I've decided to do a little project while waiting to work on art work for 'Mark of the Beast' and that is reviewing one of the more prolific werewolf series in film these days: The Howling films. The good, the bad, the mostly bad.

And thus came Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985) and you'd expect with a title like that a comedy which when properly intoxicated you can do with this film, so easily, so easily. :) However let's assume you are not able to drink what you see is enough to make you drink. One can only image that in the four years since the original and the success of American Werewolf in London that a sequel to the Howling was a no brainer. Apparently this was done more literally than figuratively. All the effort, talent, and apparent ability to tell a werewolf story gets chucked out the window and peed on by every passing dog. The film picks up where the Howling left off with an actress standing in for Dee Wallace and already you can tell things are bad. The remade scene looks nothing like the original, in fact the whole pacing, cut, and direction of the film screams direct to video. Poor Christopher Lee is thrown into the deep end of what can only be described as a soft core with werewolves thrown in haphazardly. The "effects" if one dare calls them that, seem to be more test reel material than anything good. Add to it the werewolves, when you can see them in the split seconds of instant jump cuts, are nothing more than people in gorilla suits who kill people by giving them a raspberry on the neck.

Howling II ruined the series in one go. Crummy acting (minus Christopher Lee who looks more bored than anything) ((reportedly only did this because he'd never been in a werewolf film before)), questionable plot, theme problems galore. Is the is a comedy? Horror? Cult film? Who knows your brain can't process these questions because apparently the budget was blown on a bad 1980's band that warps your mind. For an added bonus take a drink every time you see Sybil Danning's boobs only way you will survive this film.

Howling III: The Marsupials (1987) yeah read that again...marsupials. Is this a werewolf film or a call for merchandising a series of figurines? it's 1987 and the eighties seem to be going along, we've had Teen Wolf who sent werewolf films into the comedy arena. It would seem the Howling series tried to bring us back to horror but if this was the vehical it went right off the cliff of failure. First the effects are an improvement on II but let's put that in perspective two had gorillia suits so anything was better than that. Sadly the effects start to fall apart and don't hold a candle to the plot, which is missing. I've watched this film at least four times and if someone can explain to me what the point was I'd appreciate it.

A lone colony of marsupial werewolves (descended from thylacine's) have a rouge female that goes out into the world, meets a would be camera man, they fall in love and she has a baby kangaroo style. Yep children in pouches. A socialologist/nut job goes on the werewolf hunt finding a Russian ballet dancer werewolf, with me so far? Yeah I didn't think so. Some how the Russian werewolf confesses werewolves aren't doing so well. Well sure they are being shot and killed by NORMAL bullets. I'll stop right here. Silver had been used in the original and the sequel but now NORMAL bullets work just fine to rid the world of werewolves. There's a some what plausible argument about extinction and boom werewolves are accepted after being chased by hunters in the Australian out back. There's some trippy moments here where a spirit aids the werewolves but ends up rather pointless. In point of fact that's the big problem with this film. When you are done with it you wonder just what the point was because werewolves are seen as a threat at the end.

The problem with Howling III is that it is direction. It has none. It tries to start out as a social commentary on extinction, goes into the horror, goes back to some weird ass science, goes to a spiritual angle, back to horror, a dash of comedy, and an over the top climax that makes a mess of all the mess. Not to mention while you are processing the various themes explored you are bored. INSANELY bored. Why? Point. There is none,even the setting and idea of Australia seems to have been thrown in because of the success of one Crocodile Dundee. It reeks of exploitation.

Howling II and III are the low points for werewolf films in an era were the bite was taken out of werewolves slowly. It's interesting to note that after American Werewolf in London and the original, Hollywood didn't really try to make follow ups. One could argue Company of Wolves but that's about all that came. Instead it seemed everything went suddenly and unexpectedly family friendly with Teen Wolf and My Mom's A Werewolf. Maybe that's what people wanted because the Howling series kept going even after these two bombs, but it entered into the fearful realm of direct to video.