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32 out of 43 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the best werewolf movies ever made., 14 November 2005

Author: ResidentHazard (romerodawn@yahoo.com) from Plymouth, MN

The Howling

Easily one of the most historically popular werewolf films out there deserves some attention, right? Well of course. And since lately I'm getting more and more into werewolf films, I figured it was high time I actually bought this one and reviewed it. This, along with American Werewolf in London, were the two films that revolutionized werewolf movies and transformed them from just some guy running around bein' all hairy and strangling people. On top of it all, we have Joe Dante (Piranha, Gremlins) directing. Good times will be had by all!

This film revolves around a news anchor-woman who is helping the police track down a serial killer, made all the easier by the fact that he's taken an interest in her. Well, everything goes just awful and she ends up traumatized. Her shrink suggests she and her husband take a comfortable, soothing vacation in a community that he's a major part of. Of course, the movie is helped along by the fact that the town just happens to be chock full of werewolves who can't seem to decide whether to eat these new people or have them join up.

Here's the breakdown:

The Good:

--We've got some beautiful and unique looking werewolves here. The first one we have a very clear view of, in the doctor's office, almost resembles some creature that's part wolf, part man, and part cat. It just kind of had that feel--not that it's bad, I liked it.

--Interesting story, one of the better ones in the world of werewolves.

--The acting is pretty good, one has to consider the fact that a lot of actors just don't take these kinds of roles seriously enough. So finding a movie like this where they do is quite nice.

--Naked transforming werewolf sex scene by a campfire. Hmmm... maybe this should be the Memorable Scene....

--Average amounts of violence--more a suspenseful werewolf film than a visually disturbing one. The gore, while only occasional, is really good.

--Nice mystery story wrapped up in here.

Didn't Hurt It, Didn't Help:

--Decent music, somewhat average for these kind of movies.

--Dee Wallace-Stone's acting occasionally isn't quite up to par, shall we say...

--One werewolf transformation sequence is actually animated--like with cell animation and it doesn't look very good. It's brief and small, and doesn't detract from the film's overall quality.

--Dee Wallace's friends in the movie really seem to adopt the notion of werewolves rather easily--I would think it would be hard to accept that idea... oh well...

The Bad:

--Some two-dimensional characters.

--This film is in a series notorious for it's much crappier releases, but that's really about all there is that's not to like.

The Ugly:

--Robert Picardo (the hologram doctor from Star Trek: Voyager) plays the ultimate bad-ass werewolf--and boy, his face doesn't look good all charred with acid...

Memorable Scene:

--Robert Picardo's werewolf in the Doctor's office. Oh, and that werewolf transformation sex scene. That was pretty hot.

Acting: 8/10 Story: 9/10 Atmosphere: 9/10 Cinematography: 8/10 Character Development: 8/10 Special Effects/Make-up: 8/10 (some less than fancy stop-motion, and one bit of obvious animation) Nudity/Sexuality: 4/10 Violence/Gore: 8/10 (Average amount, but very high quality) Sets/Backgrounds: 9/10 Dialogue: 7/10 Music: 7/10 Writing: 8/10 Direction: 9/10

Cheesiness: 1/10 Crappiness: 0/10

Overall: 8/10

A horror must-see. One of the classic werewolf films. Personally, I think Dog Soldiers may still be a little better, but that's just me. For horror fans and a great piece for non-horror fans to find out what a good werewolf movie should look like--sans CG werewolves.

www.ResidentHazard.com http://bartboard.proboards3.com/index.cgi The Board, movie message board.

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23 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
awesome werewolf flick, 15 February 2005

Author: dancingcancer41 from United States

This is an excellently crafted piece of work from former Roger Corman student, Joe Dante. I won't go much into the plot, but it involves a news woman who gets attacked while in a porno shop viewing room. To get her mind off things, a psychiatrist recommends she goes to his private retreat to be treated. After that, spooky happenings and strange deaths start occurring. This film has great direction and great atmosphere and mood. The lighting and use of fog is excellent and really hightens the spookiness of the film. One of the best werewolf transformations is shown in this film, rivaled only by the one in An American Werewolf in London. Although this movie starts out slow, the tension keeps rising and keeps you interested in what will happen next. The spookiness doesn't always lie within the content but also the claustrophobic feeling and the uncertainty of who you can trust. A very good movie, highly recommended.

