CineVibez Fanzine #18
Transformative Vibez
In the summer of ‘98, two steroid-fueled titans of baseball touched the heart of a nation when the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire and the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa raced to break Roger Maris’ single-season home-run record. The race to 62, as many called it, culminated within Busch Stadium II on an early September evening. McGwire had just lobbed the ball over the left-field wall, breaking the record* by a matter of inches.
Sosa ran from right field to home plate to join the celebration. He hugged McGwire as a sea of red and blue erupted in applause. What a beautiful moment - two rivals setting aside tribalism to celebrate the purity of the game of baseball.
17 years earlier, two titans of a very different industry raced to show movie-going audiences the first mechanical werewolf transformation on celluloid without using dissolves. An equally exciting time to be alive, or so I hear. So - sit back and relax as we go back to 1981, the Year of the Werewolf.
But first we have traditions to keep, darn it. Welcome back to CineVibez Fanzine, where every movie has a vibe. We’re clawing our way out of 2025 and into 2026 (a few months late) with ... transformative vibez! But not just any old transformation, folks. Vampires, butterflies, and Ozempic fanatics can sit this one out. We’re shining the spotlight on a horse of a different color … werewolves, or more specifically, The Howling franchise - right on time for its forty-fifth anniversary.
To tell you the truth, I’ve never been much of a werewolf guy - most likely because of my crippling fear of losing control over my body. It’s kinda like demonic possession, you know, where someone or something takes over your words and actions with ill intentions. Werewolves take it a step further because it’s like a hungry, feral animal takes the wheel instead of a sentient demon. At least you could try to reason with the demon. I can’t even get my dog to sit.
Dick Miller, who plays an occult bookstore owner, establishes The Howling’s rules. First, he confirms Hollywood made up the full-moon myth. Werewolves can shapeshift anytime they want. Second, only silver or fire definitively kills a werewolf. Third, werewolves regenerate limbs or return from the dead if killed by something other than silver or fire. Watch at the link below:
Dick Miller is right, by the way. The full moon myth is Hollywood - first shown in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943).
So, why The Howling? Usually, people pick An American Werewolf in London (AAWIL) before The Howling. For heck’s sake, they invented the makeup category at the Oscars specifically for AAWIL. Yet, I’d wager that The Howling surpasses AAWIL in practical effects and nearly every other respect as well.
First, and foremost, The Howling is a more sincere movie than Landis’ AAWIL, which feels as phony as a Marvel script at times. AAWIL is just too snarky and sure of itself for its own good. And the mockery of British culture feels a tad unnecessarily mean-spirited.
In contrast, you have Joe Dante’s The Howling, starring Dee Wallace as local news anchor Karen White. I mention Wallace first because she is the heart and soul of the film. Apparently, Wallace was so naïve and uncomfortable on set that she may as well have been method acting. As she said in the audio commentary, the fear etched on Karen’s face looks genuine because it is.
Second, The Howling has the better script. Joe Dante hired John Sayles to write a new script from scratch that ignores the source material (a book by Gary Brandner). Sayles’ scripts always have smart satire, well-developed characters, and a political or cultural theme underneath the narrative plot. His scripts include Piranha, Night Skies (aka E.T.), Battle Beyond the Stars, Alligator, and The Brother from Another Planet. There's one other, but sadly we’ll never see it come to life. Of course, I'm talking about the infamous Jurassic Park 4 script - the one with the human-dino hybrids.
For The Howling, Sayles’ developed two satirical themes in the script. First, he satirized the quasi-psych/self-help industry burgeoning in the late 70s/early 80s; groups like Scientology, primal screamers, and even the satanic panic crowd (which takes center-stage in Dante’s The Burbs). In the early 80s, these groups pushed a theory that repression holds you back from your true potential. In Sayles’ script, the werewolves represent what that ‘true potential’ would look like - a monstrous wolf.
The second theme went after modern-day newsrooms driven by capitalism, i.e. the ratings. So when the newsroom receives letters addressed to Karen from Eddie Quist, an active serial killer (played by Richard Picardo), the news chief salivates over the potential ratings boon. In coordination with the police, he persuaded Karen to agree to meet with Eddie.
The meeting takes place in a porn shop’s backroom. It’s pitch-black but for some hardcore porn projected on the wall across from Karen. At first, we only see Eddie’s hands resting on Karen’s shoulders as he whispers his sick fantasies in her ear. The camera stays fixed on Karen’s face as she turns to witness Eddie transform into his true nature. I’d post the video, but it includes a little hardcore porn on the screen (made by Joe Dante himself!)
