Grito de Horror 3

Howling 3 is yet another horror effort, where excellent ideas and even the mood and atmosphere of a horror classic are not cultivated or nurtured throughout the film.

I was brought up in the era of "The American Werewolf in London", definitely the classic, archetypal werewolf flick. Tough competition by anyone's standards. Yet Howling 3 has just as many good ideas, just as much depth, just as much potential... but just doesn't make it.

The basis of the film resides upon some old Cine8 footage of a werewolf's capture by some natives. Grainy, snowy, short lived images, set the scene well, and could be perceived as scary. The idea of the werewolf being a type of marsupial species, a separate development of human life is interesting, and could be scary in that they have always lived amongst us. Separate werewolf societies, driven to the bleakest habitable places on the planet, but in contact with each other spiritually and genetically... yes, yes, this is definitely going somewhere.

And then three of said werewolves dress up as Nuns, and travel to the big city to retrieve their runaway teen-wolfette, and gain entry to a fancy dress party having changed into actual habit-wearing wolf people... oh perleeease!

A serious film, even a horror, can carry some comedy, but in Howling 3 the comedy is inappropriate, badly timed, and too farcical for words. The more serious horror aspects of the film being ruined by these interruptions. I remained unconvinced by any of the man-to-wolf changes, in fact, they were equally farcical, with their obvious "fur means fear" reliance.

So, a film with potential, which obviously had serious horror intent, became a farce, even a spoof, by it's own making. A real shame and a real sham all in one. Stick to "American Werewolf in London" or even "Dog Soldiers" for that fur-fear-fix!! I rated a "3"

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!"

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.

While some people say this is the worst entry in the Howling series, I actually think it is one of the best of the sequels following the Joe Dante classic. Let's get one thing straight, this is an intentional camp film and takes great glee in being as cheesy as humanly possible. Here we are introduced to a new breed of lycanthrope from the Land Down- Under, a were-creature based on the long extinct thylacine. I don't want to give anything in the plot away but I would of really preferred if the movie focused more on giving us lots of werewolf action instead of focusing almost entirely on a certain romance-subplot. So in closing, I feel you should sit down with your friends and have have a laugh while watching this campy film.....

This movie is very disappointing, considering that it had real possibilities to be decent. Every time you think it might start to get good, it doesn't. Most of the acting is REALLY bad. The plot wanders aimlessly. The town where the werewolves live is called "Flow" (Wolf backwards. Real creative, guys.) Why are there 3 werewolves dressed up like nuns?? Who knows. Dame Edna (Barry Humphries) has a cameo. Imogen Annesley is the only good part of this movie, for what its worth.