Movie Details
| Title: | The Howling | |
| Director: | Joe Dante | |
| Year: | 1981 | |
| Genre: | Werewolf | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.17.22 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (5)
- The Burbs
- Gremlins
- Innerspace
- Piranha
- Small Soldiers
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.17.22 | Internet | Tonight's double feature (although it's really this weekend since I fell asleep during this last night and will probably fall asleep during the next one tonight) is a couple early 80s horror that have slipped through the cracks. This one is a particularly egregious omission since I count myself as a Joe Dante fan. I think what happened is that I assumed I saw it with all the other werewolf movies of that era so I had my memories confused with Wolfen or something. But nothing came back from the hazy recesses while I was watching this so I think it's a first-time viewing. I liked it pretty well. Certainly the cameos and Rob Bottin's werewolf effects are the stand-out, but I thought the beginning TV production stuff was a nice reference or homage to Dawn of the Dead (it reminded me of it whether intentional or not), and the supporting cast at The Colony was decent as well. The movie does kind of all build up to the effects reveal so the first hour dawdles maybe a tad too long, but the last half hour definitely delivers in some quintessential 80s practical effects work. I'll also say that the face mask and silhouette of the full-wolf is still effective today. All the over-the-shoulder shots with his ears popping up and stuff is really great. I think Dante shot that stuff to great effect. The transformation stuff can't help but be compared to American Werewolf and I think Rick Baker just eked out a win there... it's a bit of a shame, if American Werewolf didn't exist this would probably be the movie everyone talks about because it's still really good. The bladders and latex are just a tiny bit more noticeable here. Still, the footage of the snout protruding and the nails coming down are good, although a kid today would probably say it's too slow because they're used to cgi, but having these shots focus on individual aspects of the transformation make it more pointed and impactful to me, if not less "realistic" than some smooth cg effect. Of course, the rest of American Werewolf is also great which helps. Before writing this note, I went down a bit of an imdb rabbit hole comparing Dante's career to John Landis, with them both doing seminal werewolf pictures on the same year and collaborating several times with Amazon Women on the Moon and an indirect connection via the Zucker brothers (Landis directing Kentucky Fried Movie and Dante doing some episodes of Police Sqaud!). that also includes the tragic Twilight Zone movie, but Landis' batting average is pretty astronomical up until the 90s where both he and Dante started to slow. I'm guessing Spielberg's association helped in the 80s and there's no obvious ill will since Landis contributes to Dante's Trailers from Hell (his episode of the movies that made me podcast is filled with entertaining old hollywood stories), but it seems like the ensuing trial and book of the trail over the twilight zone movie was a huge factor in stalling his career. But I guess I should watch a John Landis movie if I want to talk about him. I'm very glad to finally check this one off the list (especially since I thought it was already checked), and I don't think I need to see any of the many many sequels that this movie spawned across the decades to come. Instead, let's switch from werewolf to slasher. |
