The Howling packs enough laughs into its lycanthropic carnage to distinguish it from other werewolf entries, with impressive visual effects adding some bite. Read critic reviews
The Howling
1981, Horror, 1h 31m
43 Reviews 25,000+ RatingsWhat to know
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Movie Info
In Los Angeles, television journalist Karen White (Dee Wallace) is traumatized in the course of aiding the police in their arrest of a serial murderer. Her doctor recommends that she attend an isolated psychiatric retreat led by Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee). But while Karen is undergoing therapy, her colleague Chris (Dennis Dugan), investigates the bizarre circumstances surrounding her shock. When his work leads him to suspect the supernatural, he begins to fear for Karen's life.
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Rating: R
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Genre: Horror
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Original Language: English
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Director: Joe Dante
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Producer: Daniel H. Blatt, Jack Conrad, Michael Finnell, Steven A. Lane
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Writer: Gary Brandner, John Sayles, Terence H. Winkless
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Release Date (Theaters): original
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Release Date (Streaming):
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Image Entertainment Inc., Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp., MGM/UA Home Entertainment Inc., AVCO Embassy Pictures
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News & Interviews for The Howling
Critic Reviews for The Howling
Audience Reviews for The Howling
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Dee Wallace stars as a television newsreader who comes in contact with something that's terrifyingly beyond the bounds of normal human existence. Not only is that a mouthful but that should make for a zowie movie experience as well, no? Well in this case: no. Why? Because this is one of those creature features wherein the characters all behave as if they were from some other dopey reality. In scene after scene whatever it is that anybody would do the characters herein don't. It's a bit of a frustrating pain, to be honest. In one scene Ms. Wallace watches a guy turn into a werewolf for, count'em, 3 minutes. Does she run? Does she hide? Does she try to kill it? No. She simply watches and quivers. "Do something," my mind screamed to no avail, uselessly. After scene after scene of this ilk, I began to actively wish the victims death. And yet this work came recommended. Oy vey. I hate movies like this.
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Joe Dante's The Howling is one of the best werewolf movies ever made but it's also infuriatingly a mixed bag of tonal inconsistencies and erratic acting. It begins dark, very dark, as an excellent Dee Wallace tracks Eddie, a "serial killer," into the seedy San Francisco red-light district. I grew up in the SF Bay Area in the 80's and lived in San Francisco in the 90's, so I've seen that district up close and the movie captures the adult stores and peep shows in all of its sordid griminess. I visited that district at 18, reluctantly joining an older cousin for my once and only visit to those businesses of ill repute. Let's just saw they fit the movie. But then there are scenes are that are oddly cartoonish, with one werewolf "love" scene that is literally a cartoon. Some of the acting is great with Dee Wallace being the standout. But there are some characters, such as the femme fatale Marsha, whose dialogue makes you cringe. Except for this one exchange that was so cheesy it made me laugh: "I'm looking for my wife." Bill at the beach BBQ. "Why?" replies Marsha. Where the movie shines is in the fabulous practical effects. Rob Bottin took over for Rick Baker who had left the production to do the effects for the far superior An American Werewolf in London, which in my view is the standard bearer for all werewolf movies (interestingly released the same year as The Howling). Watching Eddie's werewolf transformation scene is just pure horror movie candy. While I prefer Rick Baker's version in American Werewolf, Bottin has to create a commune of werewolves vs. just a single creature. The ending is powerful, which unfortunately is somewhat undermined by the fact that when the character transforms into a werewolf, she looks like an Ewok. Still, this remains a classic, and to this day there isn't enough large-budget werewolf movies and that needs to be fixed.
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The makeup and visual effects are awesome, especially in a major shape-shifting transformation scene close to the end, while the climax is effectively tense to make the film worth it, but even so the script is rather weak, uneven and can be quite silly and laughable sometimes.
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In tandem with 'An American Werewolf in London', the transformation sequence in 'The Howling' is not quite as painstakingly excruciating and terrifying but it's within the proximity of impressive special effects from Rob Bottin. The chest inflates, the snout protrudes and the skin effervesces with hair. However, the end result is a shaggy muskrat that is more mangy and unkempt than goosebump-inducing. Such is the case for most of 'The Howling', a kitschy, obnoxiously winking B-picture that attempts to spoof self-help gurus but the satire is hokily ill-advised with this dross. A female werewolf in the newsroom squelches tensile-wire tension because the prosthetic is insufferably adorable and sublethal. Likewise the reaction shots from the viewing publics (a nuzzling couple, a Spanish cashier, etc.) are ridiculously tongue-in-cheek and plagiarized directly from a Zucker Bros. farce. Also I apologize for my lack of sophistication but I've never been an acolyte of Harryhausen stop-motion animation and a few frames of baying wolves is truly atrocious.
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