Blu-Ray Review: The Howling Trilogy

Friends, let it never be said I don't suffer to bring you these reviews.

 

Long-time readers will no doubt remember my bewilderment when The Howling Trilogy was first announced for Blu-Ray. Not so much because of the viewing format, but because this supposed "trilogy" consists of three non-sequential, completely unrelated films from the middle of the series, which is hardly what springs to mind when I think of a trilogy. 

 

Nonetheless, I can't resist good werewolf movies. Luckily for this Blu-Ray, I can't resist bad werewolf movies either. Let's see how I made out with my triple feature of lycanthropic goodness:

 

Howling III: The Marsupials is one of the most bizarre films I've seen in years, and I'll freely admit that I watched most of it in slack-jawed astonishment, completely unable to believe what I was seeing, and trying very hard not to drool on myself. Set in Australia, the film tells the tale of an attractive young woman named Jerboa who flees the unhappiness in her village and seeks a better life in Sydney. But there's a twist: Jerboa is a werewolf, and has been followed to the city by members of her werewolf tribe, who want to capture her to ensure the village's secret is never discovered by the outside world.

 

Where to begin with Howling III? Let's start with its bold yet hilarious reinterpretation of werewolf mythology. All that stuff we've always heard about full moons kicking off involuntary hair-sprouting in werewolves turns out to be bogus; instead, Jerboa's transformations can be triggered by something as simple as a rapidly flashing light, rather like an epileptic seizure.

 

Oh, and because she's descended from a marsupial werewolf sect, Jerboa's got a pouch. Yeah, a werewolf with a pouch. This leads to a mind-numbingly surreal scene in which Jerboa makes love to her new boyfriend, keeping her nighty on to prevent him from seeing her unusual patches of hair, while making no effort whatsoever to hide or explain her clearly visible pouch. I almost applauded the sheer chutzpah of it.

 

After seeing the famous special effects in the original Howling's werewolf transportation sequences, it's all the more disappointing that Howling III's wolf creatures look like they were found rotting in the dumpster behind Jim Henson's Muppet workshop. However, if you've ever had a secret desire to see a werewolf/marsupial baby-thing emerge from its mother's nether regions, crawl up her hairy belly, then wiggle snugly into her pouch, or if you've ever wanted to see a ballerina spontaneously "wolf out" while on stage and then gleefully eat half the members of her dance company, then this is the movie for you. 

 

"Bad" doesn't even begin to describe Howling III, but, as with The Room and Manos: The Hands of Fate, the film is so astonishingly awful that it circumnavigates the whole Badness Scale and ends up, somehow, being sort-of awesome in the process. It's my favorite type of comedic film: a hilarious movie that seems to have no idea it's a comedy. Please don't tell it.

 

 

 

Howling V: The Rebirth is a much more satisfying film than Howling III, and even flirts with being good in a non-ironic way.

 

The story has more in common with an Agatha Christie thriller than a typical monster movie: Several strangers are invited to a remote castle, which has been closed to the public for hundreds of years. Once there, the group finds itself cut off from the outside world due to poor weather. One by one, the visitors are found dead, with their bodies horribly mauled and their throats ripped out. Yep... it's basically Ten Little Indians, except this time one of the "indians" is a werewolf. And once again revising established werewolf mythology, the creature in Howling V can switch between its human and wolf forms at will, making it even harder for the other characters to determine the killer's identity.

 

Howling V is noteworthy for being the only werewolf film I've ever seen that doesn't include a transformation sequence, a necessity due to its murder mystery plot; the viewer is expected to guess the killer along with the characters. But even without this almost mandatory component, Howling V is a fun watch and remains the best installment of this trilogy by far. (Especially if, like me, you're a sucker for any film that has the audacity to incorporate secret passages as a plot point.) Howling V is everything Howling III wasn't: atmospheric, suspenseful, and well-constructed.

 

Rounding out The Howling Trilogy is Howling VI: The Freaks, which falls somewhere between parts III and V on the quality scale. 

 

A drifter named Ian wanders into a small farming town, which is on the verge of economic ruin due to an ongoing drought. A skilled carpenter, Ian finds work helping a local pastor renovate his dilapidated church. A montage helpfully (and hilariously) communicates the growing affection between Ian and the pastor. (I don't know about you, but I find it impossible to take any montage seriously after seeing Team America: World Police.)

 

When a carnival rolls into town a few days later, Ian becomes taken with its freak show and the sad societal outcasts who comprise it. Why is he so infatuated with them? Could it be because maybe, just maybe, Ian is harboring a dark secret of his own that makes him feel like an outcast too? Like, say, sprouting hair and long teeth at inopportune times? And why does Harker, the owner of the carnival, seem to know so much about Ian?

 

Howling VI has the best acting of any film in this trilogy, and actually manages the neat trick of engendering pathos towards its leading man without making him seem weak. It's nice to see a Howling film in which the werewolf is the unwitting victim, rather than the villain. I also liked the angst of the Ian character, who is brooding without ever resorting to whining or sulking. Eat your heart, Twilight werewolves.

 

This film also takes fewer liberty with established werewolf lore than the other movies on this disc, which means that Ian's transformations are instigated by the full moon, and silver bullets are the only known cure for his condition. As such, even though it's the newest Howling movie in the set, it arguably feels the most old-fashioned. Even the design of the werewolf make-up recalls Lon Chaney Jr.'s 1941 portrayal of the Wolf Man rather than the radically new presentations seen in, say, Howling III. (No pouches here, thank goodness.)

 

Howling VI: The Freaks is a reasonably fun film, with a gleefully cheesy finale, and was a fine way to wrap up my triple feature of werewolf-laden goodness. (Although let the record show: I spotted the boom mic at the top of the screen on two separate occasions. Oops.)

 

And that, boys and girls, is how I spent my Saturday. You're welcome.

 

 

The Blu-Ray edition of The Howling Trilogy is as bare-bones as a disc can be. Absolutely no special features are included. The main menu allows the viewer to select which film to watch. That's it. There's not even an option to jump directly to a scene, which is a standard feature on almost every disc.

 

All three films are presented in full-frame transfers rather than widescreen, which boggles the mind. It's 2010! Anamorphic widescreen transfers have been standard for over half a decade now. (Tut, tut!) Apart from not being presented in widescreen, these transfers look fine, if not stellar. Colors are consistently bright, and image definition is good. Audio is presented in Dolby English. Subtitles are not offered.

 

The Howling Trilogy is available on Blu-Ray, with a DVD version also offered. Local readers should be able to find either edition at Best Buy in Dickson City.

 

 

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