Review of The Howling (1981) by Mitch M — 24 Apr 2011

Stupendous werewolf film-- to me, the one that has set the bar for all future WW movies (As well as past ones-) to even hope to have a fart in a hurricane's chance of aspiring to. A big, fat, beautiful gift from director Joe Dante to horror fans everywhere, filled with genre vets (John Carradine, Kenneth Tobey, Patrick Macnee, Kevin McCarthy-), Dante's usually-rampant (Tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek) brand of humor, stunningly effective gore & show-stopping transformation scenes (The latter of which are vastly superior to those of murderer/copycat John Landis's supremely overblown, over-rated, & lame imitation/ripoff, "American Asshole (I mean Werewolf) in London", good acting by the principles (Pre-E.

T.- Dee Wallace, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, & the adorable Belinda Balaski-), a gooseflesh- inducing, howlingly-good by-the-campfire sex scene, and a suffocating, claustrophobic feel that AWL never comes close to acheiving.

After a young news woman (Wallace) is accosted by a vicious serial killer, she is sent to a retreat at a funky New Age commune populated by werewolves! Packed to the rafters with all that should be, and IS good in a perfectly-crafted horror film, I am hard-pressed to find anything negative to say about it.

Probably my all-time favorite 80's horror film. Unfortunately followed by a slew of reprehensibly-stinkola sequels; PLEASE avoid them!