Review #514: 'The Howling' (1981)

The Howling was the first of a cycle of werewolf themed horror films in the early 1980's (The Beast Within (1982), The Company of Wolves (1984, and Silver Bullet (1985)). Two other specific sub-genre pieces were released in 1981 (An American Werewolf in London and Wolfen), and could be seen as simply a product of film economics and bankable trends. Whilst financial reasons are fundamental to film production, innovations in other fields also contribute to this sudden vogue for lycanthropic themes. Prosthetic special effects had been transformed, particularly in horror cinema, by such films as Jaws (1975) and Alien (1979) (or even the inventive puppetry work of Jim Henson's creature workshop), which opened the door for a new generation who would elevate the craft of monster effects, bringing a more realistic, and fantastical vision to the screen. Even into the 1970's, the werewolf transformation was still created in the same way than 1941's iconic The Wolf Man, with a series of dissolves, adding fur and fangs progressively through the shots. The modern werewolf movie was to begin that horror trend to show everything. Filmmakers now had the ability (with the incredible skills of the likes of Rick Baker, Rob Bottin and Stan Winston) to show the transformation from man to monster, in visceral detail.

Rick Baker was originally drafted to provide the special effects for The Howling, (he had to leave due to a commitment he made with John Landis for An American Werewolf in London), and was replaced with Rob Bottin, who did an incredible job. Aside from the effective transformations in the film, director Joe Dante's and screenwriter John Sayles (who previously collaborated on Piranha (1978), infuse the story with their combined knowledge of horror cinema, along with some humour. Dante represents that first generation of film geeks. His knowledge of cinema is encyclopaedic and his knowledge through referencing is displayed explicitly on the screen. Many of the characters are named after directors who had historically filmed werewolf movies (Freddie Francis, George Wagner, Terrance Fisher). The characters are also aware - within the film - of the conventions of werewolf mythology, which has been learnt from being within an increasingly film literate culture, perhaps an early use of post-modernist pop-cultural reflexivity. 

Coming out of a trend for more gritty, realistic horror (a cycle begun with Hitchcock's Psycho (1960)), and during the horror saturation of the slasher sub-genre, The Howling begins in the underbelly of society, Dee Wallace plays a television news reporter (Karen White) who has been conversing with a serial killer. She meets with him in the seedy back room of a porn shop. The opening feels more like a "dirty" slasher like Maniac (1980), with it's pseudo-Scorsese mean streets, that a monster movie, an opening that was utilised when advertised - the posters and trailers rarely alluded to the "beastly" aspect of the story. After the trauma Wallace endures from her meeting with Eddie (Robert Picardo - the serial killer), she is advised by her doctor Wagner (Patrick Macnee), to spend some time at a rehabilitation resort that he runs. Writer Sayles re-wrote the original script that had been adapted from a novel by Gary Brandner, and change it significantly, and brought in the same satirical charm that was in the Piranha (1978) script. Sayles came up with the idea of the resort, the kind of self help group that was prevalent in the 1970's.

After the failure of the hippie "revolution" at the end of the 1960's, and the people's disillusionment of our institutions and governments resulting from incidents such as the Kennedy assassinations and Watergate, many of the lost generation (generation x) were looking for something spiritual, something other than reality. Many groups of "New Age" spiritualist and pop-psychologists were formed, in sometimes sinister forms. This kind of congregation would quite often be corrupt, and fuelled with sexual oppression. And what the victimised Karen finds at the spiritually enhancing resort is an archaic hive for the neurotic species of wolf. In this coven, the wolves are outsiders, on the fringes of society, and is a diminishing group who's relevance in the modern world is narrowing - they are struggling to function in this age. No doubt a comment also on the relevance of this Universal Monsters icon, having lost its ability to scare some time in the 1940's.

A combination for great writing, incredibly effective special effects, and a director with gleeful affection for the genre, The Howling is a very well constructed horror film. It moves from the grindhouse "realism" of it's opening to the revelations of the creatures with consideration, creating a natural narrative structure. It is the equivalent of Robert Rodriguez' From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), which suddenly changed the genre from crime to vampiric horror. Despite the incredibly low budget, produced and distributed by AIP (America International Pictures), with the stylish cinematography and editing, the film still holds up today, and is far superior than many of the werewolf films being made today (The Wolfman (2010) or Red Riding Hood (2011) for example). It's just a shame about all the sequels - six in total, which inevitably lose much of the sharp, satirical script and the collection of great character actors (including Kevin McCarthy, Slim Pickens, John Carradine). And what the hell; it's a lot of fun to watch.


Directed by: Joe Dante
Starring: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Marc Ivamy