THE MARSUPIALS: HOWLING 3 - As bad taste desecrations of 'The Howling' go, 'Howling 2 - Your Sister Is A Werewolf' takes some beating. I think it might've met its match in 'The Marsupials: Howling 3'. Not coincidentally, they're by the same director, Philippe Mora, who has shown himself capable of considerable class with the likes of 'The Beast Within' and 'Mad Dog Morgan', but who here seems to be working inside a lineage that originates not so much with 'The Howling' as with 'Troll 2'. 'The Marsupials' is so beyond the pale it makes 'Howling 2' seem like the sanest film on the planet. Before you stop me, yes, I'm talking about the same low-stooping 'Howling 2' that put Christopher Lee in a punk club and staged lycanthropic threesomes in the hope of shits and giggles. All things considered though, the least you could say of 'Howling 2' is that it didn't turn into a spy thriller about the search for a werewolf ballerina. 'The Marsupial's problems don't end there. It starts with a tribe of marsupial werewolves who live on a shit camp site and ends several years into everyone's future, when they're taking a reflective moment; the sprawling mass in between contains jaw dropping scenes of were-marsupial pouch birth and endless stretches of hilarity / tedium / confusion. It's such a shitpile of tonal swerves, dead ends, throwaway bizarreness and random plot shifts that it's nigh on impossible to make out what the f*ck's going on. It really doesn't know its arse from its elbow, and even though I mentioned 'spy thriller' there, five scenes down the line it's... what? Jungle adventure? Wry film industry comedy? Back to 'horror'? Oh, least of all horror. From alpha to omega, so little is certain beyond the excruciating performances and bad lines that twist it beyond redemption. I think it was intended as a parody at least SOME of the time, but it is a huge comedy fail whose only humorous moments occur during thirty seconds of Dame Edna. I make no secret of the fact that I like some pretty rubbish movies. 'The Marsupials' was difficult to metabolise, but a weird part of me wanted to watch it again as soon as it finished. I didn't though, and if I forget it exists, I doubt I ever will! OK, I probably will.
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