The Howling (1981)

Playing with the conventions of an established genre can be a tricky thing. It's all a matter of approach, y'see. If it succeeds, it's a PARODY; if it falls on its face, it's TRAGIC.

There have been scores of movies, big and small, that have tried their hand at having fun with an established movie or movie type. A lot of times it will depend on whether their target is one that's ripe for being jibed.

There have been some successes: in the field of romantic comedy a lot of what has come out in recent years can kindly be cited as taking liberal swipes at its betters (Down On Love, What Women Want). Cop movies have a guiding beacon in the Naked Gun movies, Leslie Nielsen being their patron saint. Even the teen comedies that permeated the '80s took their lumps with Not Another Teen Movie. And as far as disaster movies, Airplane! was so well-received that there have been very few airline disaster movies since - heck, even the movies that came out during the disaster movie's '70s heyday could be called comic (Earthquake, Airport 1975).

Horror movies are a touchier subject, however. There have been so many that have tried to send-up the average elements of the horror movie script that literally HALF of your local video stores "Horror" stock is send-up. And not GOOD send-up, either. Anyone out there remember 1982's Pandemonium, which had Tommy Smothers (of the Smothers Brothers) playing a Canadian mountie who is looking for a murderer loose in a cheerleading school? If you don't remember it, you're lucky: I remember ALL OF IT.

Okay, the Scream series probably came the closest to shining a light on the silliness of such movies but even they made the mistake of taking themselves seriously for the storyline's sake.

Thank goodness that Joe Dante was never one that followed conventional storylines. Under the early tutelage of Roger Corman he created small wonders like Hollywood Boulevard and Piranha. But then he moved on to bigger and better things, and one of his first BIG successes dealt with that old horror standby: The Werewolf.

You remember the original Wolf Man, right? Lon Chaney Jr. played an unfortunate young man who was bit by one such creature and, every night when the moon was full, would prowl the countryside to kill any innocents he happened upon. It was from a springboard such as this that many sequels were created and a genre that stood the test of time right along with Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster and The Mummy.

But you know how the saying goes; every generation reinvents what came before.

The Howling deals with a reporter (Dee Wallace) who, after a traumatic experience investigating a cult member, is sent off to rest at a forest retreat under the watchful eye of Dr. Waggner (Patrick Macnee). Soon, she is hearing howls at night and sees ominous rustling in the bushes - you know, typical horror movie stuff. Her boyfriend poo-poos her fears but soon after there are lycanthropes all over the place, and her right in the middle.

Sounds like your standard werewolf flick, doesn't it? Well, it almost it, save for the fact that the script comes from none other than The Hero Of The Small Movie - John Sayles. In The Howling, he manages to bring back all the familiar rules about werewolves and put a spin on them all that makes the viewer wonder how they haven''t been exploited before: do werewolves only come out at night under a full moon? What happens to part of a werewolf if it gets cut off? Does silver really repel them? All this and more is dwelt on, and it also helps that nearly all the characters are also named after directors of werewolf movies. George Waggner, Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, Jerry Warren, Lew Landers, Jacinto Molina and the like. Nice touch.

Add to this a cast that seems to have stepped out from the Corman Stable Of Stars: John Carradine, Kevin McCarthy, Slim Pickens, Dick Miller, Kenneth Tobey. Everyone plays it for all they're worth and makes it SEEM plausible, at least.

But lest you forget: this isn't your grandfather's werewolf. There is blood and gore aplenty (someone literally gives a girl a "piece of his mind"), along with some splendid transformation scenes of people changing into werewolves. Credit Rob Bottin for that; his work with "bladder effects" to show people stretching, twisting and morphing into hairy, toothy creatures is excellent indeed - a feat that CGI would be hard-pressed to equal.

But the humor is there; so many in-jokes to lovers of the genre, darly morbid humor and goofy melodramatics blend with the off-kilter lens work as to make this a movie that doesn't evoke horror as much as a knowing smile, and more than one laugh. Such a good-natured effort certainly deserves more than one viewing, if just to catch what you didn't notice the first time.

There is one sad fact to make note of; after the success of The Howling, so many others decided to carry on its efforts and so many sequels came out that the entire idea was driven into the ground. And sadder still, not a one of the sequels came close to the joy and spontaneous goodwill and love of the genre that the original attained. Small wonder, then, that a majority of them went straight to the video shelf to share space with all the other-rans that The Howling so effortlessly sent-up.

And for a budget of $1 million to earn back that much almost twenty times over, The Howling did prove that the need is out there; it's just a matter of getting it made...the right way.

And hoping that a wolf doesn't turn into a dog.