The
first time I saw THE HOWLING ($20) I really didn’t appreciate the
film’s satirical edge; however, over the twenty plus years since the
film was released, that aspect of the film has really grown on me. THE
HOWLING pokes fun at the media in a rather biting fashion, as well as
taking a few swipes at psychiatry and self help gurus (who now,
ironically, dominate the late night TV infomercials). The movie also
provides a bit of tongue-in-cheek approach to the material, by quoting
directly from early werewolf movies and playing with the audience’s
preconceived notions about the genre. Of course, the cherry on the sundae
is the fact that THE HOWLING is a damn scary movie made even more
effective by Rob Bottin’s groundbreaking werewolf transformation
effects.
The
plot of THE HOWLING follows the ordeal of Los Angeles TV newswoman
Karen White (Dee Wallace-Stone), who is traumatized after an encounter
with a vicious serial killer. Although physically unharmed, Karen suffers
amnesia that completely blocks out what happen to her in the moments
leading up to a police rescue, which left the killer dead in a hail of
bullets. With pieces of her blocked memories haunting her, Karen finds
herself unable to function both professionally and personally with her
husband Bill (Christopher Stone). Upon the advice of psychiatrist Dr.
George Waggner (Patrick MacNee), Karen and Bill go up the coast to the
doctor’s private retreat/clinic call The Colony. However, The Colony
proves to be anything but therapeutic for Karen, with the situation and
other residents turning hairy rather quickly… The cast of THE HOWLING
also features Dennis Dugan, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John
Carradine, Slim Pickens, Elisabeth Brooks, Robert Picardo, Meshach Taylor,
Kenneth Tobey and Dick Miller.
MGM
Home Entertainment has made THE HOWLING available on DVD in a
1.85:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for playback on
16:9 displays (a full screen version is also included on a separate
layer). The wide screen version of THE HOWLING is absolutely
wonderful, as I have never seen the film look as good as it appears on
this Special Edition DVD. Previous home incarnations and broadcast
versions cannot hold a candle to the DVD release of the film, which sports
a crisp and rather nicely defined image. Dark scenes, which have been a
murky mess in the past, produce more detail than I’ve seen previously-
furthering my appreciation for the film’s makeup effects. Colors are
pretty solid and oftentimes appear pretty vibrant. There are some subdued
looking sequences, but the colors never appear faded. Blacks are accurate,
whites appear stable and contrast is good. The film elements used for the
transfer displays some minor blemishes- not bad for a low budget film that
is over two decades old. Digital compression artifacts are always well
concealed, even though the wide screen version is relegated to a single
layer of the disc.
For
this release, THE HOWLING has been upgraded from its monaural
origins to a full Dolby Digital 5.1 channel mix. While there are frequency
limitations in these twenty plus year old recordings, the new mix proves
to be both good sounding and rather effective. Surround usage isn’t in
the same league as a new movie, but it is well implemented during key
moments, which makes it all the more effective during those instances. One
of the best aspects of the soundtrack is Pino Donaggio’s atmospheric
score, which intensifies both the creepiness of the material and the shock
moments. The score is nicely reproduced and fortunately lacks the brittle
quality of some of the past incarnations. Dialogue is crisply rendered and
is always completely understandable. The film’s original monaural sound
mix is also provided on the DVD, as are English, French and Spanish
subtitles.
Animation
and sound enhance the DVD's interactive menus. Through the menus, one has
access to the standard scene selection and set up features, as well as the
nice body of supplemental materials, which have been spread across both
sides of the DVD-14 disc. On side one, one will find a running audio
commentary with director Joe Dante and actors Dee Wallace Stone,
Christopher Stone, and Robert Picardo. The commentary track was originally
created for the Image/New Line Laserdisc release and MGM has wisely chosen
to include it here. This is one of my favorite commentary tracks because
of the party atmosphere created by the participants, who seem to be having
a good time watching the movie, recounting their memories of the
production, as well as goofing on themselves and each other.
On
side two, one will find Unleashing the Beast: Making The Howling
a forty five minute retrospective on the movie that has been broken into
five separate segments that can be viewed individually or all at once. The
program features new interviews with most of the principle players from
the production and goes into fairly extensive detail on the making of the
film. Making a Monster Movie: Inside The Howling is an
eight-minute featurette from 1981 that offers a more youthful and
abbreviated glimpse at the production. Also included is approximately ten
minutes worth of deleted scenes and scene extensions- everything here
would seem to have found its way to the cutting room floor for pacing and
other valid reasons. Two theatrical trailers and a couple of still
galleries close out the supplemental materials.
THE
HOWLING plays exceedingly well as a straight horror movie, although
over the two decades since its release, I’ve grown to appreciate the
film’s satirical edge. MGM has done a great job with the DVD, offering
the best looking and sounding presentation that the film has ever seen, as
well as an excellent body of supplemental materials. If you are a fan of THE
HOWLING or just a horror genre junkie, you will definitely want to own
a copy of this DVD. Highly recommended.