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22 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
Very good., 25 March 2002

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

Attractive reporter(Dee Wallace Stone)is coming to a small health resort.What she doesn't know is that all the residents of this resort are werewolves."The Howling" is one of my favourite werewolf flicks.It features some of the best transformation scenes ever filmed,excellent special effects and a bit of irony.The acting is pretty good,and Joe Dante's direction is well-handled.There's a nice amount of blood and gore too!This shocker offers also some delicious sleaze(sex and full frontal nudity).However I'm not going to waste my time writing about its sequels,because they pretty much suck(still I haven't seen the fourth and fifth installments of this series).Joe Dante also made the kick-ass "Piranha"(1978).

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21 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
Listen to the critics, it's actually one of the best, 3 September 2003
Author: Krug Stillo (nhargii@hotmail.com) from South Wales

Yes! For a change in the horror genre this film does deserve all of the praise, hype, cult following and respect it receives, even from the critics. I would go so far as to even admit that I find this Joe (Gremlins, Innerspace, The 'burbs, Matinee, Small soldiers) Dante flick one of his best crafted works, followed by PIRANHA.

It's always been a toss up between THE HOWLING and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON for the most effective lycanthropy picture of postmodern horror cinema (anything since Psycho). Where John Landis used comedy more blatantly, the humour in THE HOWLING is far more satirical and subversive. Undoubtedly, Rob Bottin's effects steal the show as well as they did for John Carpenter's THE THING. The transformation of Eddie Quist, especially on the revamped DVD is something to behold.

For anyone with a passing interest in the horror genre this is a film to include on that 'TO SEE' list. For fans of werewolf movies this should go on that 'MUST SEE' list.

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15 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
The beast of the best when it comes to werewolves, 4 December 2005

Author: terrible2 from Istanbul

In 1981, horror movies were on the verge of their greatest comeback. The 1970's gave us Alien, Jaws and the Exersist, but we had lost the creepiness of the classic "Universal" monster films, such as Dracula, The Mummy and (my personal fave) The Wolfman. Pop culture had come to know the werewolf as a guy that hadn't shaved in a while and grew fangs. Joe Dante had a different idea. I was a freshman in high school in 1981 and some friends and I played "hooky" from school and went to see The Howling. After about 10 minutes I was so scared, that I actually found myself wanting to go to math class. Dante's film is full of suggested terror, although once he shows you, he never lets up. Karen White (Dee Wallace) is a popular newscaster who has managed to catch the eye of a serial killer. She decides to help the police trap him, but unannounced to us is the fact that the killer has a secret... A very dark secret. After a terrifying encounter, Karen and her husband Bill (Christopher Stone), take a long needed vacation. A retreat colony up in woods is their destination and the townsfolk (including the late, great John Carradine) are just normal everyday people who welcome them with open arms. As the days go by, strange things begin to happen and we realize that the colony is actually a colony of... Anyway, the visuals are great and this was long before the computer generated crap that they throw at us these days. Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo) is the resident bad dude or (wolf) as you may, and has one of the most classic transformation scenes I have ever witnessed. His sister Marsha Quist (Elisabeth Brooks) is definitely the hottest werewolf I've ever seen, and the cast is rounded out by Sheriff Newfield played by the one and only (Slim Pickens). The Howling certainly revolutionized the modern werewolf which has come a long way since Lon Channey Jr wore an afro wig and a pig nose, and there's not a lot of werewolf stranglings in this one. I have seen every werewolf movie ever made (literally), and The Howling has always remained my favorite, with An American Werewolf In (London)comming in at close second. If you have never seen this classic film, I urge you to go rent it, turn off the lights and pull the blanket up tight under your chin (for faster head covering action). You won't regret it, after all werewolves were meant to be big, ferocious, violent beasts that rip their victim apart. Nuff said.

