Gary Brandner’s horror thriller ‘The Howling’ piqued enough curiosity among readers to attract Hollywood’s notice. Soon after, the book was adapted for the big screen, and Joe Dante’s ‘The Howling’ was a thrilling movie partly based on the source material. Many people credit it with redefining werewolf films for the general public. This film was released in 1981 and was a commercial success. However, in the same year, ‘An American Werewolf in London’ was published, and it stole a lot of the limelight from ‘The Howling.’ Nonetheless, it was a financially successful release, and the substantial profits ensured that sequels would follow shortly after.
Unfortunately, the quality plummeted, and the franchise was quickly reduced to a torturous journey through the corridors of horrific oblivion. Despite the fact that budgets were shrinking and public interest was waning, the sequels continued coming one after the other. In this video, we will take a look at the franchise and go over the good, bad, and ugly of the series!
The Howling (1981)
This is easily the best of the lot, and one of the finest werewolf movies of its time. Directed by Joe Dante, the movie takes you on a bizarre journey into the world of the unexplained. The story begins with a news anchor and investigative journalist named Karen White who is helping the cops hunt down a notorious serial killer. This killer called ‘Eddie the Mangler’ has somehow taken a shine to Karen and he wishes to meet her.
She is brought into the folds of a planned sting operation and she agrees to meet the killer. The meeting spot is scheduled at an adult book store and it goes as planned. However, there is one problem as the cops cannot trace her due to the excessive quantities of neon in the neighbourhood. Meanwhile, Eddie invites Karen into a private movie booth and puts on a graphically violent pornographic film. While he forces Karen to watch the film, he reassures her by saying that the actors in the film were all dead and don’t feel a thing! Finally, Karen screams for help and two police officers get to her location. They shoot inside the booth, and the killer is presumably shot dead.
Karen is traumatized by the turn of events and is consoled by her husband Bill Neill. But her trauma runs too deep and she seeks the help of a psychiatrist named Dr. George Waggner. He wants her to spend some time away from the busy city life and offers her a stay at his private retreat called the Colony. Apparently, several other patients had also been recommended this place and it did them a world of good. While Karen and Bill head to the Colony, two of her colleagues, Chris and Terry are still investigating the case of Eddie the Mangler. They explore his apartment and discover strange fetishes and drawings all over the place.
Many of the sketches explain the various stages of werewolf transformation, and there are some vivid drawings of landscapes that make Terry wonder if it was an actual location. They bring all their findings to Dr. Waggner, hoping for his input on the same. Back at the Colony, life seems a bit strange for Karen and Bill. Some of the inhabitants are not exactly normal and there is something about their behaviour that doesn’t seem quite right! For instance, one of the inhabitants named Donna warns Karen that another woman living there named Marsha is a nymphomaniac. On another occasion, as they are enjoying a bonfire party, an elderly resident named Erle Kenton starts acting weirdly and exclaims that he wants to die. The others try to convince Bill and Karen that he is simply drunk, but things still don’t add upright.
On the other hand, as Chris and Terry go deeper into the case, they find more mysterious events. The body of the killer had vanished from the morgue. The duo eventually enters an occult bookstore where they meet Walter Paisley. Paisley tells them about werewolves and how the only thing that can harm them is silver. Bill goes on a hunting trip with a few others like Charlie, Jerry, and Erle, and he shoots a rabbit. However, when he rejects the offer to have the meat cooked for him because he is a vegetarian, they have a strange reaction.
Marsha tries to kiss Bill in her kitchen, but he breaks free and heads back to his cabin. However, his relief is short-lived as just then he is attacked by a werewolf in the forest. He gets bitten on the shoulder and tends to his injuries back in the cabin. Terry manages to get in touch with Karen and she tells her about her and Bill’s experiences. She heads to the Colony to meet Karen. By the time she arrives, Bill is already feeling a lot better. There is only a slight change in him through – a strange love for meat although he was vegetarian previously. The same evening Bill heads to the woods and the carnal lust in him makes him fornicate with Marsha. During the act, they both transform into werewolves, and Bill is scarred all over his back by Marsha’s claws.
