Watch The Howling For Free

The Worst Film Ever

Memorable, crazy movie

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

The opening scene is still near-perfection. Dee Wallace, in an adult store, a place of primal urges, is attacked by a werewolf she can't make sense of. There's so much theme here, so much menace and it's so beautifully filmed that you wish the rest held up to the same standard.It drags, with the murder mystery and the mysterious going-ons that really aren't so since we know all along there are werewolves involved in it all. But mostly it carries along nicely enough. Rob Bottin is a master of course. This is still a top 3 werewolf transformation, maybe numero uno. The whole film just builds and builds to this scene and then it lingers and finesses and takes it sweet sweet time rubbing your face in the makeup and effects and it's all so good. Screw CGI and all the plebes ruining great fun and great art.

After TV host Karen White survived an encounter with a demented mass murderer, she suffers from nightmares and panic attacks. In order to recover, she travels to the countryside and joins the so called "Colony" – a community of mentally ill people. At night she hears the howling of wild animals, and she becomes more and more stressful. The members of the Colony seem to hide something. But what is it? (Psst! It has something to do werewolfs!)"The Howling" has some nice ideas and cool special effects, but it pales in comparison to John Landis' iconic horror comedy "An American Werewolf in London", which premiered in 1981 as well. The last third of "The Howling" is pretty entertaining, though. There is a suspenseful chase, a shootout and bit of gore. But you'll have a hard time taking all of this seriously. It's just a bit too sleazy and plain. Some scenes are trash-tastic: werewolf sex, yay! The sequence where a man transforms into a werewolf is epic: The special effects are impressive and scary up to this day.The most interesting part of "The Howling" is its ending: It is cynical and genuinely funny. Other than that, unless you are a horror buff, there is no good reason to watch this over "American Werewolf".

Let me start by saying that for a movie that only last 90 minutes, nothing happens for the first 40 minutes. Some news woman helps catch and kill a serial killer. And she has nightmares about it and is send to a retreat for therapy. But the retreat is really a place were werewolves can be free. And she is send there unknowingly to be bitten and turned herself. It's that retarded.The effects are laughably bad, especially considering An American Werewolf In London came out the same year and The Thing came out the year before. Both movies with effects that still look good today, nearly 40 years later. And considering Joe Dante, who made Gremlins, just 3 years later, also made this, it's down right embarrassing.There are two very long scenes where two people are turned into werewolfs. And when they're done turning they look like people in bad Halloween werewolf costumes. It seems like those scenes are only there to show off really bad special effects makeup.In the second turning scene it takes what feels like 5 minutes for the guy to to turn and the heroine of the movie just stand there and looks at him instead of getting away while she has the chance.The acting is pretty bad and the only interesting scene is when two people have sex and then turn into werewolfes, because the woman is hot and shows her tits.SPOILER OF THE ENDING AHEAD.Eventually after being saved by a colleague, who kills all the werewolves, the news woman is bitten herself. She then transforms, on live television, to warn people about werewolfs. She looks like Catwoman with fur in her face. And then she is shot and killed by her colleague. Well let me warn YOU, do not watch this. This is 90 minutes, that feels like three hours that you won't get back.Why this movie made so much money and spawned so many sequels, is beyond me.

This movie did for werewolves what PIRANHA did for, er, fish...it treated the monsters in a bloody, but not over the top, way. It's a masterful blend of comedy and horror, mixing in the chills and laughs at equal measure. The great thing about watching Joe Dante films is the amount of in-jokes you'll find in them. Even if the film is bad, you'll still enjoy yourself trying to spot all the cameos and references to older horror films. Luckily, this film is good, so there's a lot going on to enjoy. Made in the early 1980s, this was one of the two big werewolf films of the time, the other being AN American WEREWOLF IN London. Both films were famed for their state-of-the-art special effects. I think the effects here have the edge, slightly, as there are far more of them. Artificial bladders and a lot of rubber are used to create the werewolves, which are very effective (if slightly comedic).While the plot is not particularly strong, it really sits in the background while the jokes and horror moments come thick and fast. The acting is average, but benefits from the veteran presence of Patrick Macnee, Kevin McCarthy (who starred in Dante's earlier PIRANHA) and John Carradine, in one of his last well-known film roles (he died 7 years later in obscurity). Carradine is particularly pleasing as the hunter who has a classic line; "You can't tame what's meant to be wild, Doc. It ain't natural!" The special effects are of course, excellent, and Dick Miller is on hand, as usual, to give support. Roger Corman and Forrest J Ackerman turn up in classic cameos, and some of the characters are named after directors of famous horror films (Freddie Francis, Terence Fisher). We also get to see a clip of THE WOLF MAN on TV. Joe Dante, who directed, is obviously such a fan of the older horrors that it makes his films shine. One of the most knowing of modern werewolf films.