too. Hilarity ensues as Karen’s husband gets turned
and embraces the werewolf lifestyle while her other
friend is killed for discovering the colony’s secret.
Now, The Howling is one of the greatest werewolf
movies out there and remains a classic. The
performances are still great, the dialogue snaps with
wit, and the direction and pacing are great. The only
area where the movie has not aged so gracefully is in
the special effects department; though on the cutting
edge of makeup effects technology at the time it was
made, many younger viewers who are used to today’s
effects will find the transformations laughable. To me,
this is a golden opportunity to take a film that was
fantastically effective in its day and bring that same
vibe back to a new generation.
The basic plot and characters of the film are still
perfectly workable in a modern setting. Really, other
than modernizing the setting and references, I doubt
that I would change the plot of the movie. Everything
about it works. I might give Eddie a little more screen
time, because I do think that the original missed an
opportunity by not letting Karen face off against her
serial-killer-stalker and defeat him. Perhaps drop the
dim-wit feral Quint brother in favor of letting Eddie
hunt and kill Karen’s friend Terry while his sister
Marsha brings Bill over to the dark side.
Internet Law requires me to credit Star Wars
whenever “dark side” is mentioned.
One of the other aspects of the film that I loved was
the scene at the end where the doctor tries to defend
his “modernization” of the werewolves to the rest of
the pack. This is an aspect that I would also like to see
get a little more screen time. Sacrifice the “surprise”
of discovering that the entire colony is filled with
werewolves in favor of exploring that idea. Let’s see
some of their interactions. When Marsha brings Bill
into the “pack”, let’s follow his initiation into their
society. Give Marsha some time to make her case
against Dr. Wagner’s repressive strategy and let her
have a plan of her o wn.
The casting possibilities for a film like this are literally
limitless, but there are lots of possibilities for cameos
from beloved genre actors as well as plenty of roles
for warm fluffy actors or comedians who want to do
something different.
Taking such a well-written story and simply updating
it with the kind of realistic and affordable werewolf
effects that movies like the Underworld series have
given us, I really think that a Howling remake could
really bring our generation a quality werewolf thriller.
Let’s bring back “The Original Nightmare!”
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