The year 1981 saw the release of what are arguably the two best examples of the modern werewolf film; "An American Werewolf in London" and "The Howling." Now, since I love to stir up controversy - at least unimportant, movie-fanboy controversy - I'm going to make the bold declaration that I find "The Howling" the better werewolf film over "An American Werewolf in London."
"Heresy!"
"Are you mad?!"
Maybe. But hear me out.
Firstly, I love "An American Werewolf in London" (hereafter referred to as the more easily typed "AAWiL") unreservedly. I'm not trying to detract from that film one bit. And yes, it is kind of silly to say one is better than the other as they are both completely different types of werewolf films. However, they are werewolf films and if you were going to do a side by side comparison, here are my reasons for loving "The Howling" just a tiny bit more than "AAWiL."
1) Scarier: While both films have a heavy dose of humor laced throughout, "AAWiL" leans more heavily on the humor whereas "The Howling" leans a bit more towards the horror. Both work perfectly well in what they are attempting to accomplish, but for scares, "The Howling" is easily, for me, the more tension filled, frightening affair.
2) John Sayles: More well known today as a film director, Sayles started his career writing low-budget films for folks like producer Roger Corman. In fact he'd already worked with director Joe Dante on "Piranha," and was writing the script of "Alligator" at the same time he was writing "The Howling." So why do I mention him? Because even though he was writing low-budget horror films he put a whole lot into talent into them. It's a great script with a lot of fun and scares, and just so much more going on in it than "AAWiL."
3) "The Howling" is way more sleazy: Why do I like that? Because it's different. "AAWiL" for all it's greatness is really just a modern spin on the classic, Universal "Wolfman." "The Howling" is a beast unto itself. I mean if you want to get all pretentious with it, "The Howling" is using the werewolf as a metaphor for the nastiest, ugliest aspects of human nature. These people want to be werewolves because it frees them to indulge in their most base desires.
But it also just makes for a weirder, more interesting film.
4) Hind legs vs. all fours: This is just a personal preference, but I prefer werewolves that walk on two legs. It's more menacing to me. More unnatural. The werewolf in "AAWiL" is good too, but come on, it's just a great big, scary dog.
5) Rob "Freakin'" Bottin: If you know me, you know my love for the creature creations of Rob Bottin, whose effects work on John Carpenter's "The Thing" remains unmatched to this day. Bottin's werewolves look more menacing than any I've seen on film before or since. They almost look like he had an idea for a devil costume then added hair and a snout. They look plain evil.
6) More werewolves! This film is chock-full of them. One could certainly argue that quality is more important than quantity, but since I've already established that these are quality werewolves, the shear volume of lycanthropes in "The Howling" makes it a far more fright-filled horror film.
Don't take any of this too seriously. It's really all about personal preference. And honestly, you should have a werewolf double feature and watch both films. But, if it comes down to it and you can - for some strange reason - only watch one werewolf film this Halloween, my vote goes for "The Howling."
Firstly, I love "An American Werewolf in London" (hereafter referred to as the more easily typed "AAWiL") unreservedly. I'm not trying to detract from that film one bit. And yes, it is kind of silly to say one is better than the other as they are both completely different types of werewolf films. However, they are werewolf films and if you were going to do a side by side comparison, here are my reasons for loving "The Howling" just a tiny bit more than "AAWiL."
1) Scarier: While both films have a heavy dose of humor laced throughout, "AAWiL" leans more heavily on the humor whereas "The Howling" leans a bit more towards the horror. Both work perfectly well in what they are attempting to accomplish, but for scares, "The Howling" is easily, for me, the more tension filled, frightening affair.
2) John Sayles: More well known today as a film director, Sayles started his career writing low-budget films for folks like producer Roger Corman. In fact he'd already worked with director Joe Dante on "Piranha," and was writing the script of "Alligator" at the same time he was writing "The Howling." So why do I mention him? Because even though he was writing low-budget horror films he put a whole lot into talent into them. It's a great script with a lot of fun and scares, and just so much more going on in it than "AAWiL."
3) "The Howling" is way more sleazy: Why do I like that? Because it's different. "AAWiL" for all it's greatness is really just a modern spin on the classic, Universal "Wolfman." "The Howling" is a beast unto itself. I mean if you want to get all pretentious with it, "The Howling" is using the werewolf as a metaphor for the nastiest, ugliest aspects of human nature. These people want to be werewolves because it frees them to indulge in their most base desires.
But it also just makes for a weirder, more interesting film.
4) Hind legs vs. all fours: This is just a personal preference, but I prefer werewolves that walk on two legs. It's more menacing to me. More unnatural. The werewolf in "AAWiL" is good too, but come on, it's just a great big, scary dog.
5) Rob "Freakin'" Bottin: If you know me, you know my love for the creature creations of Rob Bottin, whose effects work on John Carpenter's "The Thing" remains unmatched to this day. Bottin's werewolves look more menacing than any I've seen on film before or since. They almost look like he had an idea for a devil costume then added hair and a snout. They look plain evil.
My one caveat here; the final werewolf. The transformation part is fine, but that last close-up ... sheesh. Looks more like a were-shih-tzu. I'm guessing the idea here was they didn't want to make her look as evil - because she wasn't evil - as the other werewolves, but man, was it a bad call by the director or whoever made that decision. But that misstep is only a couple of seconds of screen time. Everything else is brilliant.
6) More werewolves! This film is chock-full of them. One could certainly argue that quality is more important than quantity, but since I've already established that these are quality werewolves, the shear volume of lycanthropes in "The Howling" makes it a far more fright-filled horror film.
Don't take any of this too seriously. It's really all about personal preference. And honestly, you should have a werewolf double feature and watch both films. But, if it comes down to it and you can - for some strange reason - only watch one werewolf film this Halloween, my vote goes for "The Howling."
Dude, I love both of those movies equally. They are quite endearing to me on a personal level probably because I was 14 when they came out and they were the first serious horror movies I saw.
ReplyDeleteLike Rob, the Howling was the first serious horror movie I saw. I was only 6 when it came out, but I first saw it when I was 12, spending the night at a friend's house. He had HBO in his bedroom and his parents didn't know we were watching it. It scared the total bejesus out of me! I can definitely say that I was instantly spoiled to the effects. Those werewolves are still what enters my head when I think "werewolf," and none since have come close. Well okay, Underworld lycans are close, but still just not quite as good. The Twilight ones just piss me off. I need to watch the Howling again. Been a long time now.
ReplyDeleteYeah, they are both great films and it really is kind of silly picking one over the other. My motivation in presenting it that way was AMERICAN WEREWOLF gets tons of respect and is considered a classic (as it should), but THE HOWLING seems to get neglected.
ReplyDelete