Never, ever, under any circumstances attend a "retreat" of any kind in California.

while I love the werewolf transformation in this, it is still very funny to me that the Dee Wallace just has to stand there for 5 minutes watching it happen like: 😟

Werewolves as pure human urges in the era of television images. There is something to be said about how this approach crashes in fascinating ways with the film's own role in moving us from 70's political horror to the 80's more spectacular version of same. It is about hold on to meaning around progresively artificial bodies and images. Primary and essential.

65

Not quite to the level of Gremlins and its Rockwellian terror, or The New Batch and its capitalistic fantasy, but The Howling still finds a socially conscious niche that is inherent to Joe Dante's formidable career. That being the affect of images within the communities that we reside. A New Age away from television screens, and a shift from the artificial to the primal. The transformation effects might be better than the other werewolf movie that released in 1981, even though John Landis' take is greater (and much more melancholic) in its Jewish specificity. I'm just happy to have both.

"repression. repression is the father of neurosis, of self-hatred. now, stress results when we fight against our impulses. we've all heard people talk about animal magnetism, the natural man, the noble savage, as if we'd lost something valuable in our long evolution into civilized human beings."

“Repression is the father of neurosis, of self-hatred.”

Woof, big midnight movie energy. Worth watching for some timelessly EPIC practical effects and an undeniable imprint on the genre. There is a lot to observe here but it’s also slow as hell and seldom feels fully realized. The end rocks though.

"I've seen you on Television!"

Don't Deny the Beast! 😊

T.V. presenter Karen White (played by 80's No. 1 dream mother Dee Wallace) is sent to a retreat for some much needed R&R after nearly being offed by a serial killer, it's just a pity the retreat may be hiding something a little bit sinister? (it so is - overwise it would not be much of a horror!)

"I hope these people aren't too weird?"
(They so are, think Craggy Island from Father Ted.)

Joe Dante's classic werewolf movie that has some really cool effects - as long as you don't compare them to another werewolf movie that came out the same year (can't remember the name of it?)

Dick Miller special appearance No. 203.
Also a blink and you'll miss it Roger Corman appearance.
and to top it all off a big can of Wolf Chili in the background ... Nice Touch!

Joe Dante, one of the great purveyors of movies for people who like Movies with a capital-M. Very spooky, as well as funny if you’re in the market for funny (but not so much to alienate you if you’re not in the market for that). Beautiful lighting and atmospherics. More fog than an Ulmer movie. John Carradine mugging. Slim Pickens with wolfman fangs. Characters named after Charles Barton and Jerry Warren. Those gooey, hairy, pulsating makeup effects… this is what they’ve robbed from you. Not only do they not make low-budget horror movies this good anymore, but they literally can’t even if they wanted to.

I like this better than An American Werewolf in London and I’m not ashamed to say it.