Director: Joe Dante
Cast: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, Elisabeth Brooks
Screenplay: John Sayles, Terence H. Winkless
91 mins. Rated R.

Werewolf movies have never held the spotlight in the realm of horror, always overshadowed by slasher, zombies, and even vampires, so that it all the more impressive that two of the best werewolf movies ever made premiered in the same year and nearly shared an effects team. Comparisons are often made between An American Werewolf in London and The Howling because of this, and while I have my preference, I think they are both so vastly different that these comparisons kind of ignore what an incredible achievement the two films were on their own, though I will say that, from a franchise perspective, The Howling certainly had more steam, albeit very mixed steam. Something else that sets The Howling apart from traditional werewolf cinema is how unusual and unexpected its narrative is.

Karen White (Dee Wallace, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial), a television newswoman, gets involved with police to catch a serial killer, and she doesn’t leave the scenario unscathed. While dealing with the trauma of the events, she is invited by Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee, This is Spinal Tap) to The Colony, an experimental commune of individuals working with Waggner on treatment. They quickly discover that something isn’t quite right at The Colony, and Karen’s husband Bill (Christopher Stone, Cujo) is distancing himself from her. As her friend research the events of the sting operation and Waggner’s Colony, they come to find a conspiracy of inhuman proportions.

I’ve always been a fan of The Howling but how much of a fan has always waxed and waned. I feel as though the film, directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins), has always had a bit of a messily-constructed narrative, one where I never quite felt the pull of the story towards a conclusion. For me, it’s always felt like a collection of moments that further build the unusual nature of the goings-on without exactly having the narrative thrust or cohesive structure to make it a more memorable experience.

But when I’m watching the film, that doesn’t really matter. Those individual scenes work at building interest and excitement, even if it doesn’t have that staying power in my mind. It’s almost like a werewolf hangout film at times, more fun in its little moments than as a whole. Loosely based on the novel by Gary Brandner, which was discovered by producer Steven Lane via a Stephen King blurb, The Howling has always been more of a mood piece, unsettling and most pessimistic than traditional Dante would’ve led me to believe.

The Howling features a script co-written by John Sayles, who also penned Dante’s Piranha, and Sayles signature pulpy-dreary language and tone are in attendance here. The screenplay and Dante are able to make The Colony into a Jonestown-esque cult that looks one way but feels quite another, and Sayles also imbues the werewolves with a heightened-animalistic sexuality normally reserved for vampires. Dante’s creatures are carnal, tearing each other apart in more ways than one (even when the werewolf sex is animated for budgetary purposes).

Wallace’s performance is sad and real, even amidst the more heightened proceedings. In many ways, Karen is a real human surrounded by people playing roles. Husband Bill is playing the role of concerned husband. Karen’s boss is pretending to care more about his employee than the ratings. The colonists are doing plenty of pretending. Karen is a target of so much fakery all around her that she becomes all the more sympathetic because of it.

The other standout performance, for me, comes from the legend himself, John Carradine (Bride of Frankenstein), who plays colonist Erle Kenton (note that many of the characters in the film are named after directors of classic movies featuring lycanthropes, in this case Kenton as the director of House of Dracula). Carradine’s portrayal of a monster who wants to go back to the old ways of hunting, but also one long past his prime, without the mental faculties required for it.

But of course, The Howling is known for its special effects, and these are incredible. Apart from that fact, it’s astounding that they almost could’ve turned out so different for the parties involved. Rick Baker had been attached to do the film’s creature effects after waiting years for John Landis’s werewolf movie to get off the ground, and when it finally did, he had to step away from The Howling to fulfill his promise to Landis, leaving Dante’s film in need of a creature effects artist to lead that part of production. Thankfully, Baker left assistant Rob Bottin in charge, and the rest would be history. Not only did we get two dramatically different werewolf transformation sequences in 1981 horror, but both effects men were lifted into the pantheon of the greats in the process. We may not have gotten Bottin’s work in films like Carpenter’s The Fog or The Thing without this little swap, and the world of film is better for having it. As stated earlier, you can claim a favorite between the two transformations, but I like to recognize how incredible it is that we got both.

With seven sequels and supposedly a reboot on the way, The Howling has cemented its place in horror history, even if none of the follow-ups ever even got close (though I’ve always had a soft spot for Howling V: The Rebirth, it doesn’t even hold a candle). It’s the type of film that’s atmosphere more than makes up for some clunkiness and a bit of an unfocused final product, and that transformation alone is worth the price of admission (or your monthly streaming cost).

3.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe