Look out! He's got a knife!

The Howling is fucking awesome

Every few years I re-watch The Howling. In between times, a number of people will remark to me about what a "bad movie" it is, and every time I watch it I expect this aura of badness to finally overwhelm me.

So it's with great pleasure that I can announce that I watched The Howling the other day with the added benefit of a pristine widescreen DVD edition (screw those old VHS copies) and it's a well-made, well-written, well-acted movie with good characters, good horror scenes, a clever structure, and plenty of subtext of both the serious and humorous varieties.

Why did I expect to be fooled by the nay-sayers? This movie was written by John Sayles (Lone Star, Passion Fish). It was directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins, Matinee). It has many good actors in it (Dee Wallace, Robert Picardo, Patrick Macnee, Slim Pickens, etc). The FX are by Rob Bottin (The Thing, Robocop).

I simply can't understand what the haters are complaining about. Sure there are only a handful of good werewolf movies in cinematic history (see also An American Werewolf In London, Ginger Snaps, Dog Soldiers -- I think there are no others) but The Howling is the best of them all.

Which leads me, naturally, to SEX! And where it intersects with HORROR! Which will be my next post.

Promise.

Posted by joey at April 18, 2006 2:35 PM