Hey folks, welcome back. Wow, two posts in one week? Not enough really to make up for my recent drought but it’s a start. So when last we met I talked about “An American Werewolf in London” and this time around I want to touch on everyone’s OTHER favorite werewolf movie, 1981’s “The Howling”.
So for some background, I didn’t see either of these movies until much later in life, since I was all of 3 years old when they both came out and my parents aren’t exactly horror buffs. So when I tracked them down in my misspent youth I devoured them and kind of made my own head cannon that they existed in the same film universe. My justification was that the werewolves in "The Howling" were much more powerful as they could change at will and thus needed silver or fire to kill them where as in David in “An American Werewolf in London” was brand new and unstable and could be brought down with regular ammunition.
I do want to amend one thing: using silver to kill a werewolf was kind of sort of established in folk lore in the legend of the Beast of Gévaudan from France. It’s really the only folkloric reference to the metal being used to bring down a werewolf-like creature (that I could find) and even then it was established long after the events so I guess take it with a grain of salt.
That’s my disclaimer; now back to the movie…
“The Howling” opens with Los Angeles anchor Karen White getting caught up in a sick game being played by serial killer Eddie Quist. Suffering from what amounts to PTSD after the police bring down Eddie in a hail of bullets, she is directed by her psychiatrist Dr. Waggner to go get her head together at a secluded resort called “The Colony” that he just so happens to run and likes to send his patients.
So Karen and her husband Bill head off to the Colony and meet a cast of whacky characters including a leather clad nymphomaniac who tries to seduce Bill right away. Oh and her name is Marsha Quist. Ya know, like the guy who tried to rape and kill Karen, and not necessarily in that order. Great place for mental health, doc.
Bill rebuff’s Marsha, and is later attacked by a large, dangerous animal and bitten on the arm. Now it’s at this point where SANE people would realize they should have packed up and left the Colony after meeting Quist’s sister. Nope, Karen decides to stay, but does call her friend Terri in for back up. Terri connects the resort to Eddie through a sketch he left behind…God these people are stupid. Sorry, sorry.
Anyway Karen gets worried about Bill and not just because he is hanging out with the lady who tried to all but rape him earlier. Bill eventually does the no-pants dance with Marsha and they both turn into werewolves.
Terri shows up and is attacked by a werewolf in broad daylight but chops the monster’s hand off with an axe in what was actually a really intense sequence. Suddenly everything we knew about the monsters was thrown off and we didn’t know the rules for these creatures. Terri runs to Waggner’s office and calls her boyfriend Chris who is already on to the fact that there’s something shady going on at the Colony. While on the phone with Chris, Terri starts looking for information linking Eddie to the Colony and sure enough finds it…because Eddie’s alive and right there waiting for her. He kills her in werewolf form and Chris hears the whole thing, prompting him to load up with silver bullets to kill the monster what killed his woman.
Karen later is attacked by Eddie who transforms in front of her in a transformation sequence that is good enough that my young mind immediately linked this with “An American Werewolf in London”. The sequence isn’t a repeat of the former, but it’s good enough that I could associate them with a shared continuity. Karen responds to Eddie’s violent advances by splashing plot convenience acid in his face and gets out of there. Chris finally arrives and is confronted by the human again Eddie who tries to transform again, only to be shot by Chris and is finally dead.
Karen and Chris are attacked by the Colony because everyone’s a werewolf here. They kill all the werewolves, Karen is bitten, and they return to Los Angeles.
The movie has one of the more famous horror movie endings of the era because rather than settle on the final girl and final guy riding off into the sunset they move a step further. Being a news woman, Karen decides the world must know about werewolves and uses her last time on TV to transform before a live viewing audience only to have Chris shoot her before she can attack anyone.
I have a lot less nitpicking about this movie because it really is a much more streamline concept. It wasn’t a horror/comedy like “An American Werewolf in London” set out to be, where they balanced the horror with jokes until things got too serious. “The Howling” played it safer by have virtually no humor and playing it as a straight horror.
It also played by its own rules with subverting the restrictions werewolves had prior to this movie. It sets you up to think that the werewolves need moonlight to change, but then has them attack in the daylight. It gives them actual regenerative abilities and makes it very clear that the only way to kill them is with silver or fire. It also established the idea of these monsters not being mindless killing machines but that they could develop their own society. Having to deal with one werewolf may be bad, but to have a village full of them…and they are organized even as monsters…that’s a rough package to handle.
The biggest diversion it made from other horror movies of the 80’s is that there isn’t a “final girl”. Karen, who you were rooting for to make it out alive simply because of how much trauma she dealt with only to have her CHOOSE to die at the end upended the concept because you didn't have this survivor dealing with the trauma of the events but rather choosing to die by her own terms. Chris may have pulled the trigger, but it was suicide with a purpose of warning everyone of the supernatural threat.
The special effects were good, great by their time but some of them haven’t aged so well, but that’s to be expected.
So does it hold up? Well yes. The story is unique enough to keep you guessing if you are a first time viewer, and even if it’s your 100th time watching it, its visually engaging enough for you to stay interested. So if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you check it out. Just don’t watch the sequels.
I also recommend you check out the 1977 novel the movie is loosely based on by Gary Brandner, by the same name. The story is different enough for you to get into both movie and book and not spoil one or the other.
There have been some talks about doing a remake of the film and I think if they stuck to practical effects it could be really good. My fear when I hear about remakes of horror films is that they are going to rely too much on CGI and for rarely has CGI done anything good for a horror movie.
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment