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6
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5 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Joe
Dante (Piranha, Gremlins)
directed this tongue-in-cheek horror flick, which
beat its early '80s contemporary, An
American Werewolf In London, into theaters
by nearly six months. Both feature elaborate transformation
scenes and treat the subject of lycanthropy with
less than solemn reverence.
Los Angeles TV reporter Karen
White (E.T.'s Dee
Wallace) is contacted by a brutal serial killer
who's been terrorizing the city. Having somehow
become enamored of her, the killer wishes to meet
Karen for a private chat. Wired with a radio-microphone,
she goes to meet him in a dingy porno shop; the
cops have a patrol car discreetly tailing her.
Naturally the mike fails, the news techs listening
in lose her, and Karen is nearly killed before
the police shoot the subject dead. Traumatized,
she mentally blocks out most of her encounter
with the killer. During her return to the airwaves
she freaks out, unable to function in front of
the camera. Therapy, rest and relaxation seem
to be in order.
That's the prescription of
kindly Dr. Waggner (A
View To A Kill's Patrick McNee), New
Age shrink and on-air psychologist for the TV
station. He advises Karen to spend some time at
the Colony, an "alternative living" community
which he supervises, located on a beautiful point
of forested land up the coast. As Karen's co-workers,
reporter Terry (Belinda Balaski) and producer
Chris (Dennis Dugan), follow up on the serial
killer case, Karen arrives at Waggner's woodland
resort accompanied by her husband Bill (Christopher
Stone). Some of the residents they meet there,
while friendly enough, are a bit odd. One of them,
raven-haired biker-type chick Marsha (Elisabeth
Brooks), also happens to be a sexy nymphomaniac
who immediately propositions Bill. Karen has other
problems to deal with. She continues to be plagued
by nightmares of her encounter with the killer.
In therapy sessions with Waggner she attempts
to pierce the veil of amnesia but only disjointed
fragments emerge. In the meantime Bill is attacked
and bitten by some kind of wild animal when strolling
through the woods. Soon thereafter he begins acting
strangely — a vegetarian,
he now enjoys meat with gusto. Back in L.A., Terry
and Chris have learned the deceased killer's identity...
and that his body is missing from the morgue.
Once a staple of late night cable TV, The
Howling ended up spawning at least five
sequels (that we know of); all of them combined
are nowhere near as good as the original. The
movie's only weak points are the vacuous lead
performance
by Wallace — who
isn't terribly convincing as a television reporter
— and the main transformation
scene, which goes on much too long.
(Again with
the "I'll just stand here and watch this instead
of running" routine by the soon-to-be victim.)
Though a bit slow to get going the pace really
picks up in the final half hour, with plenty of
monster action to slake the thirsts of werewolf
junkies. The gore and creature effects, designed
by Rob Bottin, hold up very well today, as do
brief uses of conventional and stop-motion animation.
(Besides, we dig werewolves with really big, pointy
ears.) The true joy here for cult movie aficionados
are all the cameos, bit parts and walk-ons by
a host of familiar faces: Kenneth Tobey (The
Thing, Billy
Jack) as a veteran patrol cop; John Carradine
as a crotchety old denizen of the Colony; Howling
screenwriter (and director in his own right) John
Sayles, playing a morgue attendant; Kevin McCarthy
as the TV station manager; Slim Pickens as the
local sheriff; and Roger Corman regular Dick Miller
as a cranky bookstore proprietor. Keep a lookout,
too, or you might miss Corman himself as the man
waiting outside a phone booth, or the one and
only Forrest J Ackerman as a customer in the bookshop
(clutching copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland,
no less). The in-jokes don't stop with the casting,
either. Some of the characters' names might ring
a bell, such as "Freddie Francis", "Erle Kenton",
"Sam Newfield", "Jerry Warren" and "Walter
Paisley". In a tribute to Universal's original
The
Wolf Man (1941), scenes from that film
are shown on a TV watched by Chris and Terry;
a poster bearing the face of Lon Chaney Jr. is
also glimpsed. (Note: Though we rated The
Howling as worthy of a "Blood 'n'
Guts" icon, it was only by a [wolf's] whisker.)
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| A
budget DVD release from MGM, The
Howling contains no extras save the original
theatrical
trailer. The print used is relatively blemish-free
and enhanced for 16x9 TVs; sound quality is adequate.
This would've been a perfect title to release as
part of the company's terrific Midnite Movie
line, but it was not. (Because it wasn't originally
an AIP release, apparently.)
10/01/01 |
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UPDATE
In August 2003 MGM issued a remastered special
edition which includes an audio commentary, featurettes,
deleted scenes and outtakes.
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