Unfortunately, the meeting didn’t lead to Eddie’s capture. Nor did it win the newsroom a Pulitzer. But it did inflict severe trauma on Karen; so much so that she repressed all her memories of Eddie’s transformation. The memory kept resurfacing as a debilitating and recurring nightmare. It got so bad that Karen sought help from Dr. George Waggoner (played by avid and outspoken nudist Patrick Macnee), a celebrity psychiatrist who does TV shows like Oprah. Think Dr. Phil, but more reputable. Dr. Waggoner invited Karen to a wellness retreat for folks who want to retrieve repressed memories. He failed to mention that the retreat caters exclusively to werewolves coping with their lycanthropic afflictions. It’s a clever script that turns this creature feature into “a B movie with A ideas.” - Elizabeth Bender
So we have sincerity and good writing, but that’s not all that separates The Howling from the pack. There’s also Rob Bottin’s incredible special effects work that absolutely outdoes the effects in AAWIL. The main reason is that The Howling’s effects look grittier than its counterpart. You probably just heard a record scratch. Didn’t Rick Baker win the makeup and effects Oscar for AAWIL that year? In fact, wasn’t the makeup category invented specifically for Rick Baker’s work on AAWIL? The answer to both questions is ‘yes, the organization that awarded Greenbook Best Picture occasionally gets it wrong.’
Baker originally contracted to oversee The Howling’s practical effects, but time-constraints and traveling abroad for AAWIL required him to let his 21-year-old apprentice, Rob Bottin, take over. That decision gave Bottin his first big break - and he’s the guy who did the practical effects on The Thing, Robocop, and Total Recall, by the way. Bottin’s signature is the tactile, fleshy look of 1980s and '90s genre movies that we love so much.
Anyway, back to the werewolves. Bottin’s werewolf transformation reached cinemas six months before AAWIL, so - to answer this issue’s initial question - Bottin wins chronologically. And the timeliness of Bottin’s work isn’t the only reason it’s superior. Just look at it for yourself:
No CGI in sight. Pretty cool, right? Budget constraints required Bottin to use an air-pump system with condoms to create the bubble-effect. The bone-breaking sound-effect you hear is the unintended sound of the condoms popping against Richard Picardo’s skin. As you can, though, Bottin’s werewolves are feral, grotesque, and two-legged in contrast to his mentor’s four-legged, more animal-like werewolves in AAWIL. I dunno - there’s just something scarier about a werewolf on two legs.
To compare, let’s look at Baker’s work in AAWIL:
Bottin’s werewolf design just looks grittier and more realistic than Baker's creation. Tell me I’m crazy in the comments if you think differently.
Fourth, The Howling rises above AAWIL because of the fun meta-references Joe Dante sprinkled throughout the movie. By 1981, your classic werewolf movies were old hat. No one tried to do anything new until Dante got his hands on The Howling. His film works so well because he’s pushing the genre forward while still respecting the pioneers before him. Here are some examples:
Dr. George Waggoner’s namesake directed 1941’s The Wolf Man,
Bill Neill (played by the late Christopher Stone) honors Roy William Neill, the director of Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man from 1943,
Belinda Balaski’s Terry Fisher gets her name from 1961’s The Curse of the Werewolf’s director, Terence Fisher.
Kevin McCarthy’s Fred Francis gets his name from Freddie Francis, director of 1975’s Legend of the Werewolf.
Slim Pickens’ Sam Newfield honors The Mad Monster director Sam Newfield.
Noble Willingham’s Charlie Barton steals his name from Charles Barton, the director of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
John Carradine’s Erle Kenton gets his name from Erle C. Kenton, director of House of Frankenstein (1944)
Other fun Easter eggs include a copy of The Three Little Pigs in one shot, a Roger Corman cameo, and most importantly of all, the first Wolf Brand Chili appearance in a Joe Dante film.
I think the fun winks amplify the sincerity of Joe Dante’s movie. He isn’t besmirching or mocking werewolf films of the past. He’s honoring them. Whereas it feels like Landis just wants to show us how smart and cool he is.
SPOILER ALERTS
Let’s close out ‘zine 18 with a breakdown of all seven sequels. This section will spoil major plot points in all the films, including the original. Consider yourself warned:
The Howling II My Sister is a Werewolf: Don’t let the ridiculous title fool you. The direct sequel to Dante's werewolf classic stands on its own, hurling the series into an insane new direction. It starts where the original left off: with Karen shot dead after transforming into a werewolf on live television.
We meet Karen’s brother at her funeral, as he watches Christopher Lee linger around her grave. He eventually confronts Lee, only to discover his sister had turned into a werewolf and would rise again unless Lee, an occult expert, digs up the body and inserts a silver bullet into Karen’s lifeless chest. Karen’s brother accepts this information as truth and travels to Transylvania with Lee to destroy Stirba, the werewolf queen.
What follows feels more like a typical vampire film, but the 80s aesthetic mixed with the old-school Eastern European vibes creates something really special. Oh, and Sybil Danning has nude werewolf sex every other scene, which is nicely truncated during the end credits so you don’t miss a moment. So you’ve got that going for you, which is nice.
The Howling III: Marsupials takes the franchise Down Under, where the shapeshifters evolved from Tasmanian tigers and have kangaroo pouches to carry their young. In a major vibe shift, the film feels more like a self-aware comedy than horror. It starts with a professor looking for lost Australian tribes, including a secluded group self-identified as "the flow,” which is literally wolf backwards.
