This is a highly regarded movie amongst werewolf fans but I've never been overly impressed by it . I was disappointed by THE HOWLING after seeing it on video in the early 1980s and the fact that I saw AN American WEREWOLF IN London shortly before seeing this does the movie little favour either
I think the problem lies in John Sayles screenplay . Go getting journalist ( strange how all journalists in movies are noble crusaders . Real life is entirely different ) Karen White is attacked by a serial killer narrowly surviving and goes off to a rural commune to recuperate . The audience instantly know who these people really are and whats going to happen next . It's not so much telegraphing a screenplay , it's more like making a terribly predictable one . The only reason I wrote a spoiler warning to this review was to guard my back but this is probably unnecessary since it's revealed fairly early on that the people living there are indeed werewolves so there's little in the way of surprises
THE HOWLING isn't a total loss because the make up and transformation effects are well done and Patrick Macnee gives a touching performance as Dr George Waggner and there's a really scary moment featuring Eddie the serial killer when he reveals himself to the hero . But despite all this the movie is doubly disappointing when you realise director Joe Dante and screenwriter John Sayles were responsible for PIRANAHA a couple of years before , one of the most entertaining tongue in cheek horror movies ever made . With THE HOWLING they fall back on naming characters after directors who have made werewolf movies and use post modernist dialogue pointing out that a corpse doesn't get up and walk out of a morgue which isn't all that clever or witty
I think the problem lies in John Sayles screenplay . Go getting journalist ( strange how all journalists in movies are noble crusaders . Real life is entirely different ) Karen White is attacked by a serial killer narrowly surviving and goes off to a rural commune to recuperate . The audience instantly know who these people really are and whats going to happen next . It's not so much telegraphing a screenplay , it's more like making a terribly predictable one . The only reason I wrote a spoiler warning to this review was to guard my back but this is probably unnecessary since it's revealed fairly early on that the people living there are indeed werewolves so there's little in the way of surprises
THE HOWLING isn't a total loss because the make up and transformation effects are well done and Patrick Macnee gives a touching performance as Dr George Waggner and there's a really scary moment featuring Eddie the serial killer when he reveals himself to the hero . But despite all this the movie is doubly disappointing when you realise director Joe Dante and screenwriter John Sayles were responsible for PIRANAHA a couple of years before , one of the most entertaining tongue in cheek horror movies ever made . With THE HOWLING they fall back on naming characters after directors who have made werewolf movies and use post modernist dialogue pointing out that a corpse doesn't get up and walk out of a morgue which isn't all that clever or witty