resort to recover. As it turns out though, the serial killer, the
therapist, and the entire town are all werewolves. Needless to say,
the serial killer isn't dead. And by the end of the film, she and
her husband (Christopher Stone) have both been turned as well. The
ending shows her turning into a werewolf on live television to prove
their existence, and being shot with a silver bullet in a mercy
killing by a friend. Just to twist the screws a bit harder, it
implies that no one will believe that what they just saw was real.
I'm not entirely clear on how much free
will werewolves have in this world. Their werewolf forms seem to be
evil, but they also seem to act with intent that's carried over from
their human forms. Her husband becomes evil, but he was already an
unlikable bastard who cheated on her. This whole thing makes me
seriously question if shooting her while in werewolf form was really
necessary at all, or if it was just a precautionary measure for an
unfounded fear.
The thing best remembered about this
film is probably the sex scene, which to me is a great disservice to
an otherwise decent movie. If we're going to remember something
about this film it should be Robert Picardo, who gives one of the
great performances of horror cinema. Sadly, he seems to have mostly
been forgotten. The special effects are also quite good. And
while they can't hold a candle to American Werewolf, they
could contend quite nicely with Underworld, which came out two
decades later.
Ultimately, this film is merely “good.”
I'm happy to share a planet with this film and all of the people
involved in its creation. If I happened to run into the director or
a member of the cast while grocery shopping, and for some bizarre
reason I had my copy of the DVD, I would probably ask them to
autograph the case. But, I probably wouldn't seek them out at a Con
or read their biographies.
The fact that this movie is so
forgettable is probably why the sequels all seem to be more readily
available. The sequels are mostly known for being delightful trash,
which does make them more memorable. However, that doesn't exactly
make me happy, since I do think this film is deserving of praise. I
know I sound contradictory on that point, but I feel like I have to
struggle to not insult this movie, since American Werewolf
is a thing. This is a film that would probably be legendary
in a universe without American Werewolf... but, that's not
really a universe in which I'd want to live.
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