The Howling is not your father’s werewolf movie. It hits you hard. This film’s pace doesn’t slow down at all. It is a combination of Hitchcock’s The Birds and Rosemary’s Baby. It also has a dash of Alien and Jaws. Dee Wallace is exceptional as the heroine, Karen White. The true standout of the movie is the makeup and special effects. Rick Baker and Joe Besara helped revolutionize the look of a horror movie. The special effects crew also helps the movie. Doug Beswick and Roger George were the two in charge of the special look of the film. Beswick previously worked on Star Wars: Episode IV-A New Hope. George a few years after The Howling, worked on The Terminator. It was a low budgeted film, that made lots of money for the studio. These two men did it the hard way. They had no computers to make their life easier. Their ideas were created in their heads and on storyboards.
Karen White is a television newscaster, who is receiving disturbing phone calls from serial killer, Eddie Quist, (Robert Picardo). She has informed the police, and arranges a meeting with Quist at an adult bookstore. Quist attacks her and the police shoot and kill him. This would seem to be the end of things, but it isn’t. Karen suffers nightmares and severe emotional distress. She decides to get away for a retreat, in a remote area. This retreat is run by Dr. George Waggner, (Patrick Macnee). The doctor’s name is a tribute to the director of The Wolf-Man. The doctor seems to be interested in helping people.This is the case but it is a certain group of people. They are ones who are affected by the phases of the moon. In this case a full moon, causes them to need more than simple electrolysis treatments. They are with a few exceptions, werewolves. Their state of mind isn’t the Lon Chaney/Larry Talbot one. They don’t want to die because they become violent killers. They embrace their change and love their dominant animal personality.
It is during a welcoming session that Bill Neil, (Christopher Stone), Karen’s companion, meets Marsha. They later become intimate friends. She brings him into the community of werewolves. They consummate their relationship, with the climax being their transformation into bloodthirsty creatures. Karen suspects some strange happenings and calls her good friend and reporter, Terry Fisher, (Belinda Belaski). She comes out to the retreat, and a link is discovered to Eddie Quist and the retreat. This causes a great deal of stress for the reporters. Later, another investigative reporter, Chris, comes to the retreat. This leads to the ultimate confrontation between man and beast.
Horror might be the most difficult thing to put on screen. It is difficult to gauge what will scare people. A movie involving a serial killer and a colony of werewolves should rate pretty high on the scare meter. The idea was a book written by Gary Brandner. It was adapted to the screen by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkles. This concept works well, and it is a forerunner to graphic, scary horror.
The film is given a special status by the actor John Carradine. He plays Erle Kenton. He is an old man at the retreat. His behavior is borderline suicidal. The thing is the behavior is just a front, covering who he really is. Carradine was a horror veteran. He played Dracula in two Universal films. He also has a small part in The Bride of Frankenstein. He was good in horror roles. He also had good roles working for John Ford, playing Hatfield in Stagecoach and Jim Casy in The Grapes of Wrath. He had a very long career acting in both movies and television. He was also the patriarch of an acting family.
Horror branches out into many sub-genres. The Howling manages to put a spin on the red headed stepchild of horror movies, the werewolf. It graphically shows the changes. They take place in seconds on the screen. It is much longer to get this effect on film. The werewolves walk around like Lon Chaney’s Wolf-man. Most importantly, the creature’s disdain their human side, and love their savage animal. They can also speak. Joe Dante and everyone associated with this film, deserve credit for giving horror a new dimension with the werewolf.