The
first time I saw THE HOWLING ($20) I really didn’t appreciate the
film’s satirical edge; however, over the twenty plus years since the
film was released, that aspect of the film has really grown on me. THE
HOWLING pokes fun at the media in a rather biting fashion, as well as
taking a few swipes at psychiatry and self help gurus (who now,
ironically, dominate the late night TV infomercials). The movie also
provides a bit of tongue-in-cheek approach to the material, by quoting
directly from early werewolf movies and playing with the audience’s
preconceived notions about the genre. Of course, the cherry on the sundae
is the fact that THE HOWLING is a damn scary movie made even more
effective by Rob Bottin’s groundbreaking werewolf transformation
effects.
The
plot of THE HOWLING follows the ordeal of Los Angeles TV newswoman
Karen White (Dee Wallace-Stone), who is traumatized after an encounter
with a vicious serial killer. Although physically unharmed, Karen suffers
amnesia that completely blocks out what happen to her in the moments
leading up to a police rescue, which left the killer dead in a hail of
bullets. With pieces of her blocked memories haunting her, Karen finds
herself unable to function both professionally and personally with her
husband Bill (Christopher Stone). Upon the advice of psychiatrist Dr.
George Waggner (Patrick MacNee), Karen and Bill go up the coast to the
doctor’s private retreat/clinic call The Colony. However, The Colony
proves to be anything but therapeutic for Karen, with the situation and
other residents turning hairy rather quickly… The cast of THE HOWLING
also features Dennis Dugan, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John
Carradine, Slim Pickens, Elisabeth Brooks, Robert Picardo, Meshach Taylor,
Kenneth Tobey and Dick Miller.
MGM
Home Entertainment has made THE HOWLING available on DVD in a
1.85:1 wide screen presentation that has been enhanced for playback on
16:9 displays (a full screen version is also included on a separate
layer). The wide screen version of THE HOWLING is absolutely
wonderful, as I have never seen the film look as good as it appears on
this Special Edition DVD. Previous home incarnations and broadcast
versions cannot hold a candle to the DVD release of the film, which sports
a crisp and rather nicely defined image. Dark scenes, which have been a
murky mess in the past, produce more detail than I’ve seen previously-
furthering my appreciation for the film’s makeup effects. Colors are
pretty solid and oftentimes appear pretty vibrant. There are some subdued
looking sequences, but the colors never appear faded. Blacks are accurate,
whites appear stable and contrast is good. The film elements used for the
transfer displays some minor blemishes- not bad for a low budget film that
is over two decades old. Digital compression artifacts are always well
concealed, even though the wide screen version is relegated to a single
layer of the disc.
For
this release, THE HOWLING has been upgraded from its monaural
origins to a full Dolby Digital 5.1 channel mix. While there are frequency
limitations in these twenty plus year old recordings, the new mix proves
to be both good sounding and rather effective. Surround usage isn’t in
the same league as a new movie, but it is well implemented during key
moments, which makes it all the more effective during those instances. One
of the best aspects of the soundtrack is Pino Donaggio’s atmospheric
score, which intensifies both the creepiness of the material and the shock
moments. The score is nicely reproduced and fortunately lacks the brittle
quality of some of the past incarnations. Dialogue is crisply rendered and
is always completely understandable. The film’s original monaural sound
mix is also provided on the DVD, as are English, French and Spanish
subtitles.
Animation
and sound enhance the DVD's interactive menus. Through the menus, one has
access to the standard scene selection and set up features, as well as the
nice body of supplemental materials, which have been spread across both
sides of the DVD-14 disc. On side one, one will find a running audio
commentary with director Joe Dante and actors Dee Wallace Stone,
Christopher Stone, and Robert Picardo. The commentary track was originally
created for the Image/New Line Laserdisc release and MGM has wisely chosen
to include it here. This is one of my favorite commentary tracks because
of the party atmosphere created by the participants, who seem to be having
a good time watching the movie, recounting their memories of the
production, as well as goofing on themselves and each other.
On
side two, one will find Unleashing the Beast: Making The Howling
a forty five minute retrospective on the movie that has been broken into
five separate segments that can be viewed individually or all at once. The
program features new interviews with most of the principle players from
the production and goes into fairly extensive detail on the making of the
film. Making a Monster Movie: Inside The Howling is an
eight-minute featurette from 1981 that offers a more youthful and
abbreviated glimpse at the production. Also included is approximately ten
minutes worth of deleted scenes and scene extensions- everything here
would seem to have found its way to the cutting room floor for pacing and
other valid reasons. Two theatrical trailers and a couple of still
galleries close out the supplemental materials.
THE
HOWLING plays exceedingly well as a straight horror movie, although
over the two decades since its release, I’ve grown to appreciate the
film’s satirical edge. MGM has done a great job with the DVD, offering
the best looking and sounding presentation that the film has ever seen, as
well as an excellent body of supplemental materials. If you are a fan of THE
HOWLING or just a horror genre junkie, you will definitely want to own
a copy of this DVD. Highly recommended.
