THE HOWLING

We live in a culture of violence and there is a beast within each of us, they say. In THE HOWLING, this turns out to be literally true. Los Angeles TV news reporter Karen White (Dee Wallace) is being stalked by Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo), a serial killer who allegedly bites his victims. With the help of the police, she traps him in an adult bookstore, where the cops shoot him down. Haunted by troubling visions, Karen is sent by her psychiatrist (Patrick Macnee) to a colony in the countryside. She is accompanied by her husband Bill (Christopher Stone), who is bit by what seems to be a wolf one night. Meanwhile, their friends Terry (Belinda Balaski) and Chris (Dennis Dugan) investigate in the city and discover that Eddie's body has disappeared from the morgue...

Directed between PIRANHA and GREMLINS by Joe Dante, who will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at Fantasia this year, THE HOWLING is a werewolf movie that similarly transforms itself several times. The first part in L.A. resembles a thriller that could have been directed by De Palma, an impression furthered by the excellent music by Pino Donaggio, who also scored DRESSED TO KILL and BLOW OUT, among others. Then we're in an atmospheric, increasingly unnerving tale, with a series of nighttime scenes in a misty forest, as we hear howls in the distance. Finally, we dive into a pure creature feature, with incredibly intense horror and transformation scenes, in which the special makeup effects created by Rob Bottin are wonderfully disgusting. Don't miss you chance to see this fantastic cult film in 35mm!