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16 out of 21 people found the following comment useful :-
'The Howling' is one of the all time best werewolf movies., 2 June 2004
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

Most of my favourite horror movies of the 1980s were small, indie movies made outside the major studio system e.g. 'The Evil Dead', 'Maniac', 'Basket Case'. Most of the "big" horror movies then (like now) were pretty lame. 'The Howling' is a notable exception. Watching it over twenty years after it was originally released is quite an eye-opener. It not only holds up well, it is in fact, a damn fine movie. Joe Dante must take the credit for this. For me in the 1980s Dante was like a smarter, more inventive Spielberg. Dante, who learned his chops working for Roger Corman as an editor, writer and director, is a knowledgeable horror buff (Universal, Hammer, Bava movies) with a sly wit and great sense of fun. 'The Howling' is full of in jokes and ironic nods, but never goes all the way into comedy. Dante takes the material seriously. This is a pretty scary movie and the werewolves are some of the best ever seen. Dee Wallace ('The Hills Have Eyes', 'The Frighteners') is a TV reporter who is traumatized after a close encounter with a serial killer (Dante regular Robert Picardo). Dr. Waggner (Patrick Macnee of 'The Avengers' fame), a charming psychiatrist she knows and trusts suggest that she and her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) join him at his therapeutic retreat "The Colony". I won't spoil the movie by going into detail about what happens next, but it's creepy and entertaining. Wallace is very good and Picardo, who usually plays comic roles, is convincing as Quist the psycho nut job. 'The Howling' was co-written by John Sayles, who pops up in a cameo, as does Roger Corman, and super fan Forrest J. Ackerman, former editor of 'Famous Monsters Of Filmland'. Dante is a loyal guy who always likes to acknowledge where he is coming from, so as well as Corman and Ackerman there are roles for horror legend John Carradine, Kevin McCarthy ('Invasion Of The Body Snatchers'), Kenneth Tobey ('The Thing From Another World'), Slim Pickens ('Dr Strangelove') and Dick Miller (as "Walter Paisley" his character in Corman's 1950s b-grade classic 'A Bucket Of Blood'). 'The Howling' is sure to be enjoyed by every horror buff and for me is one of the all time best werewolf movies along with Universal's 'The Wolf Man' and Hammer's underrated 'The Curse Of The Werewolf'.

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12 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Slow starting, but this werewolf picture finishes with a bang., 29 July 2006

Author: Aaron1375 from Alabama

This classic werewolf movie is not as good as "An American Werewolf in London", however it is a pretty good horror movie in its own right. It is also one of the first (if not the first) to do an on screen transformation scene not using the old frame by frame technique. The story has a female reporter traumatized after she helps the police track down a serial killer. A friend psychiatrist sends her to a retreat known as "the colony" to help her unwind and get to the root of her problem. Well lets just say her first impulse was right as she really seems to think her and her husband are out of place in this retreat. I would agree, I do believe I would have left after seeing the first little beach party where the guy about to throw himself in the fire seemed the most sane. For the most part this movie has a bit of a slow setup, but once it gets going near the last 20 or thirty minutes it really gets going. The werewolves look rather good, there are a couple of scenes where they appear to be nothing more than cartoons or something, but for the most part they look like working models. There is a bit at the end which puzzles me as it seems to add humor into what was otherwise a movie that wasn't trying to garner laughs. However, for the most part you get a rather nice horror movie with lots of stars, something of a rarity this day and age.

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14 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Intense & cheeky lycanthropy, 10 April 2003
Author: george.schmidt (george.schmidt@hbo.com) from fairview, nj

THE HOWLING (1981) *** Dee Wallace, Christopher Stone, Patric Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, Slim Pickens, John Carradine, Dick Miller. Tongue-in-cheek humor (thanks to John Sayles' shrewd script) and state-of-the-art make-up effects, by wizard Rob Bottin (incidentally, prodigy of make-up wiz Rick Baker, whose stellar work was the first recipient of an Academy Award for Best Make-Up for `An American Werewolf in London', which was released the same year and tended to overshadow this film's appeal) blend perfectly in director Joe Dante's valentine to B-horror films with some B-horror vets (Carradine & Miller) set in a cult-like spa where recovering from a breakdown, newscaster Wallace, finds herself hip-deep in werewolves(!) The aforementioned make-up is the real star here with some truly nasty `changing' sequences, that are still unsettling to watch. Atmospherically perfect for a full moon viewing!

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
THE HOWLING: They were right, it's one of the best werewolf movie ever made, 10 January 2006

Author: ghostface-1 from Caracas, Venezuela

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I saw for the very first time THE HOWLING last weekend and I must say that the critics were right, it's one of the better werewolf movies ever made.

It looks like another typical werewolf movie but it's not, this one is far different to other werewolf movies. It revolves around a TV newscaster (Dee Wallace) that has the mission to catch a insane serial killer who has been murdering people on the city with the try to get a amazing number of audience, but the encounter changes everything, she gets traumated with the events and didn't get to see his face. Then she is sent to rehabilitation for remember what happened with her attacker and at the same time two of her best friends investigates more about the serial killer they discovers very suspicious clues about the attacker. And when the newscaster's husband is attacked, one of her friends goes to the zone and finds the answers to all the clues and will try to warn her that where she's now living is not all peaceful as it seems when a wolf is stalking around the woods.

Had a great story, good actings and a very good chase scene, anyway, I loved this. I give The Howling a 9 out of 10 stars.

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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
A deserving cult classic., 7 January 2004

Author: Fiendish_Dramaturgy from .: Fiendish Writings in the Dark :.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

There are few fence-riders where this movie is concerned. Most fans of the genre of Horror and of the sub-genre of WereWolf movies either love this movie...or hate it.

Let me begin by saying that I admire this movie very much. I enjoy watching it, and the two subsequent sequels. In my opinion, after the third Howling, they got stupid, hokey, campy, and just plain bad. Also, let me warn you that this movie is dated, slow, and has large blocks of uneventful moments where even the most base character development is not being utilized.

But, with that having been said, the story is a good story. It is poorly executed due to the large slow spots I mentioned before, but the story was a sound and well-written one. Everything does not just magically come together. The reporting team there as moral and emotional support for ace reporter, Karen White (Dee Wallace), is working very hard to put it together. Their discoveries do not come easy, but rather as a result of hard work, open-mindedness, and diligence. Not luck.

The cinematography is mostly unremarkable, except for the scene in which Bill is attacked. The filmography is beautiful there, with the moonlight streaming out from behind two great trees, and the scene between is clear and lit by a beautifully brilliant silvery moonlight.

Very good stuff.

I also loved the use of The Wolf Man, 1941 with Lon Chaney, Jr. as a source for information in their research. This is an instance in which a movie used a real movie to quote, rather than some made-up movie. Wes Craven's use of this element was highly praised in the Scream Trilogy, and yet, here it is, twenty years earlier.

This production also features a cameo by Forrest J. Ackerman, movie actor with credits in over 20 B-grade horror flicks, and a very good (if somewhat over the top) supporting performance by John Carradine.

Naturally, most fans of the horror genre want to compare this movie to An American Werewolf in London. That is, of course, like comparing apples to submarines in that the former is a B production, with a small budget and the latter is a much larger funded project at exactly TEN times the budget.

The Howling had a 17M return from a 1M investment, while AWiL had a 30.5M return from a 10M budget. Let's see...17X the investment/3.5X the investment. I'd have to say "The Howling" is the big winner, here, as far as profit goes. I use profit as a measuring stick, because it seems that profit is all Hollywood cares about anymore. Art and artistic expression no longer seems to be the point of film making these days. But for the sake of art, I loved both movies, this one and its competitor.

The make up artistry used here was excellent, and actually worthy of the story. That, along with truly professional performances by Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone, make this an enjoyable and memorable film, which I have recently added to my DVD collection.

All in all, I consider "The Howling" to be a benchmark film in the sub-genre of werewolf movies.

It rates a hard-won 7.9/10 from...

the Fiend :.

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