Review – The Howling

Although this is one of the better werewolf flicks to come out of Hollywood in recent years, it still suffers from some of the traditional werewolf setbacks. The biggest among these is the dreaded transformation scene, where the plot drops dead for a couple of minutes while the audience is forced to behold one of the actors acquiring enough makeup appliances to become a giant dog. Sure, it’s well done here (for the most part; a couple of shots look like broom handles pushing latex, and transforming Dee Wallace into a great big Pekinese dog probably wasn’t the world’s brightest idea), but it’s still a show-stopper in the not-good way. Once the werewolves actually assume their lupine forms, however, the creatures in specific and the film in general work pretty well. Of course, having a script by John Sayles never hurts. Worth seeing