The next morning Terry makes a startling discovery. She finds the lake and its surroundings very similar to the sketches found in the killer’s apartment. There is a clear connection between him and this place. She is also attacked by a werewolf and barely manages to survive the onslaught. Terry immediately makes a call to Chris, telling him about her discovery. He grabs some silver bullets and heads towards the Colony. Sadly, it is too late for Terry who now encounters the killer in his werewolf form. She is attacked viciously and ripped apart. In the meantime, Karen spots the scratch marks on Bill and suspects him of sleeping with Marsha.
But he denies this violently and even slaps her across the face. Karen storms out of the cabin. On heading to Dr. Waggner’s office she finds Eddie. She is shocked to see him transforming into a werewolf and splashes him with molecular acid. She tries to escape but the other werewolves surround her and take her to an old barn that they call the Ritual Center. It turns out that even Dr. Waggner is a werewolf, and Karen is horrified to learn that now her husband was also one of them.
Chris arrives just in time and heads straight to Waggner’s office. He uses the silver bullets to shoot Eddie dead and then heads to the barn. He shoots one of the werewolves and warns the others that he is armed with silver bullets. He proceeds to lock them up inside the barn and Karen runs to his car. Chris sets the place on fire and they start to drive away. However, their troubles are far from over as we see the werewolves clawing through the barn doors. There is a road blockade set up by the sheriff, who is a werewolf himself.
Chris downs him with another burst of silver bullets, but the other werewolves attack. Most of them are shaken off, but one manages to bite Karen on the shoulder before they can escape. Karen decides that the world should know about the kind of monsters that are out there. She transforms on live television, with Chris’s knowledge of her plans. Just as she reveals on camera about secret societies that harbour werewolves, her transformation is complete. Chris shoots her with a silver bullet and she is killed instantly.
The movie ends on a precarious note as we see a few locals watching the outrageous transformation on live television. Some believe it, while others seem to think it is just a gimmick. One of them orders a pepper steak and asks his lady friend to order one as well. We see that the lady friend is none other than Marsha, and she replies that she likes her steak rare!
Our views on this one
We have already stated that this is the best one in the franchise, and there is enough reason to justify our claims. First and foremost, the suggestive horror in the narrative is quite spooky and there is never a dull moment in the movie. This cult-classic werewolf flick is an 80s masterpiece and Joe Dante, the director of Gremlins and Piranha, was just the right man for the job. There are some breathtaking moments, such as the climactic scenes where Karen and Chris are attacked by a group of werewolves and they barely manage to escape. The werewolf transformations shown in this movie are truly horrifying, and the actors have done a commendable job putting together the brilliant performance. It won the Saturn Award for the Best Horror Film and fully deserves the cult following that it gained over the years.
The Howling II: … Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985)
Here begins the downward slide of the franchise, and this is one of the most outrageous entries in the series. It hardly borrows from the intriguing novels and tries to be a follow-up of the first movie. The film begins with the funeral service for Karen White, who was shot dead after she transformed into a werewolf on live television. Among the people attending her funeral are her brother Ben and one of her colleagues, Jenny. An elderly man named Stefan Crosscoe is also at the funeral, and he speaks to Ben and Jenny about the whole incident.
He tells Ben that his sister was indeed a werewolf and the ordeal wasn’t over yet! Stefan then invites them to his estate and tells them more about the history of werewolves and how they can be stopped. Ben is apprehensive about all the supernatural stuff, but Jenny had watched the transformation first-hand, believes every word Stefan says. Stefan also tells them that all these werewolves were actually descendants of an ancient sorceress called Stirba, and the only way they can be killed is by using silver bullets.
