What? Where "wolf"? Oh yeah - there wolf.
A Happy Fangsgiving to all with Joe Dante's (Gremlins) The Howling (1981). The original Howling was indeed directed by Mr. Joe Dante of Gremlins (1984) fame and based on the novels by Gary Brandner.
The movie follows female tv reporter Dee Wallace (Elliot's Mom in Spielberg's ET (1981)*) who investigates a series of gory murders committed by a serial killer. The killer attempts to wolf down victim after victim after metamorphosizing and changing into a burly, hawngry werewolf.
Robert Piccardo (later to be featured as an innocuous medical hologram in Star Trek Voyager) stars as Eddie the outcast werewolf. After being presumed dead, the result of the reporter setting him up, Eddie and his commune dwelling werewolf pals swear revenge starting with a cameo by John Carradine as Crazy Old Man.
Makin' it with a were-chick is a risky business but totally worth it.
The make-up by Rick Baker of American Werewolf in London (1981) fame, transformation effects and bold usage of T+A made the original film near and dear to many a gorehound's heart.
The Howling became a franchise of sequels, five in the 80's and two more in the 90's with increasingly plummeting production values. The series culminated in seven uneven installments - adding veteran actor Christopher Lee in part two of the hair-raising series subtitled: Your Sister Is A Werewolf.
The Howling Series:
The Howling (1981)
The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985)
The Howling III: The Marsupials (1987)
Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988)
Howling V: The Rebirth (1989)
Howling VI: The Freaks (1991)
Howling VII: New Moon Rising (1995)
References:
IMDB, The Howling
Eccentric Cinema, The Howling
Horrorphile, The Howling
The Howling Video-On-Demand available at:
