Howling, The (1981)
The Howling (1981), directed by Joe Dante.
When a TV reporter agrees to meet a serial killer in the sleazy sex district, the interview is worse than she could have imagined. In fact, her mind can't accept what happened and she can't remember the details. But she is having nightmares and needs to get away for a while... to an odd retreat run by a celebrity shrink.
After 20 minutes of this intriguing setup, it turns more comical and I found it hard to care very much. I remember liking this when it was new, probably because:
new life for the werewolf genre
that werewolves need counseling was funny, as was their rebellion against their pop-psychology guru
ambitious pre-CGI transformation scenes; also see An American Werewolf in London (1981) and The Company of Wolves (1984) from the same period.
a nudity-and-passion scene by the campfire
a fun selection of old-timers: Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, Kenneth Tobey, Dick Miller
What hurts the story:
dividing the narrative into the two couples could have been better handled
the end of the campfire scene has animation so rudimentary you wonder why they bothered
the theater audience jeered the final transformation when Dee Wallace turns into a cute werewolf; that was really stupid
This had an "R" rating. In the porno-shop scene we see "enough" of a rape-and-bondage film. I'm not recalling anything like that in other movies of the time.
Available on Blu-ray from Shout Factory with two commentary tracks and other extras.
