The Howling

MOVIE #1,878 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 08.12.24 The Howling is immediately such an upgrade, visually and story-wise, from Dante’s early work. Of his films that I hadn’t seen before, I was most looking forward to this and it completely delivered. I’ll talk more about some of the thematic threads which have continued throughout his filmography in a later review this week, but that element has been a pleasant surprise as well. This film is best known/remembered for its amazing makeup design and special effects (by Rob Bottin), which are fantastic, but I was equally struck by its effectiveness as a thriller. It’s incredibly well-paced — we don’t see the werewolf until the halfway point — and just an awesome piece of filmmaking all-around. (I’m still shocked that it spawned SEVEN sequels, but less so that it’s getting a new reboot via the guy who did the IT movies.)

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CHRONOLOGICALLY
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The Howling is a 1981 American horror film directed and edited by Joe Dante. Written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless, based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, the film follows a news anchor who, following a traumatic encounter with a serial killer, visits a resort secretly inhabited by werewolves. The cast includes Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, and Elisabeth Brooks. It was released on March 13, 1981.