Possibly one of the darkest werewolf films to come out, 'The Howling' doesn't screw around. Dee Wallace stars as Karen who is traumatized by a man named Eddie Quist after helping the police aid in their capture of the man. She is told by her therapist to visit the countryside resort known as 'The Colony' in the hopes that it will help her ease her pain. 'The Colony' turns out to be more than meets the eye as various violent and bizarre happenings begin to plague Karen until the big climax. The film is directed by Joe Dante who would later bring us 'Gremlins' and while he retains some tongue in cheek humor here, this is 100% horror on overdrive with 'The Howling'. The film gives you a feeling of being watched, and that everyone is against you. Even Karen's husband changes from her only comfort to a nightmare.
I think most people know before this review that a film called 'The Howling' is about werewolves, so let us drop the hiding of that shall we? What I do wish to say about the werewolf effects in this film is that they are still some of the most impressive practical effects ever put on film. The early 1980's, especially in the horror genre has some of the most amazing visuals that you would ever see and its a shame that it took so long for many of these artists to receive the recognition they deserve. Rob Bottin worked on the effects here, and brought to the screen one of the best werewolf transformation scenes ever and all done in real time with everything really on screen. CGI ruined animal transformations in movies as far as I'm concerned. Rob Bottin would go on to do John Carpenter's 'The Thing' quite possibly the best special effects movie of the entire decade so it's safe to say that he knows his stuff.
The actors all do quite well, though some of their performances especially Eddie Quist and the residents of 'The Colony' tend to overact which can interrupt the mood often. Dee Wallace is one of my favorite actresses even today and always look forward to seeing her. The rest of the film's characters are unfortunately worm food therefore they're given little to do, other than a last minute hero at the end. While I may have spoiled almost all of this film, the ending I will not give away because I don't care if you hate horror films, you have to see it to believe it. It's amazing.
'The Howling' is a classic horror film that has become my regular Halloween watchlist and I recommend it highly. I also suggest you check out its source novel, which is also good. Relax and come visit 'The Colony' with me, won't you?
No comments:
Post a Comment