Okay here's a great premise -- what would The Howling have been like if it was made by somebody without the talent or good sense of Joe Dante? Well, thanks to the fourth of the dire sequels, now we know. It would have sucked.

There are two good things I can say about this movie. First, it serves as a lesson about how not to adapt a book to the screen. Second, it shows how much of a great film The Howling is, simply by comparison. As it's another version of the same novel, you already pretty much know the plot ... a disturbed woman goes to a retreat of some kind in order to set her mind straight, and decides to investigate a mysterious howling in the woods. The only positive thing I'll say about the adaptation is that it retains the strong religious element from the book, which was neglected in the Joe Dante version. This movie is apparently a lot closer to Gary Brandner's novel, but it lacks any of the flavour, metaphor or subtext.

First off, you don't care about the characters. Secondly, it just isn't scary. Director John Hough may manage to stay faithful to the book like some kind of a literary parrot, but apparently he hasn't heard of those things we call mood or pace or style ... in no way does this feel like a horror movie (it features the most un-frightening ghosts I've ever seen in a film). It's not even a particularly well-made film, and I noticed several errors in continuity. The acting isn't great, as all of the cast seem to belong on a soap opera, but by no means is that the worst thing about the movie. Also, for some odd reason all the dialogue is dubbed. Badly. And there's no excuse for it ... it just distracts you from the rest of the scene (or perhaps that was the intention). The special effects are actually very good, but unfortunately you don't see any of them until the last ten minutes of the movie when they're all thrown together in a hectic mish-mash.

Why do we need this movie? It sure beats me. There's absolutely no reason to watch it, unless you're curious about the original novel but can't be bothered to read it. Joe Dante's The Howling is superior in every single way.

Sucked, sucked, sucked, sucked, SUCKED!! This thing is an abomination in every sense of the word. You feel not attachment what-so-ever to the impossible stupid characters, the transfomation scenes are incredibly disgusting, and the "werewolves" themselves are a bunch of DOGS running around. Pay close attention to the scene where the "wolves" are headed to the barn and try to find the husky they have in there; it's not that hard. The thing that'll stay with you(other than the sense of indigestion) is the doctor in the barn scene. Disturbing is a good word to describe this whole movie, and not in a good way...plus the ending is horrindously opened and spawned squeals. Ick...

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The Wolf Okay, I'm going to have to admit it. There are some pretty cool special effects here, and they almost make the movie worth seeing. Almost. But, aha! Here's the good news -- they all take place in the last ten minutes of the movie, so if you really want to see them you can just skip forward to the last chapter on the DVD. Yay! Anyway, the first thing you're going to see will be the transformation scene in which our heroine's husband turns into a werewolf for the first time. Here, all his skin melts away into a big, acidic puddle (see second photo down) until there's only a skeleton left. All of the other townsfolk, who appear to be in mid-transformation, show up to witness this event. There is another transformation scene in which the two heroines enter an abandoned building to see a man in the process of changing into a wolf. He turns around and his face looks distorted and weird ... then he rips his mouth open and his skin off to reveal the beast underneath in a very cool, and slightly amusing, sequence (see third photo down). In terms of werewolf designs, they appear to have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink. And it's all right there in ten minutes of glory -- this would have been Rick Baker's dream come true! You have everything from the traditional demonic hell-hound design (see top photo) down to normal, ravenous wolves with glowing red eyes (see bottom photo). This whole sequence is a lot of fun to watch, which is more than I can say for the rest of this godforsaken movie. It prompted me to research exactly who was responsible for these effects -- it was in fact the team from "The Howling II", headed by Steve Johnson, who served as special assistant to Rick Baker on "American Werewolf". Now THAT explains it! Anyway, nobody on this team ever worked on a "Howling" movie again.

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