The Howling (1981)

When I hear "werewolves", I've always pictured the Howling werewolves, specifically from the first, second, and fourth installments of the franchise. Growing up, my mother had a healthy appreciation for horror movies and the occult; if she wasn't trying to get us to dance naked for the solstice, we were probably out hiking- and she could put any 4X4 to shame in whichever clunker car we had at the time, mind you- in the mountains to find bird skulls or fulfill something we read in some old dusty book from Dragon's Marsh. The rest of the time, we were probably at home watching the best horror the 70's and 80's had to offer.

These adventures led to a fairly colorful imagination for a child, and arguably some pretty intense night terrors if I'm being honest, but that is a story for another time. The Howling and its werewolves left a mark on me, for better or for worse, and I cherish the nostalgia.

Only last year did I finally read the Howling novels by Gary Brandner; I never knew they existed. On a whim, I asked the lady at the book exchange to keep an eye out for them, and within a week or so she'd procured me copies of all three. There is something deeply satisfying about an old, yellowed paperback: it smells and feels delightful, and I enjoy the mystique of where it might have been and who might have read it before me.

The first installment, The Howling, bares some similarities in plot to the first novel by Brandner, but ultimately is quite different. Dee Wallace plays Karen White, a doe-eyed news anchor who has been receiving communications from a serial killer. Her husband Bill (Christopher Stone, with whom Wallace goes on to star in Cujo two years later) is understandably worried when Karen participates in a sting to catch the killer. The whole thing goes badly, and Karen, after witnessing the death of killer "Eddie Quist" in a porn booth, is ordered to take some time off work and go recuperate at a community known as "the Colony". The community is owned by her psychiatrist, Dr. George Waggner (Patrick MacNee).

Karen forebodingly hopes the people at the retreat "aren't too weird"; we are introduced to everyone at a beach BBQ, and, not surprisingly, there are some creeps in the bunch. The late John Carradine looks like he might have been a crotchety old werewolf in real life, and does a marvelous job here. We also meet "Marsha", a vampish gypsy woman in black leather. She makes a blatant pass at Karen's husband, and is described as being of very elemental, natural energy by the doctor. Someone else puts it more bluntly: she's a bitch.

While Karen and Bill are unwinding at The Colony, Karen's coworkers Terry Fisher (Belinda Belaski) and Chris Halloran (Dennis Dugan, nice alliteration in these two) are working to decipher who exactly Eddie Quist was. Halloran, Karen, and Marsha's names are directly from the book, despite their characters being modified slightly. Terry and Chris stumble upon Eddie's rented room, full of bones and sketches of wolf-men, as well as a landscape scene of an as-yet unidentified beach. To make matters worse, when they go to see his body at the morgue, it is gone, the metal door where he was being held now badly mangled by what appear to be claws.

Karen's husband goes on a hunt with the local men to try and catch whatever has been killing cows, and in the process kills a rabbit; he is told it would be a sin to kill something you don't eat, and heads to Marsha's to ask her to cook it for him. Marsha, whose wildly erotic energy is acted well, tries to kiss Bill. He rejects her and leaves, but the look on Marsha's face is anything but rejected. It is clear she is the hunter, and is only toying with him. Shortly after, Bill is attacked in the forest by what can only be a werewolf.

After getting patched up by the doctor, Bill cannot sleep, and leaves Karen in bed to wander the woods. He unsurprisingly meets up with Marsha; the two strip down intensely by a bonfire, and proceed to consummate their new bond. Much saliva and howling ensues, along with a seductive transformation. When Bill returns to the sleeping Karen, he seems afraid to touch her, and unsure of what has happened to him.

By now, Terry and Chris have done some research on werewolves, and Terry has headed to The Colony. She recognizes it as the location of the landscape they found in Eddie's room, and in the process of searching Marsha's shack, is attacked by a werewolf herself. She manages to hack off its arm with a hatchet, and runs to the doctor's office to phone for help.

Relaying everything to Chris over the phone, they put the pieces together: a search of the doctor's files confirms that Eddie was his patient, and the doctor was well-aware of Eddie's condition. Unfortunately for the inquisitive Terry, Eddie hasn't gone far, and Chris must listen helplessly over the phone as his lady is brutalized. This is the first time we get a good look at one of the wolves, and the scene does not disappoint. They are immense and vicious, and quite terrifying even 35 years later.

When Karen arrives at the doctor's office soon after, she finds her friend Terry's body, her throat torn out and her eyes full of blood. She does not have time to mourn, as Eddie is on her tail, and he is not pleased with how their last encounter ended. Her reaction to Terry is one of devastation and horror, Wallace doing quite well in expressing Karen breaking. Eddie torments her further, and a prolonged transformation from man to beast follows.

Karen manages to wound Eddie and escape, unaware that Chris has procured silver bullets and is on his way to avenge Terry. He too comes upon Eddie, who isn't prepared for the bullets. What follows is a final showdown between Chris and Karen, and the doctor and his fellow wolves. The doctor has apparently been the voice of reason for the rest of them, trying to help them adapt to a new way of life that didn't involve murder. Unfortunately for him, "You can't tame what's meant to be wild, Doc... It ain't natural." Chris and Karen manage to trap the lot of them in the barn, and proceed to set fire to the whole thing.









As Chris and Karen flee, their car is swarmed by the wolves who managed to break out of the fire in what is a fairly intense scene; the wolves appear demonic as they claw and bang on the car to get at its inhabitants. Just when it appears they have made it, a wolf breaks through from behind and manages to bite Karen. She cries out in pain and devastation at knowing what this bite means, and we learn the wolf was Bill.

In a final act of defiance in the face of her fate, Karen and Chris devise a plan to tell the world of the werewolves among them: they broadcast her transformation over the news, before Chris mercifully ends Karen's life. Her transformation is the most disappointing, as is her wolf, which looks more like a small house-dog, but the pain on her face and agony at knowing it is the end makes up for it.









Unfortunately the world is just too used to being lied to on TV, and most people don't take what they have just seen very seriously; Karen's sacrifice means nothing to them.

Throughout the movie, there is discussion of "the beast in all of us" and who we really are. Dr. Waggner refers to lycanthropy as "the gift", but it is Karen in her final pleading expose to the world that says the true gift is our birthright as humans to choose between what is kind and peaceful in our natures, and what is cruel and wild. This choice "differentiates us from the animals". Karen warns that choice has been taken from some, but she fights back by opting to end her life rather than live as a beast. This is in opposition to Waggner's opening words to the film, where he preaches that we as humans should never repress our impulses or deny the beast within us, and that perhaps in the course of our evolution and civilization we have lost something important.

The Howling is well-done in both acting and effects. It leaves you with an uneasy feeling of wonder and dread at what might be out there, and what you might think or do if it was presented to you on a platter. Would you have believed Karen's broadcast? Are we as a world too cynical to help ourselves? Could it be that if werewolves existed, they might just want to be left alone? Either way, I know I will always come back to this one.