Wolf Awareness Week 2019

 

The Howling

1981

D: Joe Dante

**********

Pros: Good buildup, Visuals, Werewolf design

Cons: Slightly Disappointing Climax

      Though most people know Joe Dante for the classic Gremlins as well as many questionable family movies he made more recently, he got his start in horror.  His big break was Piranha, which has the reputation of being one of the best Jaws rip-offs, an honor which would be more dubious had that not been the assessment of Steven Spielberg himself.  Dante had enough of a reputation in the genre that the villain of Death Machine was named after him, and that’s got to count for something.  One of his most known horror films is his contribution to the werewolf subgenre, The Howling.

      Based on a novel by Gary Brandner, it begins with Los Angeles anchorwoman Karen White (Dee Wallace), who is attacked by serial killer Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo).  She freezes on air during her report of the event, much to the frustration of her producer Fred (Kevin McCarthy).  In response, the network therapist Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee), who earlier was speaking meaningfully about humans' bestial side, sends her and her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) to a therapy commune that he runs. 

When they arrive, they meet a few quirky individuals, including a suicidal old man named Erle (John Carradine), a creepy nymphomaniacal hippie named Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks), and Slim Pickens.   Among the oddities, Karen meets the relatively friendly and well-adjusted Donna (Margie Impert) and quickly befriends her.  Bill has an awkward encounter with Marsha in which she subtly comes on to him in a way that reflects her disdain not just for his marriage, but the concept in general.

      Meanwhile, Karen’s coworkers Chris Halloran (Dennis Dugan) and Terri Fisher (Belinda Balasky) are investigating Eddie Quist’s property, finding many drawings, including many of wolfmen and one of coast.  They visit the coroner (John Sayles) to find that the door to Eddie’s storage unit has been dented from the inside and his body is missing.  They also look to a bookstore run by Walter Paisley (Dick Miller) who gives them a few books on lycanthropy.  Terri looks for answers and makes a connection, but is attacked by a werewolf.  She escapes to Dr. Waggner’s office and makes a call to Chris.  She looks through some files searching for Eddie Quist, and one of the funniest things happens in the movie: just when she finds the file, a werewolf’s hand calmly takes it from her hand from offscreen.  Then we get the first good look at what the werewolf looks like.  Not only is it a great reveal, it’s one of the best werewolf designs I’ve seen.  This is comforting because a disappointing number of movies can’t seem to get this simple task right.  The effects on it are good and have a B-Movie charm.  There’s also a rather putrid pulsating effect it has on the flesh which is distinctive.  While the metamorphosis is creative and the effects are good, the whole thing is sullied by the fact that the werewolf is standing in a static pose the whole time.  This really does mess up the credibility of the scene.  The campfire yiff scene after Bill is turned finished off with what looked like the silhouettes of two traditionally animated werewolves.  In contrast with the pointless stop-motion shot later in the movie, it looked stylized and mysterious, helping the atmosphere of the film.  Gore effects and makeup are really good.  Scenery of the woods was very atmospheric as was Pino Donaggio’s score (in a cheesy B-Movie way).  

     Having heard Terri’s death over the phone, Chris grabs some silver bullets from the bookstore and drives desperately to the commune.  The drive over is well integrated with the rest of the movie and edited well to induce tension.  When he arrives at the Doctor’s office, he encounters Quist with half his face melted off.  He kills Quist before he can transform, which is a shame because I wanted to see what his acid-burned face looked like in werewolf form.  He finds Karen held captive by the other members of the commune in a barn.  They reveal that they are all werewolves, including Dr. Waggner.  Waggner formed the commune as a way to help them suppress their urge to eat humans, but all the others have had enough of him and his ways.  He argues with them a little, but to no avail.  Chris rescues Karen, and they lock the werewolves in the barn.  They then set the barn on fire, which is too bad for the werewolves because they apparently share the Signs aliens’ weakness in regards to wooden doors.  The two escape the commune, but Karen is bitten at the last second by a werewolf who is revealed in death to be Bill.  For no reason whatsoever, there is a momentary full-body shot of two stop-motion wolves, which is distractingly the only time this effect used.

      The final faceoff is actually rather anticlimactic.  Now, I love this trope when it’s done right, but not when the threat is built up as a credible one.  While the twist is fairly obvious to anyone who actually heard of the movie and didn’t just stumble into it accidentally, the buildup is effectively executed and promised to something more.  The werewolves should have been far more of a challenge once all bets were off, and it should have taken a hell more than just one journalist with a bolt-action rifle full of silver bullets to defeat an entire commune of what should be the perfect killing machines. 

