The Howling (film)
The Howling is a 1981 American horror film directed by Joe Dante and starring Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, and Robert Picardo. Based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, the film follows a television newswoman sent to a remote mountain resort after a near fatal incident with a serial killer, unaware that the residents are werewolves.
The film was released on March 13, 1981 and became a moderate success, grossing $17.9 million at the box office. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for the makeup special effects by Rob Bottin. The film won the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film while still in development, and was one of the three high-profile wolf-themed horror films released in 1981, alongside An American Werewolf in London and Wolfen. Its financial success aided Dante's career, and prompted Warner Bros. to hire Dante and Michael Finnell for Gremlins. A series consisting of seven sequels arose from the film's success.
Plot
Karen White is a Los Angeles television news anchor who is being stalked by a serial murderer named Eddie Quist. In cooperation with the police, she takes part in a scheme to capture Eddie by agreeing to meet him in a sleazy porno theater. Eddie forces Karen to watch a video of a young woman being raped, and when Karen turns around to see Eddie she screams. The police enter and shoot Eddie, and although Karen is safe, she suffers amnesia. Her therapist, Dr. George Waggner, decides to send her and her husband, Bill Neill, to the "Colony", a secluded resort in the countryside where he sends patients for treatment.The Colony is filled with strange characters, and one, a sultry nymphomaniac named Marsha Quist, tries to seduce Bill. When he resists her unsubtle sexual overtures, he is attacked and scratched on the arm by a werewolf while returning to his cabin. After Bill's attack, Karen summons her friend, Terri Fisher, to the Colony, and Terri connects the resort to Eddie through a sketch he left behind. Terri and her boyfriend Chris Halloran also find out that Eddie's body disappeared from the morgue. Karen begins to suspect that Bill is hiding a secret far more threatening than marital infidelity. Later that night, Bill meets Marsha at a campfire in the woods. While having sex in the moonlight, they undergo a frightening transformation into werewolves.
While investigating the next morning, Terri is attacked by a werewolf in a cabin, though she escapes after cutting the monster's hand off with an ax. She runs to Wagner's office and places a phone call to Chris, who has been alerted about the Colony's true nature. While on the phone with Chris, Terri looks for files on Eddie Quist. When she finally finds Eddie in the file cabinet, she is attacked by Eddie in werewolf form, and is killed when she is bitten on the jugular vein. Chris hears this on the other end and sets off for the Colony armed with silver bullets.
Karen is confronted by the resurrected Eddie Quist once again, and Eddie transforms himself into a werewolf in front of her. In response, Karen splashes Eddie in the face with corrosive acid and flees. Later, as Chris arrives at the Colony, he is confronted by the horribly disfigured Eddie, who is fatally shot by Chris with a silver bullet when he attempts to transform. However, it turns out the people in the Colony are werewolves and can shapeshift at will, without the need of a full moon. Karen and Chris survive their attacks and burn the Colony to the ground.
Karen resolves to warn the entire world about the existence of werewolves, and begins a special worldwide broadcast announcement to the people around the world. Then, to prove her story, she herself transforms into a werewolf, having become one after being bitten at the Colony by Bill. She is shot by Chris in front of a live viewing audience, although the people watching the transformation from their television sets around the world are amused, believing it to be just a stunt done with special effects. Marsha, who escaped the Colony herself, sits at a bar with a man who orders a pepper steak for himself while watching the special broadcast announcement, and orders a rare burger after Karen's display cuts to a commercial break.
Cast
- Dee Wallace as Karen White
- Patrick Macnee as Dr. George Waggner
- Dennis Dugan as Chris Halloran
- Christopher Stone as R. William "Bill" Neill
- Belinda Balaski as Terri Fisher
- Kevin McCarthy as Fred Francis
- John Carradine as Erle Kenton
- Slim Pickens as Sam Newfield
- Elisabeth Brooks as Marsha Quist
- Robert Picardo as Eddie Quist
- Margie Impert as Donna
- Noble Willingham as Charlie Barton
- James Murtaugh as Jerry Warren
- Jim McKrell as Lew Landers
- Kenneth Tobey as Older Cop
- Dick Miller as Walter Paisley
- Meshach Taylor as Shantz
- Don McLeod as T.C. Quist
Production
The cast featured a number of recognizable character actors such as Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Kenneth Tobey and Slim Pickens, many of whom appeared in genre films themselves. Additionally, the film was full of in-joke references. Roger Corman makes a cameo appearance as a man standing outside a phone booth, as does John Sayles, appearing as a morgue attendant and James Murtaugh as one of the members of the Colony. Forrest J. Ackerman appears in a brief cameo in an occult bookstore, clutching a copy of his magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.