Following this, Stefan heads to the funeral home to plunge a titanium stake into Karen’s chest, and Ben drives after him to stop him. However, they are attacked by werewolves, and Stefan manages to kill one of the attackers. He also extracts information about Stirba from the dying werewolf and tells Ben and Jenny to travel to Transylvania to stop the mighty Stirba. They all travel to Transylvania, and we are witness to the terrifying rituals of Stirba in her abode. A young woman’s energy is being sucked in by Stirba.
She is revitalized immediately, changing into a young woman. She then retreats into her private chambers along with two of her followers and they indulge in savage decadence. Meanwhile Stefan, Jenny, and Ben check into a hotel in Transylvania, and a romantic relationship seems to be budding between Ben and Jenny. The town has long been a victim of werewolf attacks, and many of the local men decide to help Stefan against Stirba’s cult. Stefan assigns a few men to protect Ben and Jenny and tells them to go to the Festival of the New Moon. However, he warns them that the werewolves would be watching them. At the festival, Ben gets anxious and grows impatient to go after Stirba. He picks a Romanian dwarf named Vasile and the two head to face Stirba, leaving Jenny with one of the men.
Stirba’s castle looks quite haunting, but Vasile has an interesting trick up his sleeve to steer clear of her hypnotic spells. They both put a special wax in their ears, and the dwarf even kills the guard at the gate. But Stirba is alerted of their presence, and Vasile loses his earplugs. Stirba then uses her sorcery to create a wave of pain so powerful that the dwarf’s eyes pop out of its sockets. Ben returns to Jenny, who is troubled by the man left behind to guard her. It turns out that this man was actually a werewolf, and she is knocked unconscious by his attack.
Another werewolf takes her to Stirba’s castle, and Ben loses track of her. He informs Stefan and they all head for the castle, armed with titanium weapons. When a horde of werewolves attacks them, they easily fight them off with only one casualty. Stefan enters Stirba’s lair, and the two have an epic showdown. We learn that Stirba and Stefan were siblings and former lovers, and her spells don’t work on Stefan. Eventually, they both go up in flames and are destroyed. Ben manages to rescue Jenny, and they return home as fast as possible.
What not to expect from the movie
For starters, don’t expect it to be anything close to the exciting first Howling movie. Christopher Lee, who starred in this film, has termed this as a personal embarrassment and that speaks a lot about the quality on offer. This is an exhibition of cheap filmmaking right from its production values to the editing, everything reeks of low budget. Do not expect stunning effects because the werewolf transformations are simply awful. If ‘An American Werewolf in London’ is an example of brilliant effects, this is the exact opposite. Don’t go in expecting a nail-biting thriller, one can only watch it as a mindless comedy. There are some hilarious moments such as the exploding dwarf or the drunken werewolf orgy. The one-liners are cheesy and the jokes are as corny as they can get. The narrative is comically bad, and it might not be such a bad idea to enjoy this one over a couple of beers.
The Howling III: The Marsupials (1987)
The franchise keeps getting comical with successive additions to the series. This movie too is directed by the same guy, Philippe Mora, of the Howling II. The narrative has no connections as such with the previous films and is an independent take on werewolf life. The film starts off with the National Intelligence Agency looking quite worried about a potential werewolf attack in Russia.
Back at the University of San Andreas, Professor Harry Backmeyer is lecturing a class on sociology. He shows footage of an Aborigine ritual, where people seem to be dancing around a female werewolf tied to a pole. After the class is over, he is summoned by the President to discuss the events in Russia. The professor reveals that such things take place all over the world and tells him all about werewolves. The President then decides to send Professor Backmeyer back to his home city in Australia.
The scene turns to a werewolf girl named Jerboa in Australia. She is not too happy about her werewolf life, and when her stepfather makes advances, she runs away. Donny Martin spots her running away, and he helps her star in a film called Shape Shifters Part 8. She decides to try it out, and the director Jack Citron is quite impressed with her work. She seems to know an awful lot about werewolves, and one night she tells Donny that she herself is one. They make love and we watch a strange match between a man and a werewolf.