      Upon returning home, Karen and Chris agree that the public must be told.  While Karen reports on the communes burning on live TV, she voluntarily turns into a werewolf, with a few funny reactions from her fellow anchor and some TV viewers.  This I think is where the movie should have ended.  It would have left the film with a sense of ambiguity and a little bit of dark humor.  Instead, Chris “mercifully” shoots Karen dead. 

      This is where I comment that since I first wrote about this movie, I’ve matured substantially as a reviewer.  If you read my unrevised review of it (caution: heavy spoilers), I interpreted the ending too literally, nitpicked far too often, and wrote a ridiculously thorough plot synopsis.  In other words, it was a Nostalgia Critic review.  I mistook my rightful judgment of the protagonists’ actions in the end for a narrative flaw.  Instead, it was heavily symbolic of the self-hatred and hopelessness when you belong to a group but can’t belong to a group.  You don’t belong with the normies, but the subculture you joined is not one you can fully conform to in good conscience.  Eventually its tolerance of differences will force to make a terrible choice.  I also complained about the lack of development from Donna and how abrupt her face-heel-turn was, but I’ve noticed a trend when you join subcultures: you connect with one mostly normal person you can relate to, and then that person just decides to sell out completely to the hive.  And it happens completely behind your back. I now ultimately see The Howling as a truly tragic horror film about the human capacity for corruption as a result of our animal side.  It’s my favorite werewolf movie, and I prefer it even over American Werewolf in London.

           

QUOTES

DR. WAGGNER: Repression. Repression is the father of neurosis, of self-hatred. Now, stress results when we fight against our impulses. We've all heard people talk about animal magnetism, the natural man. the noble savage, as if we'd lost something valuable in our long evolution into civilized human beings. Now there's a good reason for this.

KAREN: I don’t know if I want to remember.

BILL: What?

KAREN: Doc said once I remember what happened, it won’t scare me anymore.  I’m not so sure.

BILL: Honey, give this place a chance, ok?  We gotta do something.

KAREN: Well, I hope these people aren’t too weird.

[cut to Erle's hollering]

[Bill walks up to Marsha’s table and takes some food]

MARSHA: [passive-aggressively] You want some?

DONNA: Haven't you ever done Assertiveness Training? Before I looked into the Doc, I did it all - EST, T.M., Scientology, iridology, Primal Scream... I don't know, I figure another five years of real hard work, and maybe I'll be a real human being.

PAISLEY: We get 'em all: sun-worshippers, moon-worshippers, Satanists. The Manson family used to hang around and shoplift. Bunch of deadbeats!

SAM NEWFIELD (SLIM PICKENS): No, no, don’t bother.  I’ll get the state guys over to the center.  I wouldn’t worry, Mr. Holloran.  I’m sure she’s safe.

[Cut to Terri getting killed by a werewolf]

DR. WAGGNER: [upon being shot] Thank God.

KAREN: Good evening.  From the day we’re born, there is a battle we must fight. [teleprompter is clearly showing something different]  A struggle between what is kind and peaceful in our natures and what is cruel and violent. 

FRED: What the hell is this, an editorial?

KAREN: That choice is a birthright of human beings, and the real gift that differentiates us from the animals.  It is as natural to us as the air we breathe. 

FRED: [to Chris] Did you pass this material?  This is not reading on the prompter

CHRIS: We changed it a little bit. 

KAREN: But now for some of us, that choice has been taken away.  A secret society exists and is living among all of us.  They’re neither people nor animals but but something in between [Fred chuckles and facepalms]  Because of this mutation their violent natures must be satisfied.  I know what you’re thinking because I’ve been where you are. 

FRED: That’s enough.

CHRIS: Leave it.

FRED: Leave it?  Cut!

CHRIS: Leave it!

KAREN: But I have proof and…tonight I’m going to show you something…to make you believe. [transforms into werewolf]

ANCHORMAN: Holy Shee-it!

GUY WATCHING TV WITH WIFE: What is this?!

BOY: Wow!

MOM: What are you kids watching?

GIRL: The news lady’s turned into a werewolf!

PAISLEY: Hoo-boy.

[final lines]

MAN: Hey Ernie? Put that pepper steak on for me, will ya? And a hamburger for the lady.

ERNIE: How do you want that?

MAN: How you want it, honey?

MARSHA: Rare.