The movie follows Jeroba, a young tribe member who flees the outback for Sydney’s big city lights. In a city park, a director (who looks just like Hitchcock) sees Jeroba’s “unique” look and immediately puts her in a horror film titled Shape Shifters Part 8. That’s right, Scream fans - The Howling did it first.
Anyway, the Australian government learns werewolves exist, so they hunt down the flow, which sets up the movie’s big conflict. The captured werewolves ultimately escaped and wreaked havoc all over Sydney. The ending takes place 15 years into the future, where humanity has accepted werewolves and established rights on their behalf. I like to think all subsequent The Howling movies take place during that 15-year period before III’s epilogue. That way, we get a mega-happy ending to the whole darn thing.
Clive Turner’s The Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is the first movie to adapt the book. I refer to Clive, the producer and writer of The Howling IV-VII, as if he were John Carpenter because he’s the key to understanding the direct-to-video The Howling movies (aka IV to VII). Put a pin in it for now.
Anywho, Marie Adams, our protagonist played by Romy Walthall, suffers a nervous breakdown after hallucinating horrific visions of wolf-like creatures (hmm). So, Marie does what any of us would do. She takes a sabbatical from work to unwind with her husband, Richard, in the sleepy, dreamlike village of Drago. Surprise, surprise - the town is a haven for werewolves. A werewolf bites Richard, which sets up the weirdest werewolf transformation on film. His skin melts off to reveal a werewolf underneath.
The Howling V: The Rebirth is more like The Howling III in that it’s another ridiculous deviation from the other movies. This time, seven strangers win a radio call-in contest, and the prize is a one-night stay inside a creepy old castle in Budapest (shot on location!). The locale gives off strong The Howling II vibes, but that’s where the comparisons end. In fact, this movie is more like an Agatha Christie whodunnit than a creature feature. Characters get picked off one-by-one until the end, when we learn the werewolf is Marylou Summers (played by Elizabeth She), one of the prize winners.
The Howling VI: The Freaks shakes up the formula yet again. This time, we follow a traveling freak show with werewolves and vampires in the act. The plot was pretty difficult to follow, but it’s a creepy carnival vibe; think Funhouse or Carnival of Souls. The debacle culminates in a battle between a werewolf and a vampire.
The Howling VII: New Moon Rising might be the most insane movie in the series. No one asked for this, but, for reasons only known to him, Clive Turner retroactively patches together a narrative connecting all the past direct-to-video entries to this one. Here’s how:
The Howling VII mentions Drago, the town from The Howling IV.
Marie from The Howling IV briefly appears to offer a priest and detective investigating animal mutilations some sage exposition, connecting IV to VII. Shortly thereafter, a werewolf kills her lol.
The townsfolk find Marylou Summers’ corpse outside of town. She’s the werewolf in The Howling V. People suggest she may have died at the circus that passed through town weeks earlier, possibly connecting her to The Howling VI.
The aforementioned priest frequently mentions the Budapest castle from The Howling V.
In a huge twist, Cheryl, the mystery woman, is really Marylou Summers! That’s right, we get a Scooby-Doo ending! The body from before belonged to the real Cheryl.
To work around a tight budget, Clive patched a storyline together with old footage from the other movies and cast the actual townsfolk of Pioneertown, CA (where he shot the movie). To save on wardrobe costs, he asked everyone to come as they were. Clive saved a few more bucks by keeping all the werewolf attacks offscreen. And just wait until you see how he spent most of the budget.
Anyway, back to the plot - Ted stumbles into town and gets a job at the local country-western bar. He spends most of the movie chatting it up with the townsfolk and line-dancing. A few people die mysteriously off-screen. As a newcomer, Ted is the prime suspect.
Meanwhile, a detective works with a priest outside of Pioneertown to solve a mysterious series of brutal animal attacks. The priest tries to convince the cop that werewolves are real. He vomits out the plots of The Howling IV, V, and VI in excruciating detail as his evidence. We get more stock footage, too. The priest and the cop eventually meet Marie from the fourth movie. Marie vomits more exposition and dies off-screen. More exposition, too.
The film climaxes inside the country-western bar when we learn Cheryl, the film’s mystery woman, is actually Marylou Summers - the werewolf from The Howling V. Turns out she was behind all the killings. Marylou’s transformation needs to be seen to be believed. Check it out:
The film ends with a big country line-dance celebration inside the bar. Everyone is having a blast - it’s like the extended celebration scene in Return of the Jedi. Anyway, TV Guide called it a new low for the franchise.
Last, and certainly least, The Howling: Reborn cashes in on Twilight Fever by changing course yet again; this time into a teen melodrama with a CGI werewolf. Need I say more?
That’s a wrap on transformative vibez. Looking ahead, we’ve got the 4th or 5th annual Archie’s Awards followed by Hong Kong Vibez, a multi-part series starting with ‘zine 20. Expect The Archie’s in ‘zine 19 sooner rather than later! Maybe even this weekend?
Until next time,
Happy Watching!
Murray
You make an excellent argument for The Howling over An American Werewolf in London! I need to revisit.