But their happy togetherness is short-lived because three werewolves from her commune come looking for her. They descend upon a party thrown by the director, and everyone runs in terror as they reveal themselves. Jerboa is out wandering the streets of Sydney when she is hit by a car. She is taken to a hospital, and Professor Backmeyer and his assistant are informed about the same. They are shocked to find Jerboa pregnant. She was due to give birth at an accelerated rate. However, the werewolves soon find her and take her away.
Brockmeyer also apprehends a Russian ballerina werewolf named Olga, when she transforms on stage during a performance. She is chained to an EKG machine in a facility where she is being monitored. She manages to escape, and we learn that she is destined to be the mate of Thylo, Jerboa’s stepfather. Meanwhile, Jerboa gives birth to an infant marsupial human, and Thylo chooses Olga as his mate. Yet, soldiers appear all of a sudden and shoot Thylo with a tranquillizer dart. Donny arrives as well, and he is overwhelmed to see their child. He professes his love for Jerboa, and the three take shelter in a cave.
Once Thylo and Olga are taken back to the facility, Backmeyer learns about the origin of their kind. It turns out that when a human mated with the phantom spirit of the great Tasmanian wolf, the species came to life. All this while, the military officials from all over the world get the Vatican’s support in attacking all werewolves. In a bizarre turn of events, Thylo tries to invoke the spirit of the phantom wolf to fight back, but he is killed with a bazooka fired at him. Jerboa and Donny, along with Backmeyer and Olga, find a peaceful life for themselves. Backmeyer falls in love with Olga, and they even have a child together. Jerboa and Donny continue making movies, and Backmeyer gets back to work as a professor. The movie ends abruptly when Jerboa transforms into a werewolf while receiving an award on stage in front of millions of television viewers.
All that Glitters is not gold
Well, to be fair this doesn’t even glitter much! It is a shame that the franchise had to come down to such incompetent stories. Watch it for the laughs, and the imaginative and unique narrative, but unfortunately that doesn’t translate into any good. The acting is terrible, and as for the script, McDonald’s menus are better written! Yes, this is a werewolf movie with a humanitarian message, but it could have been done so differently, and by different, we mean better. It is a typical B-movie made on a tight budget, and it is better to treat this as a horror-comedy instead of a serious film. Let’s just say that you would need a lot of beer to wash this one down!
Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988)
This was a Direct-to-video film by John Hough. An author named Marie Adams is experiencing some troubling visions of a nun. While she is in the middle of a meeting, she has another one of these visions, where a wolf-like creature lunges at her. She starts to scream in panic, and her husband Richard considers her case seriously. They consult a doctor and come to the conclusion that her overactive imagination was causing such horrifying visions.
The doctor advises Richard to take her away from the regular monotonous life for a quiet vacation. They head to a small town called Drago, but things don’t change much for Marie. She hears howling in the woods and is disturbed by the sounds. Slowly, they are introduced to some rather strange neighbours. One of them, Eleanor, runs an antique shop and is quite a mysterious character.
One day as Marie takes her dog for a walk, it runs off only for Marie to later find the remains of the slaughtered dog. She also experiences one more vision of the nun, and later discovers that Eleanor was the one in a dark cape. When she narrates her ordeal to Richard, he finds nothing out of the ordinary. A strange apparition of an elderly couple appears in Marie’s living room one day and warns her against staying there. Next, she meets a traveller named Janice, who happens to be a fan of her work. They have a conversation and Marie learns about Janice’s past life as a nun.
One of her friends, Sister Ruth had disappeared under mysterious circumstances and was found in Drago afterwards. She was mentally unstable and kept saying the words, “We’re all in fear”. Janice was determined to learn more about this mystery and she had left the convent to investigate the matter. Marie is further shocked to learn that the nun from her visions was actually Sister Ruth. Her horrifying realizations continue as she also gets to know that all the inhabitants of the village were actually werewolves!
