224) The Howling (1981)

Halloween 2025’s rewind of terror ’80s horror movie thread extravaganza - the revenge! (Part Two)

"A secret society exists, and is living among all of us. They are neither people nor animals, but something in-between."

Director
Joe Dante

Cast
Dee Wallace - Karen White
Robert Picardo - Eddie Quist
Christopher Stone - Bill
Patrick Macnee - Dr. George Waggner
Dennis Dugan - Chris Halloran
Kevin McCarthy - Fred Francis
John Carradine - Erle Kenton
Slim Pickens - Sam Newfield
Belinda Balaski - Terry Fisher
Dick Miller - Walter Paisley

The year 1981 was a great year. For starters, I was born in '81. That's a big gold star event for 1981. Don't argue! I know what I'm talking about. 

Also, a fair number of popular movies came out that year as well - "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Superman II," "Nine to Five," "Stripes," "The Cannonball Run," "Halloween II," "Escape from New York," and the James Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only." So, director Joe Dante's horror flick "The Howling" had serious competition at the box office. 

Not only was "The Howling" up against these movies, but it also competed against another highly popular werewolf movie that same year, "An American Werewolf in London" directed by John Landis. Yet, "The Howling" is no small or underappreciated movie. And it has an impressive cast that includes Dee Wallace, Robert Picardo, Patrick Macnee, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, and of course "that guy" Dick Miller. 

This movie feels like it has a tinge of satire of the self-help therapy movement from the 1970s and 1980s. 

In this movie, Dee Wallace plays news anchor Karen White. A serial killer named Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo) who has been terrorizing L.A. happens to be stalking Karen. 

The story begins as she agrees to take part in a police sting operation which will have her meet Eddie at an adult theater. Gross!

Eddie indeed shows up and forces Karen watch a lewd film, the contents of which I won't bring up here. When she sees Eddie's face, she screams. That's definitely the que for police to enter, which they do and shoot Eddie. 

Karen is alright, but she somehow doesn't remember what happened. 

Her therapist, George Waggner (Patrick Macnee) thinks she and her husband Bill Neill (Christopher Stone) should take a trip over to a resort on a secluded island where he often sends his patients for much needed r&r, especially after a traumatic episode like she had. 

Robert Picardo as Eddie Quist in "The Howling."

So, off they go. This resort is filled with a lot of weird people. Some of them come across as too eccentric, especially this one girl named Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks) who's too much into some weird kinky stuff.  

It doesn't take long before Karen and Bill realize that the people they're relaxing with on this island are really a colony of werewolves. So much for relaxation.   

"The Howling" stands at a respectable spot among other werewolf movies. Joe Dante takes the werewolf story someplace else other than the typical tropes common in the horror subgenre. 

This movie is an imaginative deviation from the werewolf movies that precede it. I'm referring mostly to where the horror subgenre went after Lon Chaney Jr. portrayed the wolfman in 1941's "The Wolfman." 

In the typical werewolf movie, some poor dude turns into a werewolf when a full moon graces the night sky, and terrorizes everyone until someone figures out what's going on and tries to stop him. It's a storyline deeply ingrained in pop culture but gets repeated again and again.

As it's a Joe Dante movie, I get an impression that there's some social satire in "The Howling." I often pick up social commentary or simple satire in Joe Dante movies, but that's according to me. 

"Gremlins" has a slight hint of consumerism satire. "Small Soldiers" takes a bit of a jab at war movie cliches. "Gremlins 2: The New Batch" makes fun of the first "Gremlins." 'The 'Burbs'" ribs the "perfect" suburban atmosphere. "Matinee" satirizes how audiences love to scare themselves.

I don't personally consider Joe Dante's movies as being either hit or miss. Rather, I consider them big scores or small scores. 

The small scores have a tendency to grow on audiences over time, even if they flopped upon their initial release. In other words, Dante's not-so-successful movies somehow become cult classics, such as "Piranha," "Explores" or "The 'Burbs'." 

Of course, the big scores catch on quickly - "Gremlins," "Innerspace," and "Small Soldiers"...and "The Howling."  

Rather than having these monsters with insatiable appetites existing in the seediest and most perverse part of cities, they decide to live in seclusion away from everyone else, winding up as eccentric individuals in therapy groups. Dr. Waggner works to help them control their "inner beast" and his methods are hollow, cringy and dangerous.

Aside from being werewolves, their unbridled indulgence in their passions make them the undesirables among us. They don't belong in decent society. It's all portrayed with the seriousness of a thriller horror movie. 

Thanks to Dante, "The Howling" has originality that stands out among horror movies in general, and werewolf movies in particular. At times, it makes itself to be a seductive experience which isn't something I particularly go for. 

I love the premise that goes beyond the standard werewolf movie plot that there's a werewolf on the loose and everybody needs to run. No, there's a whole secret society of these weirdos. 

"The Howling" is a bit corny to today's standards, maybe. However, it transcends the standard kill-the-werewolf type of ending common in the subgenre. 

Plus, it has a great cast that audiences don't really see in other shock-fest creature features. Dante is a fan of classic horror movies, and classic movies in general so the inspiration is clear and evident in this movie. And the ending is fantastic! The ending alone strikes as a spoof towards media sensationalism, insinuating media puts more effort in entertaining audiences rather than informing them.  

The movie assumes audiences know all about the lore of werewolves. And really, who doesn't? It bypasses any explanation and goes right to the core of the story. 

While a lot of Joe Dante movies have at least a cameo from actor Dick Miller, Robert Picardo has been a common face in a good number of Joe Dante's movies such as "Gremlins 2: The New Batch," "Innerspace," "The 'Burbs," "Explorers," "Matinee," and "Looney Tunes: Back in Action." Picardo is great in this movie as the antagonist, and I just couldn't see the actor in this role. All I could see was the villain. He's intimidating in this picture! 

Anyways, the story in "The Howling" gradually builds up as it starts off with a whopper of a plot point. 

Dante kicked off his horror movie directing career with 1978's horror comedy "Piranha." He solidified himself as such a director with "The Howling." His popularity went from there, certainly skyrocketing even farther with "Gremlins." 

He also directed the 2009 dark fantasy horror movie, "The Hole" which doesn't get enough praise like his previous movies. But "The Howling" is a highly respectable launch for Dante. 

Though the movie has decent special effects plus a little stop-motion animation, some of the overall effects haven't quite aged well. 

"The Howling" uses the werewolf trope as a means of satirizing society's love of therapy and the non-stop "journey" to find oneself. It's quite the shock-fest creature feature. It's a certified classic!