Of all the subgenres of horror films that we've been blessed with over the years, the werewolf movie is one of my favorites. One of the first flicks that I have an active memory of watching is "An American Werewolf in London," which was shown ad nauseum on HBO circa 1989. Back then, I thought it was cool when David Kessler turned into a wolf before our very eyes, and refreshingly without the aid of nauseating CGI. At that time, I didn't think it was possible for there to be a werewolf movie greater than this one. 21 years later, I can report that the six-year-old version of the Horror Nerd was wrong."The Howling" is an immortal movie, not only because it's an awesome, creepy story involving human beings who may or may not be going all lycanthropical on us, but because it's utterly unique and original within the confines of the werewolf subgenre. Most films of this nature - ESPECIALLY those that came before it (the Lon Chaney "Wolfman" flicks, the Paul Naschy "El Lobo" movies, etc.) and even a few that came after it (Stephen King's "Silver Bullet," which has its fans, but is considered by yours truly to be one of the very least of the 30-odd Stephen King films that have been made) had a tendency to lean on - very heavily - the conventions of the werewolf folktale. Read, there's plenty of lip service paid to all of the eponymous RULES of the wolf. Full moons, silver bullets, iron rods, holy water, you name it, it's all there and it's all spelled out for you.
Not so here. "The Howling" took the werewolf mythos and effectively updated it for the slasher cinema era. Gone were churches and English countrysides. In their place were psychological communes and densely populated cities. In a truly daring move, John Sayles' script - an adaptation of a novel by Gary Brandner - gives the werewolf an even greater relevance in a world that had left the days of kerosene lamps and candlelight. The villains in this film did not need a full moon to transform. Hell, it didn't even have to be in the P.M. hours. The conventions that this film invented were nothing short of ingenious, granting a truly despicable, evil presence to their villain characters (many of whom actually ENJOY their role as killers of the innocent).
In addition to that, it's got a transformation scene that actually tops the infamous one that John Landis gave us in "An American Werewolf in London." Rick Baker, a legendary makeup designer, was the head honcho for the special effects of this movie. Not to beat a dead horse in a world where every average joe out there has a movie review and opinion to share, but he does a fantastic job. Watching this movie is a nice reminder that there was indeed a time when crafting realistic special effects didn't involve a roomful of tech heads with computer programming degrees, and that there used to be this little thing called "ingenuity" involved when the script called for a guy's eyeballs to turn from blue to yellow and to sprout six-inch claws from his hands.
But enough about the that. Even if it had a story that featured wolfmen - and women - very different from what we had seen before, and had a makeup FX maestro working behind the scenes, "The Howling" would be a failure if it didn't have a story that hooked us. And that isn't the case.
The movie begins on a slightly film noir-ish tone, with a touch of true crime thrown in for flavor. Karen White (Dee Wallace, an appreciated veteran of horror films) is a popular TV news anchorwoman being stalked by a brutal serial killer. Her network holds a risky sting operation, holding Karen out as de facto bait for the sicko, which leads to a lurid episode inside a public nudie booth. The police arrive and save Karen from the murderer - a sleazy psycho named Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo) - shooting him in the process. The episode leaves Karen scarred and suffering from amnesia.
In response, her psychiatrist, Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee, a respected British character actor), decides to send her and her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) to "The Colony" - a secluded, hippie commune-style group therapy session that Waggner lords over. It's here where we meet several more interesting characters, but none moreso than Marsha.
Marsha is played by Elisabeth Brooks, and I've got to say that both this character and the portrayal are immortal. It happens every so often in the horror genre; the director hits such a home run with the casting of a villain that it immediately rises above the original intent of the movie itself and becomes something else entirely. It happened with Takako Fuji in the "Ju-On" and "Grudge" films, and it happened with Robert Englund in the "Nightmare on Elm Street" series. Folks, in 1981, the makers of "The Howling" scored a touchdown by casting the unknown Brooks as an almost vampire-like werewolf character. I say this because, traditionally, vampires are seen to be the more erotic of the two eternally warring monster factions. Brooks turns the tables in this movie; she pulls off the Marsha role PERFECTLY. Yes, she is pretty damn sexy, but her effect goes deeper than this. She's feral and animalistic in a way that drives guys, in both the film and the audience, wild.
Moving on...Marsha is in the Colony for several disorders, the least of them being nymphomania. She immediately sets her sights on Bill, who is starting to grow a little restless with his amnesiac - and very sex-phobic - wife. In the opening goings of this tug-of-war, he resists the sexy siren's advances, but this all changes one night when he decides to go for a walk. He is attacked and bitten by a wolf-like creature, then returns to his cabin, finding a waiting - and nude - Marsha waiting by the campfire, where they finally consummate their unholy union.
Feeling depressed and cut off from society, Karen calls her friend Terri to the Colony. Terri is already in the act of connecting Eddie Quist to the resort through a sketch he made, and also suspects that late night trysts with hot werewolves might not be all that Bill is hiding. After snooping too far in to the Colony's secrets, she is attacked - and killed - by Eddie Quist, who is himself the brother of Marsha, and who is ALSO himself a werewolf.
Most werewolf movies feature characters that are free to roam about their surroundings. "The Howling" reversed this dichotomy by focusing on a small group of characters STUCK in one particular setting. This was the era of slasher movies, after all, which were predominantly about a group of attractive teens holding a party or away on a camping trip getting sliced-n-diced by a mask-wearing psycho. While the formula had already been going full blast by 1981, this method felt - and still feels - amazingly fresh with "The Howling." The closing chapters of the movie, involving a fight on several fronts (there's Karen vs. Bill, Terri's boyfriend vs. the Werewolves, and Karen vs. the World, in the form of that final - and unintentionally funny - scene), consists of some very thrilling stuff.
Of course, it comes as no shock when you take into account just who directed this movie. Joe Dante is a guy that I and a few loyal posters on a message board I frequent hold in a pretty high regard; he's the creator of the beloved '80s classic "Gremlins," the mastermind behind the best segment of 1984's "Twilight Zone: The Movie," and even has a man-boner for proverbial character actor extraordinaire Dick Miller (that would be Murray Futterman from "Gremlins," in addition to "hey, he's that guy!" parts in about 50,000 other films). His way of doing things meshed perfectly with a werewolf story - most notably his distinct visual style and flair, with a taste for the weird that never, ever strays into pretentiousness, and his direction of the actors (particularly Brooks), which culls just the right amount of emotion and resonance without lurching into melodrama.
In short, while most people prefer that movie that was shown to me on HBO all those years ago, this is - and probably shall forever be - my favorite silver bullet-fest of all time.
No comments:
Post a Comment