There are a lot of great werewolf movies out there, especially from the 1980s. An American Werewolf in London, Silver Bullet, Wolfen (if you want to classify that last one as a werewolf movie). But to my mind there’s only one leader of this pack of hairy and mad, fanged and ferocious pups, and that’s Joe Dante’s The Howling (1981).
I’ve been a fan of the movie ever since I punched the VHS tape into the player in the mid ’80s. The movie is enthralling. I reached the end, rewound the tape, and watched it again. The transformation scenes are transfixing and the cynical humor a perfect counterpoint to the horror. I laughed out loud when, directly after the final tragic transformation, the screen switches to a bowl of wet dog food, the commercial announcer saying, “Mmm, mmm. Doesn’t that look good?” This movie has it all – comedy, tragedy, naked werewolves! With that in mind, let’s dig into 6 reasons The Howling is the best werewolf movie of the 1980s.
In no particular order:
1. The werewolves can change at will! How cool is that? There’s no waiting for the full moon for these lycanthropes. All they need to do is endure several minutes of excruciating pain, and they’re a ravenous fur-ball howling into the night.
There were several werewolf movies released in the ’80s, and even those that came close to being as good as The Howling (like An American Werewolf in London or Silver Bullet) didn’t have lycans that could change at will. Those other woofers had to wait on that pesky moon or some other trigger to make the change, and this is just one of many reasons The Howling stands apart from the rest.
2. There is a power struggle within the werewolf clan. Most werewolf films of the time focus on one werewolf while The Howling has a whole family of them. And just like with any tight-knit group, every now and then someone’s paw gets stepped on. This tension within the group is first foreshadowed when Erle (John Carradine) throws a fit at the bonfire. Something’s wrong. He’s unhappy. He can’t go on anymore. The movie leads you to believe that he wants to end his life, but he’s really upset that he has to eat beef on the regular and not human flesh.
You see, Dr. Waggner, played by Patrick Mcnee, has set up a cattle farm nearby and wants his fellow predators to live off beef and therefore peacefully among the humans. But Erle, along with ringleader Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks), has other designs on dinner. I mean, how often do you run across werewolf clan drama in a movie like this? It’s like the shape-shifter version of Game of Thrones. There’s intrigue. There’s betrayal. There’s murder! And that’s just another reason this one is better than the rest.
3. The Howling is downright funny. I’ve already mentioned the dog food after Karen White’s (Dee Wallace) transformation over broadcast news. But let’s talk about that transformation. Everything in the first few seconds of this scene suggests it’s tragic – the music, Karen’s anguished scream as she begins to transform, the sad look on Chris’ (Dennis Dugan) face, but then as the transformation begins, we are plopped into the TV rooms of Americans watching Karen transform live on TV. Some watch in horror, some with glee. Then we switch back to the newsroom where Karen has turned into…what, a were-shih tzu? It’s hard not to laugh at how silly, how cute the Karen-wolf is. This has got to be a joke, right? Then, the movie suddenly gets very meta. We are the people watching, the ones in disbelief, and the ones laughing at how ridiculous Karen looks as a werewolf. Just swap Karen out for nearly anything in the news these days, and you’ll see the parody is spot on.
4. Speaking of the news, the social commentary in this movie hits pretty close to home. Americans are driven by the news. It affects our lives and impacts our beliefs. We are divided into camps based on the network of our choice, and we cannot understand the perspectives of those on the other side. But it’s not a revelation to point out that these networks, mostly, are in the business of making money. And to make money, they need viewers. Karen is sent out on an assignment in the beginning of the movie to help the police catch a serial killer. She agrees to meet him in a porn theater, which is a pretty poor idea to start with, but the news network is also playing the audio from this sting operation live on the air. Karen’s in significant danger, but does the network care? Of course not. They’re playing her for ratings. And this being a horror movie, the whole thing goes sideways pretty quickly, and Karen is left traumatized.
While on the surface The Howling appears to be just a werewolf movie, it’s actually hiding a dark secret from us. Because if you watch closely, you can see it transform into an edict on American gullibility on one hand and our inability to accept the truth even when presented directly to us on the other. This movie goes beyond the fur and the fangs to make a statement about American culture that is as true today as it was in 1981.
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5. The transformation scenes in The Howling are off the charts. Eddie Quist’s (Robert Picardo) second transformation in front of Karen is an incredible three-and-a-half minutes long and is a perfectly gruesome example of first-class practical effects from the 1980s. Led by Rob Bottin after a last-minute switcheroo with Rick Baker, who had jumped ship, the special effects were like nothing ever seen before. Eddie’s bubbling, glistening skin, his bulging muscles ripping through his clothes, his wolfish snout elongating as Karen looks on, paralyzed with fear are beautifully done and clear markers of the superiority of this movie over others of its ilk.
6. And finally, and maybe most importantly, werewolf sex! The Howling is basically oozing with sex, some of it, especially in the beginning of the film, rather unpleasant, and some of it an absolute delight. Even the transformation scenes seem sexualized as the camera focuses on pulsating limbs, quivering flesh, and awkward orgasm-like facial expressions. But the scene that really ticked it up a notch was between Karen’s husband Bill and Marsha. As a teenage boy watching this scene for the first time, I was like, “Oh, hell yeah!” And as a grown man watching it again in preparation for this piece, I was still very much like, “Oh, hell yeah!” Maybe some of the effects, particularly at the very end of the scene, don’t hold up so well, but who’s keeping score? This scene rocks! It’s werewolves having sex! You simply can’t go wrong. This clearly sets The Howling apart from its contemporaries and secures its place as the best werewolf movie of the 1980’s.
