The Howling.(1980)
Possibly the best werewolf film ever made after An American Werewolf, of course,I find it hard to believe that this film has its detractors..It has everything you would want from an 80's horror film, cool bladder effects, naked werewolf chicks and just an who's who of B movie and exploitation film list of great actors...Ok, the humor is sort of goof ballish and not too subtle as the scene with Eddie Quist shows " I'm gonna give you a piece of my mind. I trusted you, Karen." he then pulls a piece of brain out of a bullet hole in his head, and it would not be Joe Dante film without Dick Miller gurning away and giving a couple of nuns the evil eye as he tries to sell books on witchcraft to the likes of Forry J Ackerman...And while the cast is peppered with the great and the good from past genre movies, it's John Sayles morgue attendant that gets some of the best lines in the movie "Well, he didn't just get up and walk away! "....Maybe as a kid I was more impressed with the cracking effects, which may be by today's standads a little bit antiquated but at the time what were called bladder effects, were popping up in every horror movie of the early 80's,Whether its the bubbling skin of Eddie's Quist transformation or T.C.'s severed werewolf hand returning to its human form Rob Bottin's effects still pack a visual punch, as does the decomposing visage of Eddie as he slowly rots in-between transformations..It maybe that I've been a fan of this film since I first saw on video back in the day that im pretty blind to any faults it may have, to me its the perfect genre movie mixing horror and chuckles, and its the perfect testament to Dante's filmmaking skills that after alll this time I still get enjoyment from repeated viewings...
