By Chris Hyde

October 29, 2003

The early 1980s brought a werewolf movie renaissance to screens across America, as lycanthropes suddenly returned in three major films. In an inspired bit of lunacy, The Howling, Joe Dante's take on the shaggy dog tale, has just been reissued in a Special Edition.

For whatever reason, as the '80s dawned, a classic horror archetype returned to domestic theaters after a hiatus of some 20 years. John Landis' An American Werewolf in London brought a lighter, mostly mainstream touch to the legendary screen monster and Michael Wadleigh's Wolfen had actor Albert Finney as a cop tracking the trail of canine killers in New York. The other entry in this revival was The Howling, a capably made horror/comedy that managed to bring both thrills and laughs to Reagan-era crowds. Starring scream queen Dee Wallace, this film has now returned in a spiffy new DVD edition from MGM that suitably pays tribute to this late entry in the B-movie sweepstakes.

The film begins with hotshot LA news anchor Karen White (played by Wallace) meeting up with a notorious serial killer (Robert Picardo) in a sleazy porno bookshop. This encounter quite nearly ends in her demise, but she is saved just in time -- though the event is so shocking to her that she is unable to recount exactly what happened. In the grand old tradition of exploitation TV, the station she works for tries to get her to return to the air as quickly as possible so as to take advantage of the hype surrounding this attack, but she is so traumatized that she's incapable of doing so. Taking the seemingly well-intentioned advice of local psychobabble purveyor Dr George Waggner (archly portrayed by former Avengers frontman Patrick Macnee), the newswoman then decides to head out to a deep woods colony for some therapeutic relaxation with her husband (Christopher Stone, Wallace's real life partner at the time). Unfortunately for Ms. White, however, things are not at all what they seem out in the countryside.

At first the denizens of this backwater commune just seem to be a little strange, but as their story unravels it becomes pretty obvious that there's something even more sinister going on. As her husband begins to slowly wander away from her, White tries calling in her friends from the TV station (Dennis Duggan and Piranha graduate Belinda Belaski) to help figure out what's going on. From this point of the tale things begin to really devolve into wolfy madness, but it'd be a shame to spoil any of the events with a complete synopsis so we'll just stop revealing the more essential plot details here. Suffice it to say that the remaining portion of the story involves plenty of revealing twists, foggy nights and spectacular man-to-wolf transformations.

One of the primary attractions of The Howling is that while a fair amount of the action is simple, straightforward horror designed to make you jump out of your seat, there's also a cuttingly satirical edge to the proceedings that really helps the film's overall tone. The screenplay (written by John Sayles) contains a particularly harsh view of California pop psychology, and additionally director Joe Dante continually peppers the proceedings with all sorts of references to lupine arcana that can be noticed by the astute viewer. While at times the filmmaker goes a bit overboard with this tendency, smaller touches such as having many of the characters named after people in classic werewolf films and bits like inserting clips of Lon Chaney to help advance the plot really help make the film work as a tribute to those who have previously mined the werewolf legend. The film's director parlays this tongue-in-cheek style to great advantage, and the wry outlook of the film's narrative much enhances the enjoyment on tap in this one.

Sharp-eyed viewers with a sense of film history should keep an eye out here for appearances by luminaries Roger Corman and Forrest J. Ackerman, who make brief cameos during the course of the film. Also on display is B-movie legend Dick Miller, who turns up as the proprietor of an occult store dealing in wolfbane and bullets made of silver. Another great pleasure of the film is the transformation effects supplied by Rob Bottin, done in the pre-CGI days where latex effects ruled the day. While there are some who have scoffed at the creature designs used in The Howling, to my mind the work being shown here holds up pretty well some 20 years after the film's debut. There are some flaws to be sure, but for the most part the makeup is of a high enough quality that the man to wolf scenes are pretty convincing and the other material is fine as well. Especially of note is one really excellent severed arm scene that works just perfectly.

All in all, then, as a film The Howling is an ideal representation of the era of early 1980s satirical horror. As for its DVD incarnation, MGM has outdone themselves in this instance with a jam-packed collection of extras that really flesh out the film. The two-sided disk contains production notes and photos, two original trailers, and 12 deleted scenes in a ten minute segment that runs them all together. There's also a great 54 minute long documentary called Unleashing the Beast that collects interviews with many of the cast and crew, each commenting on different aspects of the production. Additionally, there's a lesser (but still interesting) 12 minute featurette titled Making a Monster: Inside the Howling that collects a lot of promotional material from 1981 and is also a worthwhile inclusion. Last but not least, there's an audio commentary by Joe Dante, Dee Wallace, the late Christopher Stone and Robert Picardo which was culled from the 1995 laser disc and has all sorts of interesting anecdotes within it that make it well worth a listen.

Even with all this great material tacked on, the MSRP for this disc remains completely reasonable and kudos go out to MGM for yet another affordable release that really delivers on the goods. Personally, this film holds a particularly nostalgic spot in my heart and so perhaps I might not be the most objective judge of the merits of the movie. But still: the film is fairly creepy in spots, has a delightfully written screenplay, is perfectly well acted, has solid period special effects and is chock full of sly (and not-so-sly) references that will appeal to any student of horror. It's also a film with the kind of attitude that many more mercenary genre outings lack, and additionally its fairly brisk pace keeps things from bogging down before the final guttural screams die away. Essentially, then, this nice new Special Edition resurrects a fine example of early '80s terror in such a way that it shows off this fun and occasionally chilling motion picture in the best possible light. Let's just hope that light doesn't come from full moonbeams, shining down from on high fit to make your hair grow long.