The Howling

7/10 

In 1981, "The Howling" was released. The movie was from director Joe Dante, and starred a superb cast.  Ever since its release, this movie has been one of the most famous in the horror genre.  I thought the movie was fun for its climax and related scenes, but also saw multiple flaws too. 

The movie begins during a news show, where anchor Karen White. White is currently scared, because she is being stalked by a serial killer.  She decides to help the police out by going to see this man named Eddie in an adult theater. While there, Eddie tries to assault her, and he is killed by the police. After this event, Karen gets amnesia, and is also very scarred. As a form of treatment, her therapist sends her and her husband Bill off to an area called "The Colony."  This beginning was quite good, because it had a shady nature, and it develops the characters well; especially Karen.

After the arrival to their destination, the couple meet a lot of strange people at the resort. There is Erle, whom is a troubled old man that attempts to kill himself in the fire all the time. There is also a girl named Marsha, whom is a beautiful yet bizarre girl that tries to make advances on Bill. Being he is faithful man to his wife, Bill turns her down multiple times.  One time after leaving Marsha's house, Bill is attacked by a werewolf, and after this, a whole chain of terrors begin, until the climax of a lifetime....

The first thing that I loved about this movie was its cast. Dee Wallace was superb as Karen, because she was tough and lovable, and strikingly beautiful in all ways possible. She gave the character the edge that it needed, and in my opinion completed her best performance ever. Christopher Stone did a fair job as Karen's husband Bill, because he had a hard way about him, which eventually became an uncontrollable monstrosity in himself. Dennis Dugan really excelled as Chris, because he had the right amount of internal strength in his performance that the viewer could believe that he would complete the actions he did. Elisabeth Brooks was pretty awesome as Marsha, because she had such a bizarre and seductive way about her, and she ended up playing the evil role very convincingly. The last standout of the movie was Belinda Balaski as Terri, because her scenes where she was in danger were so realistically portrayed that I cringed from her screams. She honestly knew everything that was needed to be done to seem freaked out, and made some of the most memorable scenes of the movie. 

I thought that the special effects had their good and bad moments throughout the film. The scenes where puppetry and costumes were used were pretty awesome, because the wolves looked very inhumane and freaky. On the other hand, the brief scene of animation for the wolves was absolutely terrible, and one of the cheesiest things I have ever seen. The smoke used throughout the film was a nice touch, because it gave an eerie feeling to the whole movie, and was very well executed. The gore effects were also very nice, because the blood looked real, and wasn't too excessive. The one other bad special effect was a couple of the transformation scenes, because they went way too long. What was meant to be scary with this ended up being goofy and almost boring, because there was close to a minute of watching the human turn into a wolf. This didn't effect my opinion of the movie too much, but at the moment it was happening I was pretty annoyed. 

I thought that while certain moments of the film got slow, there was still a grittiness that kept it watchable. Seeing the realistic portrayal of these simple people of "The Colony" was nice, because instead of just hearing dialogue from them, the viewer also gets to see their customs in life, and their interactions with outsiders. 

The climax of the movie was so much different than I expected, and it really kicked butt. It was brutal, suspenseful, and at times completely terrifying. This last twenty-twenty five minutes amped the movie up way higher than before, and it may be one of the greatest scenes ever. The ending itself was also very crazy, because it was a sad idea, yet there is something humorous about it in a way. 

Overall, this movie was not the best I've ever seen, but it was still very good. There were some truly fun moments, and a great cast. I think that certain aspects like the special effects needed more effort, but looking past them opens to the doors to a werewolp film with lots of bite.