 Thank you for checking out this no spoilers movie review. This is for the 1981 film the howling This wasn't on any streaming service. I know the majority of these reviews I do were like streaming on shutter or something Not the case in this instance I watched it on a Blu-ray that I own and it looks really nice. It was put out by shot shout factory Well specifically scream factory, which is a subsidiary of shout factory. That's kind of what they call all their horror films and by the way, I'm actually getting the 1988 Blobby make a Blu-ray release from scream factory sometime this month, so I'm gonna definitely do that one. Oh my cat She'll like werewolf movies, you know dogs, you know, I mean, did you hear anyway? So like I said 1981 the howling now the interesting thing about 1981 is that it was a year of werewolf films You had the howling you had an American werewolf in London Which is the most well-known and most beloved of the werewolf films And then you also had Wolfen all three coming out in the same year now I will say I have not seen Wolfen, but I've heard very good things about Wolfen But taking even even just taking Wolfen out of the equation the fact that it's one year that's that spawned The howling and an American werewolf in London that same year That's a really good year for werewolves, but people also tell me that Wolfen is really good. So Three sounds great. I will eventually see Wolfen. It's just one of those things been on my list. I'm getting to it So I've seen this film quite a few times is not the first time I'm seeing it Directed by Joe Dante and this film actually came out Between him finishing Piranha the original Piranha, which is a fun movie if you haven't seen it I would recommend that it's a good time and then it was but right before gremlins So piranha gremlins the howling right in there a lot of his stuff has kind of a similar feel There's always some sort of comedic edge to what he's doing Piranha, I think had more of it then then the howling obviously gremlins had more of it than the howling But there's a little bit in there So D Wallace is in this thing. I love D. Wallace. I think she's a wonderful person in addition to being an outstanding actor Oh actress, sorry I met her my gosh how long ago now around ten years ago or so. I met her. She's super super nice She's one of the nicest people. I actually got her to sign a picture of her from the howling the one of the iconic parts at the end of the film of her if You've seen this you kind of you know what I'm talking about so Love D. Wallace. I do have to say that I think probably her most accomplished and best Rolls was in the film Kujo adapted from the Stephen King film Stephen King book But I have read stories about how that went and it was it was terrible for her It was an awful ordeal It was pretty bad conditions working on that film and she actually had some trauma because of it So it was her best performance, but it probably had some really bad long-lasting effects And she had a terrible time when she was doing the film. I know that for sure so That sucks All right, I recovered that it's based the the howling is based on a book by a one Gary Brandner But apparently this is very very loose when they wrote the script The script went through a few iterations initially they had it written and it was a lot closer to the book and then Joe Dante had his buddy John sales come in and take a pass at the script because he didn't really like where it was and John sales had worked on the script with John Joe Dante for Piranha So that's where a bunch of that kind of humor got mixed in is when John sales stepped in and helped out with the new version Of the howling script and that's what they ended up going with so that actually took it even further away from the book So apparently it's very very loose. I haven't read the book that it's based off of I don't even know if it's the same name I should have looked into that probably maybe not a hundred percent sure but Yeah, but very very loose The cinematography in this film is looks very good. The directing is very good I would expect nothing less from someone with a pedigree like Joe Dante Great this movie persists to this day because of how good it is and Joe Dante is good So this is one of those films where it's hard to surprise the audience because of the title Because the title tells you a lot, you know what you're getting into with this film So for that reason, it's a little bit hard to take people places that they don't think they're going You know what I mean because how much are you really gonna do with a werewolf movie? You know, everyone knows going into this. It's a werewolf movie. It's called the howling the Picture on the front this most iconic has like slash marks of a werewolf. I mean it it Tells you upfront what it's going to be so the audience You know, they're gonna expect it to be relatively straightforward that said I do think they throw enough of a bit of a twist Into the end. It's not like a big twist, but a little bit of a twist kind of To keep it a little bit fresh and a little bit like oh, okay I wasn't necessarily expecting that very good in addition to that There's actually a bunch of social commentary and interesting themes in this film as well to kind of keep you engaged If you're if you recognize them and if you like that stuff if you don't you can kind of ignore that and just experience it as a Straight-up werewolf film. That's fine. Although. I don't think I I wish there was more Fully transformed werewolves in the film and I think that's actually been a long-standing criticism of this film But apparently when I was reading it's the biggest issue it was budgetary So they went big in certain instances and there are a few scenes where the transformations are there and they look really good One in particular I'll talk a little bit more about later, but There are other ones where they kind of had the skimp or other instances where they're like, man We would have loved to do a full transformation here, but we really couldn't because it just wasn't in the budget so You know you get like in-betweeners Which kind of sucks, but Someone should throw more money at this film is what I'm saying um I can't think of any other films That tie werewolves into sexuality the way of this one does But it makes sense. So first of all I'm going to pick that apart first of all Think about all the times you see werewolves in shows movies, whatever Uh, they're they're usually not in a sexual Light that's usually vampires vampires are very sexy. They're very sexual. They seduce people Werewolves typically aren't because they're more animal But if you really think about it as the howling puts a lot more sexuality into it in this film it makes more sense because Werewolves are very animalistic. They they are based off their animalistic urges when a person turns into a werewolf they their brain doesn't work the same as a Uh, societally conscious human being it's more of a very primitive very animalistic urge and nature And that's kind of what they're going off of and one of those things is sex so this Close tie in with werewolves and sexuality actually makes a lot of sense So for that reason I think it's kind of important that it was done that way in the howling because no one else is really doing it that way So an interesting twist in my opinion um One of the things I want to say the the the end twist in this film by the way is not in the book uh, which reading online what the book ending