The Howling was also notable for its special effects, which were state-of-the-art at the time. The transformation scenes were created by Rob Bottin, who had also worked with Dante on Piranha. Rick Baker was the original effects artist for the film, but left the production to work on the John Landis film An American Werewolf in London, handing over the effects work to Bottin. Bottin's most celebrated effect was the on-screen transformation of Eddie Quist, which involved air bladders under latex facial applications to give the illusion of transformation. Variety claimed that The Howlings biggest flaw is that the impact of this initial transformation is never topped during the climax of the film. The Howling also features stop-motion animation by David W. Allen, and puppetry intended to give the werewolves an even more non-human look. Despite most of the special effects at the time, the silhouette of Bill and Marsha having sex as werewolves is obviously a cartoon animation. Dante attributed this to budgetary reasons.
Due to their work in The Howling, Dante and producer Michael Finnell received the opportunity to make the film Gremlins for Steven Spielberg. That film references The Howling with a smiley face image on a refrigerator door. Eddie Quist leaves yellow smiley face stickers as his calling card in several places throughout The Howling. Also Jim McKrell's character as news reporter Lew Landers appears in both The Howling and Gremlins, which suggest both movies share the same universe.
Differences from Brandner's novel
The plot and characters of the film deviate from the original novel in many ways:- In the novel, Karen White is called Karyn Beatty. Her husband in the novel is called Roy Beatty. Neither Karyn or Roy work in television.
- In the novel, Karyn is raped by a man in her apartment. In the film, she is saved by the police before she is attacked by a werewolf in an adult bookstore.
- In the novel, Karyn's psychiatrist is only briefly mentioned. In the film, her psychiatrist is Dr. Waggner, who is a major character.
- In the novel, Karyn goes to recuperate at Drago, a mountain village in California. In the film, she goes to "The Colony", a health resort run by her psychiatrist Dr. Waggner.
- Karyn's rapist in the novel is named Max Quist, and he is an ex-con who has no involvement with the village of Drago or its inhabitants. In the film, Karen's attacker is named Eddie Quist and is already affiliated with the Colony before he meets Karen.
- Marsha Quist's name in the novel is Marcia Lura, a shopkeeper in Drago, and she has no relation to Max Quist.
- In the novel, Karyn and Roy bring their pet dog with them to the village, which is killed later on. In the film, they have no dog.
- The werewolves in the novel are described as completely wolf-like, albeit larger. The werewolves of the film are more anthropomorphic, and can walk on their hind legs; standing over seven feet tall.
- The werewolves in the novel are never seen in the daytime, suggesting that they can only change at night. The werewolves in the film can change at will at any time of the day and are seen in daylight hours.
- In the novel, the character Chris Halloran is Roy's best friend. In the film, Chris works with Karen and Bill at the television station. Karen's friend Terri is not featured in the novel at all.
- In the novel, Karyn escapes from Drago physically unscathed, but mentally traumatized, and survives after being rescued by Chris Halloran. In the film, she gets bitten by her husband who became a werewolf, and later transforms into one herself on live television. She is then shot by Chris with a silver bullet, live on air.
Tributes
Many characters in the film are named after horror film directors who directed other films that featured werewolves, including George Waggner, who directed The Wolf Man. Others include R. William Neill, Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, Erle Kenton, Sam Newfield, Charles Barton, Jacinto Molina and Lew Landers.
Dick Miller's bookstore owner Walter Paisley gets his name from Miller's starring role in the low-budget horror film A Bucket of Blood. Also present in the bookstore is the mummified Grandmother in an armchair from the attic of the house in the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre film.
The film's screenwriter and future director John Sayles, Dante's former producer Roger Corman, and science fiction and horror film personality Forrest J. Ackerman all have cameos.
Finance
IFI agreed to provide 50% of the finance. Goldcrest Films had a partnership with IFI. They ended up providing £145,000 to the budget of The Howling and receiving £396,000 making a profit fo £251,000.Release
The film opened on March 13, 1981 in 170 theatres in New York City, Philadelphia and the Washington D.C.-Baltimore area.Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, The Howling holds a 71% approval rating based on 34 critic reviews, with an average rating of 6.36/10. The consensus reads: "The Howling packs enough laughs into its lycanthropic carnage to distinguish it from other werewolf entries, with impressive visual effects adding some bite.”In 1981, Roger Ebert's 2-out-of-4 star review described The Howling as the "silliest film seen in some time", but Ebert also said the special effects were good and the film was perhaps "worth your money, IF you get it two for one". Gene Siskel liked the film and gave it three and a half stars out of four. In his Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin wrote that The Howling is a "hip, well-made horror film" and noted the humorous references to classic werewolf cinema. Variety praised both the film's sense of humor and its traditional approach to horror. Kim Newman, in his 1988 book Nightmare Movies, called The Howling "a brisk chiller that effortlessly revives the prowling-through-misty-forests genre", and called Picardo's transformation sequence "the movies' most impressive werewolf monster".
The film won the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. This film was also #81 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.