The Howling - 1981
Joe Dante is a freaking legend. I don't care that many people hardly know his name. Nor do I mind that his filmography frequently yo-yo's between schlocky Mt. Everest and misfiring Mariana's trench. The man consistently brought it, and that "it" was a sui generis blend of horror informed by B-rate tropes, tongue-in-cheek comedy that implied a ready willingness not to take oneself too seriously, and, in some cases, some pretty incisive social commentary. In other words, horror-comedy mashups in these uniquely original tales. Would that it were we'd have 100 Dantes in this era of sequel-happy, superhero saturated, MCU blockbusters where IP is king and creative novelty is like buried treasure. *Rant concluded.*
Now, consider the cloth from which he was cut. He sat under the tutelage of the "Pope of Pop Cinema" himself, Roger Corman, and clearly soaked up all the low-budget, cult horror flicks produced and made by the legend. Thus, in true fashion, his early work began on a more modest and independent scale (The Howling is a fantastic example in this vein). But using the smarts gleaned from Corman, when it was time for him to step up to bigger tent productions with the likes of Stephen Spielberg, he was ready to bring the heat there too.
Ok, well enough touching gloves and making nice. Let’s throw the first haymaker. Simply put, is The Howling the best werewolf film of all time?! I can hear the rage building. But let’s pause for a second. Though dwarfed in the public eye by another werewolf flick released in the same year, Landis’ An American Werewolf in London, I’m not so sure that this is the markedly inferior picture. Obviously AAWIL is highly touted for its incredible transformation scene. But, uh, have you seenthis film?? We do not just get one transformation, we get a whole spate of them! Male werewolves and females! That the makeup and special effects (with facial work and hydraulics, or so I’m told) are nearly 40 years old is a true shock to me. This film consistently impresses in that regard.
To raise the stakes further, it’s populated by a gaggle of character actors and miscreants. I mean, John Carradine is just having a ball as the “get off my lawn!” elderly Erle Kenton in the colony (“Screw all this ‘channel your energies crap!’). In fact the whole colony is full of fun treasures. Patrick Macnee as the self-help hippy guru Dr. Waggner, giving an elucidation of the animal vs. rational sides of humanity that is a little TOO on the nose. The end of his soliloquy: “We should never try to deny the beast - the animal within us.” Noted. Slim Pickens is a convincing sheriff watching over these offbeat hippies, the most notable of which is the positively feral Elisabeth Brooks. (Dante not only snidely sends up these kind of cult-like retreats, but also links the myth of the werewolf to the more prurient connection between sex and the desire for flesh, between feeding and…).
On the other side is Dennis Dugan, long before any collaborations with Adam Sandler. He and Dante regular Belinda Balaski are the only ones smart enough to do any real digging on what’s going on here. (There’s a fantastic scene where the two visit a bookstore filled with esoterica and an owner hellbent on making a buck off people’s superstitions). Let’s put it this way - Dugan is the only one who got the memo on silver bullets.
But these are just some of the things which make this such a thrilling ride. We get a serial killer telling the newslady (Dee Wallace who you may know better as “Elliot’s mom” in ET) “I want to give you a piece of my mind,” and then LITERALLY pulling part of his brain out for her! We get werewolf attack sequences in cabins, severed limbs which transform after the fact, empty morgue chambers with scratches on the inside of their walls, horny she-wolf seductions, and a thrilling conclusion, which doubles as a nice callback. I laughed more than once. I jumped a time or two. But, I felt good old joy far more than anything else. This is one of the great B-tinged monster movie flicks, Mr. Dante, and I’m sure you’d have it no other way.
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