Newsreader Karen White has been maintaining regular contact with serial killer Eddie Quist, aka Eddie The Mangler. He arranges to meet her, and she agrees, albeit whilst she is monitored by the police so that they can catch him. The experience traumatises her to such an extent that Dr George Waggoner suggests that she goes to a retreat he runs for survivors of trauma called The Retreat. She goes there with her husband but finds that this locale is not what it seems.

The Howling was one of the first movies my family ever rented on home video when we bought our first VCR in 1983. I then remember recording the film shortly after this as it was shown on TV. I watched the film over and over again! I also remember reading the original book by Gary Brandner around this time. It’s very different from the movie and an excellent read.

After watching this movie again recently, I was staggered by how much I still loved it. I kept thinking, ‘God, I love this movie!’ during the film’s runtime. I was also blown away by the Scream Factory Blu-Ray. The picture and sound, not to mention the wealth of special features, are a revelation for fans of the film.

1981, when the film was made, was a treat for werewolf fans. You wait forever for a new lycanthrope movie, and three appear at once, with An American Werewolf in London and Wolfen being released the same year. Wolfen is the most radically different of the trio but no less brilliant. Both The Howling and American Werewolf perform a tricky manoeuvre, but they both succeed brilliantly at it- they are both horror movies that are very scary still, but both contain brilliant humour but not at the expense of the horror. They also both contain special effects and transformations that were wayyy ahead of their time. Rob Bottin is a genius.

The Howling contains uniformly impressive turns from a stellar cast (Belinda Balaski, Dennis Dugan, Patrick Mcnee, Christopher Stone, Kevin McCarthy, to name but a few), but it’s Dee Wallace who steals the show. Her acting is off the chart, as it is in everything she stars in. Apparently, she employs the Method Acting approach to her roles and was on edge permanently on set as she believed that werewolves were real and were out to get her! Check out some of the outtakes for the film, and you’ll see her jump out of her skin during some scenes. Also, witness the scene where she goes to meet Eddie and the therapy session where she is asked to recreate the episode, and you’ll see some of the best acting in horror history. The scene in the bookstore is one of the most terrifying sequences I’ve ever seen in a movie.

I also love the cameos within The Howling, whether it’s Roger Corman waiting outside the phone booth Karen is in (he enters and checks the change drawer!) and Forrest J Ackerman (clutching copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland!) in the occult shop run by Dick Miller. This is a horror fan’s wet dream of a movie. Also, notice all of the wolf references, whether it’s old film clips or cartoons or the can of Wolf Chili and a copy of Howl by Allan Ginsberg on a desktop.

Also, check out the gorgeous colour palate of the movie and also Joe Dante’s masterful direction and the way that the humans are shown to be minuscule in proportion to their rural surroundings. Woodland has never looked as threatening or inviting as in this movie. The film also gives the woods a kind of supernatural power, as if they propel people to operate on a more primal rather than rational level. There’s a dark nursery rhyme/ folk tale quality that The Howling operates within, which is also brilliant.

Certain horror movies that I obsessed over as a kid have aged like fine wines. Watching them as an adult  brings all of that childlike wonder back to the surface, with their brilliance being still evident. The first three Halloween movies are a good example. Watcher in the Woods is another. And so is The Howling. A joy from start to finish.

5 out of 5 stars