THE HOWLING ripped its way into 1981 as one of a trio of werewolf reimaginings, bringing the venerable man-beast back into play after a long hibernation. Though there had been a pack of them in the 60’s and 70’s, they were cheap knockoffs, barely seen, and not worth the effort to track’ em down (let alone the cost of silver bullets). The last decent lurch into lycanthropy had been 1961’s The Curse Of The Werewolf, with a hairy and harried Oliver Reed. Written by John Sayles (he does a cameo as an undertaker), directed by Joe Dante, this clever, deliriously ghoulish pick of the litter clawed for attention with Wolfen and An American Werewolf In London. *

“Humans are our prey. We should feed on them, like we’ve always done. Screw all this “channel your energies” crap.”

Los Angeles investigative TV reporter ‘Karen White’ (Dee Wallace, 32), traumatized after being stalked by a serial killer, takes the advice of therapist ‘Dr. George Waggner’ (Patrick Macnee) and with her husband ‘Bill’ (Christopher Stone, 40,Wallace’s real-life husband)  drives up to ‘Doc’s secluded coastal retreat, ‘The Colony’, to recover from the amnesia brought on by her near-death experience with fiendish ‘Eddie Quist’. Karen’s trip back to equilibrium is pronto challenged by the surreality of The Colony. Everyone else there seems off-kilter, moving from silly to suspect and then scary. Not helping: Bill falls victim to the undisguised wiles of voracious ‘Marsha Quist’ (sultry on speed-dial Elisabeth Brooks, 29), there are strange animalistic noises at night, and a local sheriff (Slim Pickens) whose folksiness feels fake. After some ‘wild animal’ bites Bill, he changes, in more ways than one, and Karen realizes The Colony is actually a den. Friends arrive to help, but are they in time?

After a rather unsettling opener (in a booth in a porn shop in a seedy part of Hollywood) Dante, Sayles, cast and crew score galore, making the movie a treat for film buffs who know the genre, especially for the deranged demographic that digs werewolves (guilty as charged), a blast for the actors (those playing it straight and those wise to the wit), and a showcase for makeup and effects creators.

Liz, you had me at Howl-o. Elisabeth Brooks, 1951-1997

In-jokes are speckled thru the script. Passing gags use wolf references from books, music, cartoons and film lore (Macnee’s George Waggner was named after the director of 1941’s The Wolf Man), and Dante found bit parts for genre stalwarts John Carradine (depraved looking as ever), Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller and Kenneth Tobey, plus threw in a gracias cameo from Roger Corman. Naturally warm Wallace (claiming fame next year as the overtaxed mom in E.T.) excels displaying decency and conviction challenged by confusion and panic, cherished pros like Macnee and Pickens draw smiles simply by being on hand, and lascivious Brooks going full frontal Wild Thing raises the banner for animalistic sex: should campfire boinking with a she-werewolf belong on a bucket list?  The woodsy locations around Cal-coastal Mendocino add to the removed from reality vibe: returning to nature and being consumed by it. Rob Bottin’s grisly, eye-popping transformation effects are spectacular banzai creep outs, loony enough to drive your inner Larry Talbot to the nearest pentagram.

Sayles script was spun off the novel written by Gary Brandner.The gross of $17,986,000 put to rest the $1,700,000 production cost, and ranked 48th on 1981’s list of box office performers.

With Belinda Belasky, Dennis Dugan, Robert Picardo, Jim McKrell, Noble Willingham and Meshach Taylor. Trailed by seven hyenoid sequels (the first with Christopher Lee and Sybil Danning), most of them direct-to-video junk.

* “I’m gonna give you a piece of my mind.”

Following the paw tracks left by 1935’s Werewolf Of London, the Lon Chaney Jr. classics of the 40’s (The Wolf Man, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, House Of Frankenstein, House Of Dracula, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein) pretty much owned the dry-iced field until the troubled punk of 1957’s I Was A Teenage Werewolf.  Esteemed shape-shifter Glenn Erickson of CineSavant has good things to say about 1961’s Italian import Werewolf In A Girl’s Dormitory.

Freed from critic-sneered monster purgatory by 1981’s three throat-rippers, werewolves have since wreaked cine-havoc in such opusses as The Company Of Wolves, Wolf, Silver Bullet, Dog Soldiers, Van Helsing, Twilight (& sequels) and The Wolfman, to pet a few pups in the pound. Careful with extending your hand…

Helpful list of biters provided by one Faiziadus—https://www.reddit.com/r/werewolves/comments/m01pfs/a_comprehensive_list_of_werewolf_movies_by/