was versus what the Ending in the film was I actually think the ending in the film is better But I would probably have to read the entire book to note for sure Um rick baker by the way Everyone knows well not everyone a lot of people know rick baker is being amazing with practical effects A lot of people know rick baker mainly from the werewolf transformation seen in an american werewolf in london And rightfully so because that scene is amazing. It is iconic There was so much that went into that and it looks unbelievable. It looks unbelievable now So and and that just kind of actually shows you one of the problems That uh, the howling probably had coming out at the same in the same year as american werewolf in london Now, I don't know technically which one came out before the other one But if it was an american werewolf in london people saw it and then saw the howling they were probably like American werewolf in london did it better So that would be rough But if it was the howling first and then an american werewolf in london that was probably fine because people didn't have What they had an american werewolf in london were like oh man the howling is great And then the next movie were like oh man even better. So that's a better way to For the howling that that would have been a better way for it to happen So rick baker was supposed to be doing the practical effects for all the werewolves For the howling but he actually decided to go ahead and leave And go do the practical effects for an american werewolf in london, which was shooting at the same time So he left uh rob botten. I know the name. I've heard it. I don't know. I I didn't look into him much But I've heard the name before rob botten is who he left in charge to do the practical effects instead for the howling I think he did quite a good job, you know with budgetary restrictions and everything because there is that one really good Transformation scene, which i'm going to talk about right now. It's kind of long but It looks good. It looks good enough that like i'm fine with it being a long transformation scene because there You can tell it's a lot put into it. It looks pretty good because it is practical It's not anything like cg like they try to do nowadays a lot of time um So it looks really good. So taking your time on it's totally fine What's not fine Is the fact that while this long transformation is occurring There's a character there with the person changing into the werewolf and they just stand there and stare For a very long period of time. I mean, I got to feel like this I didn't time it or anything But I have to feel like the transformation took probably at least like a solid minute and that person's just standing there Just it's like they're waiting to be killed and it doesn't make sense That's very unrealistic and that definitely should not have been happening in the film um, I've watched this film a few times and actually for some reason I only Saw it this time like it only occurred to me this time probably because i'm trying to In this instance watch it more from the perspective of Breaking it down and really talking about it other times. I've just watched it leisurely. So There's a difference there, but that Yeah, that shouldn't have been but the transformation I quite like Uh, this is a bit of a leisurely film by the way. So for that reason it actually has some pacing issues I don't like that about it. It does feel kind of long even though it's about an hour and a half Which you know makes sense for horror films, but um, yeah, it it drags a little bit from time to time It goes a little bit too slow should probably be cut down a little Um, so on to a few themes just to wrap this up So the film seems to carry a theme of humanity trying to cover up its animal nature But it keeps creeping back into society Basically, there's this kind of dichotomy between the urban human being versus the rural human being And that is rolled into uh, civilized human versus werewolf human and um, it's kind of seems like a bit of an analogy of The human being and society in general doing uh, doing this dance where where a the civilized human Overpowers the uh lesser civilized human which would be the werewolf in this instance And keeps them under wraps, but from time to time it has the ability to surface not in everyone but in certain portions of the uh of society a lot of times in the underbelly And it actually appears that one of the ways that they kind of tie it in within this is like, uh, is pornography and sexuality And sexuality specifically with more, um kink Uh Proclivities, I guess that's what I the word the term to use more like kinky Proclivities the thing you need to realize about this film. Well, you know it But remember about this film when you're watching is is done in the 80s. So there was very much this kind of taboo around Sex uh, still, you know, it's it's more freed up nowadays Although there's still a lot of taboo around Around being open about sexuality and being into like kinky things and stuff like that So but back in the 80s they they had more of that stuff that was geared towards If someone was into it, then they were a bad person in film So I think that's a little bit of play in here. So showing that like Part of that that terribleness of humanity is that kind of sexual proclivity. So Um, see if I mean tell me what you think on that one put a comment down there if you've watched it Um, and then the last thing I wanted to say is there are heavy themes of trauma in this film. I mean, actually A lot of the film is just about trauma. It's about main character Going through a traumatic experience and dealing with the aftermath of the trauma and how Personally they deal with that and the the challenges But also how they deal with it in relationship to their relationships with other human beings, especially people very close with them And there's there's like You know kind of this issue that's shown of like wanting to be close with the with their with their most intimate partner still But also being so traumatized by what happened that they feel like they have to push them away And that specifically he you know works in more with not just general trauma, but with sexual trauma which is interesting because there's a rape that occurs in the book, but it does not occur in the movie and It's interesting because they basically kept the sexual trauma themes And a lot of the things that go along with that in the movie without it actually being in there like it is in the book So I found that kind of interesting as well Um, I don't think I have anything else. Yeah, so So yeah, and then and then it's also that kind of thing where along with what I was talking about before with like kinky sexual proclivities it kind of Makes a point of blurring the line between sex and violence as well so Especially with the way the movie starts and if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about Um, so that's it. That's my review of this film. I do quite like this film But like I said, there are some issues, you know, um, but nothing too crazy. So five stars With half in play, I think I'm gonna give this a solid four. I do quite like this film I would definitely recommend it. So If you have the means to watch this watch it, I'm sure shutter will get it at some point because it's to the best of my knowledge They have not had it. I'm all about shutter. Sorry But anyway, thanks everyone for checking this out. 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