The nun actually used to say the words, “Werewolves here” and not “We’re all in fear”. However, Richard doesn’t pay much heed to her understanding. He is mad at her for continuing with her fantasy world and meets Eleanor in his disgruntled state. They get intimate, and Eleanor transforms and bites him before running away. The movie ends in a nightmarish situation, where we see Marie being charged at by all the werewolves. She manages to lure them into the local church and burns them alive. Even Richard, who had transformed after being bitten, is burned to death. The last scene shows one of the werewolves lunging at her from the fire, unfolding just like in her vision!
‘Howling IV’ could have been so much better because the story surely had the potential. Unfortunately, it was not to be and was washed down the same drain of irrelevant werewolf movies. One of the first grievances that we have about this film is the lack of werewolf activity on the screen. It is decent enough as a Direct-to-video feature, but those who remember the brilliance of the original movie will be terribly disappointed. The director John Hough did try to bring about the flavour of the original film with a similar turn of events, but the differences are stark.
Howling V: The Rebirth (1989)
The Direct-to-Video journey of the franchise continues with this one. The story begins in 1489 when a family is killed by a couple, who then commits suicide. All this takes place in a castle, and as the man lies dying, he finds out that a baby had survived the massacre. Many years later, in 1989, a few people are invited by a mysterious Count to the same castle. The group comprises Gail, Summers, Hammet, David, the Professor, and Catherine. Whilst talking about the ancient castle the professor suggests that it was built around the same time when Satan’s werewolves were supposedly troubling the region.
Soon, they are all ambushed one by one and werewolves seem to be the attackers. Long story short, the professor and a few others are killed. They discover much to their horror, that they had all been lured into the castle, and the Count was probably the killer. When the Count is pressurized, he reveals that they are all descendants of the family that owned the castle. One of them is a werewolf, and only another relative can destroy them. The film ends in a bloodbath, as the Count is killed, and the last of the survivors turns into a werewolf.
Madness has a new name!
We wish we could better narrate the story of ‘Howling V’, but this is exactly the kind of madness that unfolds. It almost seems as if the movie was made just for the sake of making one, and it has neither plot nor substance. The narrative tries its best to be a mystery for you, but things become pretty obvious after a point. The climax does have a certain twist, but it is still not enough to make it worth your time. If you are considering this as a drunken pleasure, then maybe the film can score some points on its entertainment value. Otherwise, it is just an addition to the long line of meaningless Howling films that came after the original.
Howling VI: The Freaks (1991)
The movie begins with the gory details of a young girl being ambushed by a werewolf. The only thing that remains is her teddy bear. In the next scene, we see a young man named Ian Richards, walking with the soft toy along a desert road. He lands up in the town of Canton Bluff and starts to work for the local church owner named Dewey. However, Ian has a secret that he is keeping from everyone. He is a werewolf, although not an evil one.
When the church owner finds out about his whereabouts, he is caged, but Ian does not protest. He is more concerned that his condition should not hurt anyone, especially Dewer’s daughter Elizabeth. Harker, the owner of the local circus, forces him to transform into a werewolf for the show to make big bucks from the gimmick of having a werewolf in his collection. He even throws a cat at him to expose his violent side, but Ian gently throws the cat to safety, disappointing Harker big time.
The town’s sheriff, Fuller believes that something is strange about Harker, and goes to apprehend him. What he finds leaves him shocked! It turns out that Harker is a vampire, and he transforms and kills Fuller. When the townspeople find his corpse the next morning, they feel that Ian is responsible. Elizabeth helps him run away with her, and Ian reveals that Harker was the one who killed his family and turned him into a werewolf. After a romantic fling with Elizabeth, Ian returns for a final showdown with Harker. They engage in a brutal fight, during which Ian is helped to transform into his werewolf form. Now, he becomes quite a handful for Harker and stabs him in the heart. Ian then allows the sun to shine on Harker, and it kills him instantly. Ian returns to his human form, and steps away from the circus, as Elizabeth and Dewey look on.
