The Howling (film)

Karen White is a Los Angeles television news anchor who is being stalked by serial killer Eddie Quist. In cooperation with the police, she takes part in a scheme to capture Eddie by agreeing to meet him in a sleazy porn theater. Eddie forces Karen to watch a video of a young woman being gang raped, and when Karen turns around to see Eddie, she screams. The police enter and shoot Eddie, and although Karen is safe, she suffers amnesia. Her therapist, "Doc" George Waggner, recommends sending her and her husband, Bill Neill, to the "Colony," a secluded resort in the countryside where he sends patients for treatment. The Colony is filled with strange characters, and one, a sultry nymphomaniac named Marsha Quist, tries to seduce Bill. When he resists her unsubtle sexual overtures, he is attacked and scratched on the arm by a werewolf while returning to his cabin. After Bill's attack, Karen summons her friend Terry Fisher to the Colony, and Terry connects the resort to Eddie through a sketch he left behind, having previously discovered that Eddie's body disappeared from the morgue. Karen begins to suspect that Bill is hiding a secret far more threatening than marital infidelity. Later that night, Bill meets Marsha at a campfire in the woods. While having sex in the moonlight, they undergo a frightening transformation into werewolves. While investigating the following day, Terry is attacked by a werewolf in a cabin, though she escapes after severing the monster's hand with an ax. She runs to Doc's office and calls her boyfriend, Chris Halloran, who has been alerted about the Colony's true nature. While on the phone with Chris, Terry looks for files on Eddie Quist. When she finally finds the file in the filing cabinet, she is attacked by Eddie in werewolf form and is killed when she is bitten on the jugular vein. Chris hears this on the other end and sets off for the Colony armed with silver bullets. Karen is confronted by the resurrected Eddie Quist once again, and Eddie transforms himself into a werewolf in front of her. In response, Karen splashes Eddie in the face with corrosive acid and flees. Later, as Chris arrives at the Colony, he is confronted by the disfigured Eddie, who is fatally shot by Chris with a silver bullet when he attempts to transform. However, it turns out all the people in the Colony are werewolves and can shapeshift at will, without the need of a full moon to do so. Karen and Chris survive their attacks and burn the Colony to the ground. As they drive away, however, one werewolf breaks into their car and bites Karen before being shot by Chris, turning back into Bill as he dies. Karen resolves to warn the entire world about the existence of werewolves and begins a special worldwide broadcast announcement to the people around the world. Then, to prove her story, she transforms into a werewolf. She is shot at by Chris in front of a live viewing audience, although the people watching the transformation from their television sets around the world are amused, believing it to be just a stunt done with special effects. Marsha, who escaped the Colony herself completely unscathed, sits at a bar with a man who, while watching the special broadcast announcement, orders a pepper steak for himself and a rare hamburger for Marsha after Karen's display cuts to a commercial break. ==Cast==

Theater chain owner turned producer Steven Lane had long wanted to get into film production and was an avid horror reader, particularly of Stephen King. A blurb from King on the cover of the 1977 book The Howling by Gary Brandner drew Lane's interest, and eventually he looked into the prospect of buying the rights to make a film adaptation. After tracking down the rights to Warner Bros., who'd done nothing in the two years since acquiring them, he discovered they had resold the rights to director Jack Conrad. Bottin's most celebrated effect was the on-screen transformation of Eddie Quist, which involved air bladders under latex facial applications to give the illusion of transformation. Variety claimed that The Howlings biggest flaw is that the impact of this initial transformation is never topped during the film's climax. Following a preview screening, it was decided that Allen's stop-motion sequences didn't mesh with the full size suit that had replaced the rod puppet and only one shot of Allen's animation made it into the final film. That film references The Howling with a smiley face image on a refrigerator door. Eddie Quist leaves yellow smiley face stickers as his calling card in several places throughout The Howling. Also, Jim McKrell's character as news reporter Lew Landers appears in both The Howling and Gremlins. Music Pino Donaggio composed the score, which featured classic orchestral horror melodies with minimal synth sounds. Waxwork Records released the full soundtrack on a double LP in 2017. The album art was done by Francesco Francavilla. Finance International Film Investors (IFI) agreed to provide 50% of the finance. Goldcrest Films had a partnership with IFI. They ended up providing £145,000 to the budget of The Howling and receiving £396,000, making a profit of £251,000. ==Release==

The film opened on March 13, 1981, in 170 theatres in New York City, Philadelphia and the Washington D.C.—Baltimore area. Home media The Howling was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment in 2001, with a special edition release following on August 26, 2003. Shout! Factory re-released The Howling on DVD and Blu-ray on June 18, 2013, through their Scream Factory imprint. Scream Factory reissued the film in 4K UHD Blu-ray on February 15, 2022. ==Reception==

Box office The film grossed $1,160,172 in its opening weekend. however, Back Roads, which opened in 635 more theatres, grossed more nationally, with $3 million. The Howling grossed $17.9 million in the United States and Canada. In 1981, Roger Ebert's 2-out-of-4 star review described The Howling as the "silliest film seen in some time", but Ebert also said the special effects were good and the film was perhaps "worth your money, IF you get it two for one". Gene Siskel liked the film and gave it three and a half stars out of four. In his Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin wrote that The Howling is a "hip, well-made horror film" and noted the humorous references to classic werewolf cinema. Variety praised both the film's sense of humor and its traditional approach to horror. Kim Newman, in his 1988 book Nightmare Movies, called The Howling "a brisk chiller that effortlessly revives the prowling-through-misty-forests genre", and called Picardo's transformation sequence "the movies' most impressive werewolf monster". The film won the 1980 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film. This film was also #81 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. == Themes and style ==

According to Scott Tobias of The Guardian, the film played a pivotal role in modernizing classic movie monsters, particularly werewolves, by incorporating graphic practical effects and explicit sexuality while interweaving references to the film's context; it also, loosely, referenced the Jonestown incident, as the lead character, Karen, retreated to a forest community known as ‘The Colony’. According to The New York Times, The Howling introduces themes of indulgence of primal, animalistic desires, particularly focusing on the sexual aspects of werewolves. It also offers a satirical commentary on television and the media, with its sensationalistic approach, focusing on personalities like Dr. George Waggner. The film also critiques how television sensationalizes violence and focuses on the darker aspects of human nature. ==Sequels and remake==

There have been seven sequels to The Howling. In 2020, Andy Muschietti was hired to direct the remake for Netflix. A comic book series by Space Goat Productions entitled The Howling: Revenge of the Werewolf Queen began publication in May 2017, acting as a direct sequel to the original film, ignoring the film sequels. ==Notes==