Howling II - L'ululato

I think perhaps the most apt comment should go to Christopher Lee himself who has often described HOWLING II as his own "personal embarrassment!" Since we have the film in our own library (in BETA format of course) we are probably the only family world-wide has seen it upwards of 20 times over the last 17 years....never fails to give us a laugh...I would almost "miss" it now! We all just watched it again tonight!

El cheapo film-making any which way you want to look at it...script, acting, direction, editing, production values, fx...love the early shot of the "werewolf" where they have only given the poor guy a "furry arm" the rest is normal! But hey...this is a fun movie....how many other films do you get to see a girl rip her bra off seventeen times during the closing credits. Sybil Danning should have received a "special Oscar" for this alone!

Tries to link itself to the original with the most pathetic re-shot footage of Dee Wallace Stone's demise in the original that looks absolutely nothing like her, not to mention the "body" in the coffin. Still ya gotta love the theme "In the pale pale night of the moon above"....

Hell, give it a break!

It doesn´t really bear the thought, but no, this isn´t one of the worst films of all time. Yes, it´s full-blown 80´s trash. Christopher Lee looks mortified, Sybil Danning in big puffy hair shoots lasers (?) from her finger tips, werewolves nuzzle air in their in human form (?), there´s messy SFX effects etc etc.

It´s also mercifully free from the mucky digital hell of horror which passes entertainment for nowadays. There´s candlelit churches, graveyards, dangerous forests, Transylvanian (actually Czech) scenery, and the castle of the werewolf queen, which summarizes the film´s visual style. Both tacky and grand in equal measure, Stirba's bedroom has sumptuous velvet drapes and candles, which clash not too subtly together with cheaply garish red sheets and ridiculous (albeit mercifully tame) werewolf orgy. Nothing to do with short novel Howling II by Gary Brandner - another trashy but entertaining effort - and dismissed by pretty much everybody, Brandner included.

Incredibly idiotic, senseless, and utterly sleazy sequel to the popular 1981 werewolf film "The Howling" stars Sir Christopher Lee as Stefan Crosscoe, an occult expert determined to wipe out lycanthropes, in particular those who associate with the fiendish queen werewolf bitch Stirba (Sybil Danning). He makes a point of telling Ben White (Reb Brown), the brother of the Dee Wallace character from the first film, the specifics of her "death". When Ben is unable to deny the evidence, he heads off, with reporter Jenny Templeton (Annie McEnroe) in tow, for Transylania, to help Stefan in his werewolf killing mission.

The story is absurd, the dialogue hilariously awful; poor Sir Christopher and Sybil have to utter some pretty dumb lines. The makeup effects are crude to the nth degree, but are delicious in their egregious lack of quality. The scene with the eyeballs exploding is pretty cool. In some ways, "Stirba - Werewolf Bitch" goes back to Gothic basics in a way by exploiting flavourful European Old World atmosphere. But it adds a lot of spice to the deal by being so damn trashy. The sexy ladies present dress quite provocatively, and Sybil is willing to disrobe and show off her ample assets. The New Wave pop soundtrack is a total hoot; we're made to listen to that priceless title theme song a number of times. Original "Howling" author Gary Brandner co-scripted, from his novel "Howling II: The Return", and maintains a very tongue in cheek approach. With the level of both cheese and trash on display, it's clear that this was never meant to be taken seriously.

Sir Christopher looks pretty serious here, though; the movie does benefit from his professionalism. Sybil is a mildly amusing antagonist. Brown and McEnroe are just sort of there as hero and heroine. Marsha A. Hunt, Judd Omen, Ferdy Mayne (who has the same character name as John Carradine in "Howling" No. 1), Patrick Field, Jimmy Nail, and Jiri Krytinar co-star.

Directed by Philippe Mora, who has the distinction of being director on two "Howling" sequels, the other being "The Marsupials: The Howling III".

The end credits are actually a highlight.

Seven out of 10.

From the moment Christopher Lee puts on a pair of punk sunglasses and tries to sneak into a punk rock club, you know you've got a stinker on your hands! This film had potential. Beneath all of the sludge there are the remnants of what could have been crafted into a decent film, if not an interesting one. The final product is a real mess, however. Aside from the gratuitous nudity and some very attractive women, Howling II winds up being a laughable excuse for a horror film. Christopher Lee gives it a nugget of credibility, but even he cannot raise it above the level of crap.

Having never seen any of the other films in this series, this critic will be forced to accept on face value that this is a genuine continuation of the events in part one. We start off at a funeral for one of the characters from the original, and within the first ten minutes we find ourselves in Transylvania with a small group of heroes ready to battle a coven of werewolves. The film is paced fairly well, and there are not too many dead spots. The action is there; it just isn't filmed well. One bright spot is the music of a punk band called Babel. Though their song is played quite often, it is rather catchy.

The problems with this film are great in number. First off, the acting is worse than pitiful. Christopher Lee is good enough, but that's where it ends. The two leads Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe are lacking in just about everything you'd want for such characters. The writing is wretched, the editing redundant, and the direction amateurish. There are a couple nice special effect gimmicks, but the cheesy ones far out weigh them in number. Sybil Danning is nice to look at, but her acting performance is less than satisfactory. Judd Omen looks the part he plays, but his voice and acting are unconvincing to say the least. Much of the dialog is in an unintelligible language that may or may not be Latin.

I liked the general idea for the story. I always enjoy stories of true believers out to battle seemingly invincible forces of evil. One scene where a small group of good guys are trekking through a dark forest and shooting down a bunch of werewolves is even kind of exciting. Kind of. Maybe a bigger budget or a better director could have made the rest of the film a bit more compelling. 3 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

Side note: As of this writing, the censors at youtube.com have still not taken down the ending credits with Sybil Danning ripping off her top several times while the Babel song is playing! Catch it while you can!

A man investigating the death of his sister, discovers she is a werewolf and part of a werewolf cult in Transylvanina. The make-up, effects, plot, acting, direction, etc. are either pretty much non-existent or down right silly, but the film is entertaining in a cheesy way and Danning rips off her clothes (again). Bonus at the end credits, that scene with Danning is repeated over and over again. 5 out of 10.