{"id":2269,"date":"2024-08-14T15:59:08","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T15:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2269"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:53:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:53:06","slug":"the-howling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/14\/the-howling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Howling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Howling<\/strong> (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AVCO Embassy\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, nudity, strong sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joe Dante\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Pino Donaggio\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Hora\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 10, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, Elisabeth Brooks, Robert Picardo, Margie Impert, Noble Willingham, James Murtaugh, Jim McKrell, Kenneth Tobey, Dick Miller.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $17.9M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you go by the Chinese calendar, 1981 was the Year of the Rooster. If you go by what was playing at the movies, it was the Year of the Wolf\u2026. the Werewolf, that is. Three horror movies that year featured lycanthropes, An American Werewolf in London (my favorite of the three!), Wolfen and The Howling<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I really wanted to see it when it hit theaters in April \u201981 because I had just read the novel by Gary Brander. As usual, the parental block on most R-rated movies kept it out of my reach. I finally got to see it about five years later on video where I discovered that it bore only a vague resemblance to the book. That doesn\u2019t mean I didn\u2019t like the movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On the contrary, I totally dug The Howling<\/strong>. Instead of a straightforward horror piece, director Joe Dante (reteaming with Piranha writer John Sayles) takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to this tale of werewolves running amok at a health resort in the mountains. He counterbalances the scares and gore with plenty of in-jokes, references and cameos. It\u2019s quite humorous if you get the jokes and know the references. Sometimes I like my gore served up with a side of laughs and chuckles.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Los Angeles news anchor Karen White (Wallace, E.T.) is nearly raped and killed by a serial killer (Picardo, Gremlins 2) in an adult book store during a police operation to apprehend the sicko. Luckily, he\u2019s killed by the cops right there in the booth before he can finish the job. Physically, she\u2019s okay. Emotionally, not so much. Her therapist Dr. George Waggner (Macnee, The Avengers) recommends taking a vacation at \u201cThe Colony\u201d for treatment. It\u2019s a secluded resort devoted to the mental well-being of its inhabitants.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It soon becomes clear The Colony is one strange place. A lot of weird things start to happen. Karen\u2019s husband Bill (Stone, Cujo) is attacked and bitten by a wolf-like creature after nymphomaniac Marsha Quist (the late Brooks) tries to seduce him. We all know what happens to somebody who survives a werewolf attack. The rapist\u2019s body disappears from the city morgue prompting Karen\u2019s friends and co-workers Terri Fisher (Balaski, Piranha) and Chris Halloran (Happy Gilmore director Dugan) to investigate him further. In short, Karen is surrounded by werewolves.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rick Baker received an Oscar for his Innovative makeup work in An American Werewolf in London (the first ever awarded), but The Howling<\/strong> was actually the first movie to feature such effects. Of course, I\u2019m referring to the transformation scenes in which air bladders were placed under latex body and facial applications to give the illusion of a human turning into a werewolf. Rob Bottin did the makeup effects for The Howling<\/strong> (Baker served as a consultant). They still look cool and convincing more than 40 years later. It\u2019s especially impressive when you take into account Dante did it with a budget of only $1.5 million. The movie also has a nice amount of gore.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cast does a top-notch job. It\u2019s always great to see Dante regulars like Balaski, Picardo, Kevin McCarthy (as TV station manager Fred Francis), Kenneth Tobey (as a cop) and Dick Miller (as occult bookstore proprietor Walter Paisley). Also look for cameos by Sayles, schlock producer Roger Corman and Forrest J. Ackerman, publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. Scream queen Wallace is great in the lead.<\/p>\n

The screenplay by Sayles and Terence H. Winkless is very well-written. It has a few great \u201cBOO!\u201d moments. It also has a nice amount of gore. The Howling<\/strong> is solid horror movie fun. It\u2019s a near-perfect balance of scares and laughs. Sometimes you\u2019ll find yourself doing both at the same time. If a horror-comedy can manage that, it\u2019s doing something right.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Howling (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 AVCO Embassy\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 91 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, graphic violence, nudity, strong sexual content)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joe Dante\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Pino Donaggio\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John Hora\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 10, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/The-Howling-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3226,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions\/3226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}