Not the worst one of the lot!
This movie has to be rated as one of the more interesting Howling movies. Agreed, that the budget is miserable and the effects look cheesy on screen. Still, the film has something about the story that keeps you engaged. You will find yourself rooting for Ian, and the good villain bad villain narrative keeps things interesting. There are several touching moments in the movie, and for a horror flick, this one has quite a bit of drama. We did like the sense of compassion in the shifting story arc. The twists to come at the right time, to change the course of the narrative. After a long string of werewolves being the iconic villains, this one was a welcome change, seeing him as the hero!
The Howling: New Moon Rising (1995)
Finally, we have a sequel that actually makes use of the previous stories. ‘The Howling: New Moon Rising’ tells the story of Ted, a man who has been a part of three of the previous Howling films. He comes to a small town to mix with the locals but is secretly up to something else. He records his own agendas in a tape recorder and the secret stays with him in his hotel room. During his presence, there are a few mysterious murders in town, and a detective is on the case. Initially, it is suspected that a large animal is behind the slayings, but things soon point towards the paranormal direction.
The local priest is quite sure that it is the work of a werewolf, and slowly, the detective also realizes the truth in this assumption. It turns out that Ted was actually after a werewolf, whom he has faced in the past. This Australian biker came to town solely to weed out this werewolf, and whether he succeeds or not is for you to find out!
How about a werewolf film without werewolves?
Yes, this is what the franchise came down to towards the end. This movie barely has any werewolf for much of the narrative and is a classic example of low-budget horror movies gone wrong. The film degrades to the point where it has to resort to fart jokes, and the strange ending is no consolation for those who patiently watched the nonsensical story unfold. We would have recommended this as a guilty pleasure, but honestly, there are better alternatives, and this one is best left untouched – just like the makers never touched the script!
The Howling: Reborn (2011)
This is where it all ends – thankfully! The story boils down to absolutely ridiculous stuff this time around, and it really tests the patience of fans who stopped loving the franchise a long time ago! The movie starts off with Kathryn Kidman being killed by a werewolf. Her son Will lives with his father and has grown up to be a scared kid in school. He has a thing for a girl named Eliana but is too scared of her current boyfriend. He does, however, have one friend named Sachin who is planning to make a horror film that he will broadcast by hacking news channels illegally.
When Eliana invites Will to a party, a strange creature attacks them all. Will barely manages to escape and is quite inquisitive about the werewolf lore. When he asks Sachin, the latter reveals that he is a werewolf himself. Will is also shaken up when he learns that Kathryn who now lives as Kay, had turned into a werewolf. Will does manage to save her from the other werewolves of Kay’s pack, but Kay is simply too powerful. Even silver bullets fail to kill Kay, and Will finds out that she had been raising an entire army of werewolves to take over the world.
Kay wants Will to embrace his werewolf heritage, but Will decides to fight against the mighty werewolf. Eventually, Kay captures Eliana to force Will into becoming one of them, but she turns into a werewolf herself and rips out Kay’s heart. It turns out that Eliana had transformed after being bitten by Will, and together they burn down the entire school, to kill all the werewolves. Later, they make a video, exposing the true nature of the transformation so that humans are aware of the werewolf threat and prepare for a battle.
Is this the rebirth of the franchise?
We certainly hope not! Not in this bizarre fashion with a barely-there storyline anyway! The plot holes are ridiculously glaring, and the characters have no constancy whatsoever. The love interest of the protagonist goes back and forth from wanting to be a werewolf to killing them all within five minutes. The special effects are hilarious, and the story has way too many clichés. How many times have you heard the story of a nerdy boy who turns into a good looking superhero and saves the world! We feel that it is high time that the franchise came to a close, or delivered much better content. We are certainly better off without such painful sequels!