Hurlements III

I realize that this is not one of the more popular films in the howling series. I still haven't seen Howling parts 2, 4, or7, but I've read some pretty bad things about them. The Howling 3 is my favorite one. Yes, I pick it over the first one which seems to be everybody else's favorite.

It has it's flaws of course but it also has a lot of insignificant firsts like werewolf nuns. We call them insignificant firsts because nobody else ever did the same thing but they are still neat ideas. It's also one of the few werewolf movies based on the idea that werewolves are people too and at times it seems that the people hunting the werewolves are the real bad guys. I really felt something for them and the plight of the thylacine (marsupial wolf) that was wiped out decades ago.

It really seems more like an action comedy than a horror movie. The director claims that gore was the furthest thing on his mind. It also might be the only Howling movie with a PG-13 rating. My only real gripe is the dragged out ending that just keeps on going. It seems they had a hard time figuring out how to end it. All in all, I think they did pretty well with what little money they had. (1 million dollars Australian.)

Notice during Jerboa's run through the arcade you can see a Rampage arcade machine. One of the characters in that game is a giant werewolf.

Found myself really enjoying the first film, an atmospheric and witty film with amazing effects, and of 'The Howling' franchise it is by far the best. Didn't find myself enjoying the sequels as much, when watching them all for franchise completest sake and as someone who appreciates horror hugely, far less as a matter of fact, while not finding them completely disposable. Werewolf films have been done well on film, 'The Howling' is a good example of that but that cannot be said for its sequels.

'Howling III' is not unwatchable and there are far worse films around. It does though have most of the same problems that the second film did to every bit as bad effect, and has problems of its own. Like 'The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf', the sly wit and well-timed eeriness of the first film are completely gone in 'Howling III' and replaced by over-the-top camp and bizarreness, neither of which really done well and there's little charm with either too. It was like watching a completely different franchise.

The scenery is quite nice and there are some atmospheric shots.

Dasha Blahova is suitably formidable and the occasional sly dig at the horror genre was reasonably fun.

Other than Blahova however the acting is dire, with a mix of the actors not looking comfortable in their roles, having little personality or over-compensating. Dame Edna Everage's appearance felt like it was thrown in with no regard as to whether it fitted or not. The all over the place "accents" are best not mentioned but they are only a small part of the problem, it was the character writing and the lack of screen presence that made the acting as bad as it was. The characters are neither interesting or have anything to make one feel anything for them other than frustration and annoyance, some are pointless or make random appearances. The writing is very cheesy with no natural flow, the campness gets really over the top and the stupidity stops being novelty value endearing and becomes intelligence-insulting.

Pacing is erratic, mostly dull as a result of padding out a flimsy story very choppily structured. The direction not only does not make the flaws of the second film but makes them worse. As just said, the story is a mess. There is no tension or suspense here, while it also suffers from being confusing, over-stretched and really tedious from all the dragged out stretches that felt like padding. The production values are poor this time too, the effects and make-up now woefully under-budgeted and often used gratuitously. The soundtrack is very intrusive and doesn't fit the film at all, also sounding cheap, while the ending feels incredibly rushed.

Overall, poorly done but at least it didn't leave me angry. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Howling III: The Marsupials (Quickie Review) This film revolves around a group of werewolves of some sort that live in Australia and are marsupials with a backdrop where a film crew is making a really awful werewolf film. Almost as bad as this one.

The effects are sub-standard at best and poor when compared to the original, far superior, Howling. Mediocre acting carry along one of the film world's first bastard PG-13 sequels in a previously R-rated franchise. As we all know, the Robocop, Alien, and Predator franchises are just a few following instances of such creative destruction. The writing is fantastically weak and cliché at times with the movie rounding out with an ending that just screams that the writer was just in a hurry to finish up his monstrosity.

Recommended to: Not really anybody, werewolf fans may hate this as much as they tend to have hated Wolf due to it varying wildly from werewolf norms. The Marsupials could've been a good idea, but they went about it all wrong. 3/10 www.ResidentHazard.com

The box says 'just when you thought it was safe to go down under.' That's got to be a reference to the pouch, right? That's no accident. No one slips on bananas.

This movie was difficult to watch. Confusing and directionless plot, strange characters that appear without warning or purpose no logical connection between scenes...its a mess.

I find it difficult to believe that this film ever saw the big screen. The effects were laughably bad. As far as acting...I caught a little schadenfreude off the quiet desperation of some bit players, particularly the announcer from the final scene. I guess Hollywood has its share of heartbreak.

This film was a disaster, just a disaster. That sad magic mix of bad and boring. I sat down tonight with a whole pile of Howling sequels. This was my first and it fills me with trepidation.

Misunderstood and ultimately quirky little entry in the HOWLING series. Absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the original film, being simply an antipodean tale of lycanthropic maladjustment!

Way better now than upon its release, the full low-budgetry inanity of Mora's little pet works quite well if you can get on its wavelength, that is, down to a primordial level. Beautiful redhead, Miss Annesley (shame she can't speak as well as she looks) is the aptly named Jerboa, a girl with a rare secret. Biologically er, different, she has the cutest little pouch just above her more "R" rated parts, which following a night of passion, soon gains the tiniest of new inhabitants in a scene one can only describe as "different!"

A subject of extreme interest to the medical profession, trivia buffs may notice none other than film historian and TV presenter Bill Collins making his rather pedestrian debut here as a hospital doctor, somewhat enamoured with Jerboa's never-seen-before physiology.

Played strictly for laughs and non-conformist fun, the budget constraints were such that at the point of anyone actually being attacked by a werewolf, all the viewer ever gets to see is a back-pedalling actor with varying expressions of laugh-out-loud fright. In hindsight I think this adds to the quirkiness rather than detracts!

Ever reliable Barry Otto (first up on anyone's list with a fully left-field flick in the offing) is Professor Harry Beckmeyer who takes it upon himself ultimately to protect Jerboa from those who would harm her. Michael Pate and son Christopher make a suitably stilted (as in "What the hell am I doing in a film like this?) contribution and Australia's grandest thespian Frank Thring, camps it up shamefully as a Z-Grade horror-movie director. Pontius Pilate (In Ben Hur) to THIS???? Hmmm, its a worry!

IN the wash-up, what we have here a one-off film experience, one anyone can miss and be none the worse off for! If you ARE unavoidably entrapped one night, well at least you can say, "Yeah I've seen HOWLING III, my life is now fulfilled!"