The Howling, directed by Joe Dante and starring Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, and Robert Picardo, was released in 1981. The screenplay was written by John Sayles from his novel The Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1980). Michael Finnell produced the movie.
The story goes through Karen, who is an announcer on Channel 6. While Karen is an announcer, a serial killer named Eddie is after her. The police want Eddie Quist to brutally murder women. To get to Eddie, the cops place a transmitter on Karen. Then they meet Karen Eddie where she wants, and then they catch Eddie.
After all these events, Karen is not feeling well and attends Doctor George’s therapy. Doctor George says that the good thing for Karen is that she should go on a vacation. He suggests Colony town, where he also practiced medicine. Later, Karen’s husband Bill and Karen set off on a journey to the Colony. They think the Colony is a boisterous and fun place when they get here.
Plot of The Howling 1981
The story begins after Karen and Bill arrive in Colony town. Here, mysterious events happen to the two of them. All the townspeople were a pack of werewolves living in isolation from society. The Doctor is also one of the leaders of this town and helps the werewolf race to multiply by directing his patients to this town. The story also includes the female werewolf as well as the wolfman.
Reporter Karen’s Going to Collony
Everything in the story begins after the mysterious murderer of the woman, Eddie, haunts Karen. After locking Karen in a secret room, Eddie starts making Karen watch erotic films. Eddie, behind Karen, later turns into a werewolf and starts attacking Karen. During this attack, the cops, unable to contact Karen, intervene and see Eddie transformed into a werewolf. They then shoot at him and drop him to the ground.
Werewolf The Howling
Karen’s Memory Loss After Eddie’s Attack
During all this, Karen begins to experience short-term memory loss. Because she can’t get over the trauma of the incident, she applies to Doctor George. Upon Doctor George’s suggestion, he goes to the Colony, where his office is located. Here he wakes up one night due to wolf howls and begins to search the forest. When Karen can’t find anything, she goes back to her cabin. Here he is being watched by a werewolf for the first time. The person watching him is none other than T.C.
Terry Comes to the Colony for Help
Karen suspects that something strange is going on and again asks her news anchor friend Terry to come here. Terry goes to the Colony, where Karen is, for help. Terry and Christopher also suspect a werewolf exists as they track down Eddie. Questioning that Terry Colony is the place Eddie saw in his drawings, he explores the forest while discovering a hut and encounters a werewolf in the hut.
The Werewolf Attacks Terry
Terry manages to escape from the hut after cutting off the Werewolf’s hand, then goes to the Doctor’s office and looks for Christopher. Eddie kills Terry in his werewolf form. Later, after Karen visits Doctor George’s office, she finds Terry dead and confronts Eddie, whom she thought was dead. Eddie turns into a werewolf in front of him. Karen, who throws acid on Eddie at the last moment, flees the room. While getting into his car, two Colonial citizens greet him. They take Karen to their bunker later. It’s here that Karen realizes that all the townspeople are werewolves.
Christopher and Karen Burn the Colony’s Hideout
Karen is in the bunker, and Christopher catches up at the last moment. Christopher had taken silver bullets he found at the local library with Terry while researching werewolves with Terry. This is how he kills werewolves. Eventually, they imprison all the werewolves in their bunkers, pour gasoline around the bunker, and burn them.
As they are about to get in their car and run, Sheriff Sam stops them on the road. They get into the police car after Christopher shoots Sam. Meanwhile, one of the werewolves who caught them bites Bill Karen. They manage to escape after Karen shoots Bill. But one of the really good parts of the movie is Karen’s transformation into a werewolf.
Karen Gets Himself Killed After Transforming into a Werewolf
Karen and Christopher hatch a plan. Karen is talking to the world about werewolves on a live stream. After finishing her words, Karen transforms into a werewolf in front of the cameras, and then Christopher shoots her with a silver bullet-filled rifle. In this scene, which is one of the most beautiful scenes of the movie, the whole world is watching them live.
Marsha’s Bar Scene
After the film, we witness Marsha, a colony member who opposes Doctor George. Marsha was imprisoned in the bunker by Christopher and Karen. Later, Christopher poured gasoline around the bunker and lit it. But Marsha survived and hid. After Karen gets herself killed on live broadcast, we see Marsha watching all this in the last part of the movie. Marsha is sitting in a bar watching the live broadcast. This is a very striking scene about Marsha, one of the most mysterious characters in the movie.
The Best Scenes in The Howling 1981
The werewolf transformations in the movie are a masterpiece based on a 1981 movie. It is astonishing to see how they did such an excellent job with the technology of the period.
The scene where Marsha and Bill make love in the wilderness is one of the most beautiful and wild scenes in the film. Bill gets up in the middle of the night and goes for a walk in the woods. He sees Marsha meeting him in the woods, and then the two begin to kiss. After Marsha undresses, they start making love. Then they both turn into werewolves in a legendary way. The eroticism and brutality of the scene thus increase. The transformations are great.
Eddie’s Werewolf Transformation Scene
Another epic transformation scene is when Eddie reveals his true form to Karen. After Karen arrives at the Doctor’s office, she finds Bill dead on a stretcher. However, Bill gets up from his bed and confronts Karen. Karen is very surprised by this as she thinks Eddie is dead. Eddie transforms into a werewolf in front of Karen to show him what he is.
The scene lasts about two minutes. We watch a wonderful werewolf transformation scene for two minutes without boring the audience. The effects and make-up are really beautiful. Eddie slowly turns into a werewolf, while Karen is terrified.
Terry Being Assaulted
Terry is attacked in the cabin, which is one of the most terrifying sequences in the film. After Terry discovers that the forest in the town he came from is the same place in Eddie’s drawings, he sets out on an expedition into the forest. Afterward, he encounters a hut with many hides around it. There are also bones hanging in this hut. Although Terry shudders at first, he succumbs to his curiosity and begins to explore the inside of the hut.
Wolfman T.C
Then, wild sounds start coming from a room in the cabin. It’s like someone is forcing the door and trying to get out. He is none other than the Werewolf in the room. While T.C., in his werewolf form, was going to catch Terry, at the last moment, Terry jumped out of the window and escaped. Then he takes an ax in his hand and hides.
T.C. finds him in his hiding place and attacks him. Terry cuts off T.C.’s arm with the ax in his hand. Here, the cut hand remains alive for a while. Then it turns into a human hand. It’s one of The Howling’s most unforgettable moments.
Eddie and Karen’s Meeting at the Doctor’s Office
Of course, another scary scene in the movie is Eddie ambushing Karen in Doctor George’s office. Here Eddie kills Karen’s friend Terry by beheading him earlier. Then he traps Karen, who comes here. Eddie first appears to Karen in human form and then transforms into a werewolf. This scene is both awe-inspiring and creepy.
Christopher and Karen’s Escape Scene
One of the most important scenes is Chris and Karen’s escape from the Colony. This scene, which does not tire the audience, is extremely gripping. Karen is detained in the bunker, and Christopher comes to her rescue. They both lock werewolves in this later bunker and burn them all. But they cannot escape so easily. Even the policeman Sam they meet on the way turns out to be a colony member. Then they are attacked by three more werewolves. The biting of Karen during this attack is both dramatic and terrifying.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Werewolf is the main element of the howling movie. The fact that all of these individuals living in seclusion from society are werewolves is a first in cinematic history. Much more than a classic werewolf movie. It is not simply a horror picture, but it is also a detective, psychological, and philosophical film that has gone down in cinematic history.
