Halloween Horrorfest: The Howling

I've decided to challenge myself this month to write an entry a day to get into the habit of writing everyday. Since it's October, I'm going to give you Halloween Horrorfest, 31 days of scary movies! In addition, it's also Werewolf Wednesday! Every Wednesday, I'll highlight a movie featuring my favorite monster, the Werewolf. To kick off both these things is one of my favorite scary movies, The Howling!

The film opens with intrepid news reporter Karen White (played Dee Wallace), working with the police to capture a serial killer that only goes by the name Eddie (played by Robert Picardo). After the operation goes wrong, Eddie is dead and Karen is severely traumatized. A psychologist consulting with the network, Dr Waggner (played by Patrick Macnee) invites Karen to join him at his retreat in Northern California for some intensive therapy. She agrees and goes up there with her husband, Bill (played by Wallace's real life husband, Christopher Stone). Once they get there though, Karen gets the sense something is off, from the assortment of colorful characters populating the resort to the strange howling she hears every night. Lingering around is a mysterious woman, Marsha Quist (played by Elisabeth Brooks), who has her eyes on Karen's husband.

Meanwhile, back in L.A, Karen's friends (and co-workers) Terry (played by Brenda Balaski and Chris (played by Dennis Dugan) are investigating Eddie's background, finding his apartment littered with drawings of wolf people and also landscapes. They go to the morgue  to try and get a look at Eddie's body only to find it missing. It's only when Terry goes to visit Karen at the retreat that all the pieces fall into place. Not only does Terry discover that Eddie used to be a resident there, but everyone there except for Karen is a werewolf, including Bill a newly minted howler. 

Joe Dante, along with screenwriters John Sayles and Terence Winkless working from the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, infuses the film with a self-aware sense of humor, including references to other werewolf films (including characters named after directors of other werewolf films). He also seems to work in every wolf pun possible. They also work in some decent swipes at New Age Mysticism and Pop Psychology as well. 

The film also features some dynamite special effects developed by Rob Bottin (with assistance from Rick Baker until he jumped ship to work with John Landis on An American Werewolf in London, released the same year as The Howling, 1981). In fact, the effects were impressive enough that horror fans are still arguing over which one was better, American Werewolf or The Howling. 

Overall, the film has become a classic of sorts within the Monster Movie genre. It was a big stepping stone for director Joe Dante, who came up through Roger Corman's New World Pictures, that directly led to him getting the job to direct Gremlins from Steven Spielberg himself. Dee Wallace also went on to work with Spiellberg, playing the Mom in E.T: The Extra Terrestrial. Despite this, The Howling is a unique and fun entry in the werewolf movie sub-genre. It spawned seven increasingly odd and unconnected sequels, none of which matched the original.