The Howling parts 1 and 2

THE HOWLING

Based on a 1979 novel that I’ve never read, the 1981 film The Howling (which The BFI Companion to Horror describes as a “hip horror parody”) tells the tale of a broadcast news anchor named Karen who takes the advice of her mental health care doctor and ventures with her husband to an isolated getaway known as “the colony” to recuperate after her traumatic encounter with a serial killer named Eddie.  Unfortunately for Karen, the denizens of the colony are secretly a pack of werewolves who can change form at will.  After Karen realizes the danger she’s in, she escapes from the colony (with the assistance of a co-worker), but not before she’s infected and turned into a werewolf too.  Karen transforms into a wolf creature during a live television broadcast in an effort to warn the public at large of the monsters in the world.

The plot of The Howling hinges on one huge coincidence (Eddie the serial killer is a werewolf who belongs to the colony that Karen’s doctor oversees).  The movie boasts some horrific imagery (Eddie’s transformation into a wolf in front of Karen looks exceptionally real) but suffers from having a terribly passive protagonist.  Karen likely would have died at the hands of the wolf pack if her co-worker had not shown up with a rifle and a bunch of silver bullets at just the right time.  Widely considered a seminal werewolf film, The Howling seems overrated (especially considering that the first full-on werewolf attack doesn’t occur until forty-two minutes after the story begins, and that scene involves Karen’s husband just getting scratched on the arm).  I don’t dig this flick too much, but it does have its share of rabid fans.

THE HOWLING 2: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF

An astonishingly-awful waste of ninety minutes, The Howling 2 follows a fellow named Ben (the brother of newscaster Karen from the first film) as he travels to Transylvania with an occult investigator named Stefan (played by Christopher Lee, who must have been in dire need of a paycheck when he agreed to appear in this project) to hunt and kill a werewolf queen called Stirba. 

Cheesy electronic mid-eighties music saturates the soundtrack of The Howling 2.  I’ve seen more convincing werewolf costumes on kids parading up and down suburban streets in search of candy on Halloween.  The plot features characters behaving in maddening ways (upon their arrival in Transylvania, the intrepid werewolf hunters quite logically split up and enjoy a street fair).  Essentially there’s so much to dislike about this movie that I’m stunned it was never used as fodder for snarky riffing on Mystery Science Theater 3000.  Do not expose your senses to the sights and sounds of The Howling 2.  I regret taking this DVD out of the shrink wrap.