Reviewed by: Jonny T
Posted by: Root Rot
The Howling (1981)
Directed by: Joe Dante
Tea anyone? Do you take sugar and milk? We do have Chocolate biscuits and custard creams, lovely!
Right then folks on to my Sunday Morning Classic The Howling, aaawoooooooooooooooooo!!! (That’s me doing a werewolf impression!)
I saw this many many years back and before I had got to see and loved An American werewolf in London (which to me and it’s only my opinion is the greatest werewolf film EVER made) then saw this and was very disappointed, but like I said that was my opinion.
Right then on to The Howling, made in 1981, directed by the legendary director Joe Dante, starring Dee Wallace and Patrick Macnee. The story starts off with a news reporter Karen White (Wallace) who has been getting phone calls from a serial killer the police have been after named Eddie, so she has a set up to meet him and then the police can swoop and get Eddie… Simple, but nope. She wanders into the seedy red part of town and received a phone called from Eddie at a pre-arranged phone booth and agrees to meet up with him in a sex shop film booth, nice.
So she arrives in the sex shop and walks through the shop and the shock of a few dirty old men reading the nudie books. She finds 3 film booths and one has a smiley face sticker on the door which you do see at various parts during the rest of the film and that’s the one she enters. She pops in her money and takes a seat. The film starts and depicts a woman tied to the bed being raped by a man with a stocking on his head. Then we hear Eddie speak from behind her and tells her not to turn around until he says so. He basically starts turning into a werewolf and I have to say that you don’t get to see his face at this point but he is as Arnie would say one ugly mother fucker!
By this time the police have lost communication with her and the foot patrols are on the look out. They track her down from the screams as good old Eddie reveals his attractive self, Bang Bang, the cops shoot but Eddie is gone baby gone, aaawwwooooooooo!!!
So Eddie is gone and Karen is traumatised by flashback nightmares of Eddies face looming from within the darkness and seeks help from the great man Patrick Macnee who plays Dr George Waggner who does indeed help her and offers to take her away for some much needed relaxation so he takes her away to meet the Colony, ooooooo. You can see where this is heading!
So she arrives at the colony with her husband and you can immediately tell that these people ain’t quite right especially the sexy temptress that tries seducing her husband. From this point on I won’t spoil anything if indeed you have yet to see it. There is a bit which i remember being at the time and it still does look beyond dodgy where two of the characters are having a some sexy time and the transformation takes place and goes to a shadow cartoon it made me laugh but this time I saw it it was more in that kind of old school feeling of nostalgia.
I must say as I said at the begging I wasn’t a fan the first time but this time I did really enjoy it and can easily see why it’s hailed as a classic of the genre. Now I’m neither for or against remakes, basically if its done well and its a good film hey fuck it I’m for it. I’d like to see this at some point maybe considered for a remake, it’s interesting that this and Howling IV are taking from the same book and Howling IV is supposed to be a more accurate representation of the original book, so who knows.
It was a huge hit with a budget of $1 million and grossing an incredible over $17!! Also if you watch throughout there is a ton of werewolf stuff from “Wolf Chili” to pictures of Lon Chaney and werewolves in paintings etc.
So give it a re-watch and add it to your collection,great stuff.
Anyway must dash, my teas getting cold,kettle on!!
- Jonny T
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