Review of The Howling (1981) by James P — 30 Dec 2013

The thing about The Howling that I really enjoy is the mix of horror and comedic commentary that it has. The original novel that it was based on is much more of a straight ahead horror story, but I like that they didn't do that with this.

It was directed by Joe Dante and was successful enough to spawn a whole series of films, including a remake. It's also probably the most famous of werewolf movies and gave Dee Wallace another memorable role to shine in.

There are a few Joe Dante regulars in the cast as well, but the real star of the show are the special effects. Funny enough, they were going for realism, as opposed to the old days when filmmakers used dissolves to sell the werewolf transformations, but the new techniques take twice as long as the dissolves.

For the time, they were certainly impressive, but I always felt that they lingered on them too long. The movie itself is a lot of fun and still holds up pretty well overall.