History Film / TheHowling

* UrbanFantasy: PlayedForHorror by showing it from the perspective of {{Muggles}} without any romanticism. Within werewolf society, all manner of internal politics are hinted at, particularly a philosophical divide between those who wish to harmonize their human and animal instincts and those who wish to fully give in to the latter, as well as a depiction of how werewolves would operate in modern society... none of which matters to the protagonists, ordinary humans hunted by werewolves who seek to either transform them (as in the case of Karen and Bill) or [[KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade kill them to cover up the truth]] (as with Chris and Terri). There is a [[YouSexyBeast sexy female werewolf]] in Marsha, but her temptations are portrayed as purely villainous, without any redeeming qualities. [[spoiler:When the heroine Karen is turned, she transforms into a werewolf on live TV in an attempt to break the masquerade... and people are too apathetic and cynical to buy it as anything more than a special effects-driven publicity stunt.]]

* FemmeFatale: Martha.

* TransformationIsAFreeAction: [[spoiler: When Eddie transforms into a werewolf to kill Karen, frozen in place as he shifts, she makes no attempt to try to escape the room and instead gapes at his transformation for a good three minutes. Eventually, she notices a vial of acid nearby and decides to use that against him, but still waits until after he's done transforming to do so.]]

* TransformationSequence: It can't be ''The Howling'' without a good ol' werewolf transformation, now could it?
* TranshumanTreachery: [[spoiler: After being bitten, Bill's wolf instincts take him over, causing him to go from being a vegetarian to happily eating meat, cheating on his wife with Marsha after previously turning down her advances, and even being the one who bites and turns Karen.]]

* WeirdnessCensor: ApatheticCitizens see werewolf on the evening news and react in bland, skeptical fashion.

* ActorAllusion: Dick Miller plays Walter Paisley, named after his character from ''Film/ABucketOfBlood''.

%%* BigDamnHeroes: Chris.

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Bill, Dr. Waggner.]]

* TheTheTitle

After a bizarre and near-fatal encounter with serial killer Eddie "The Mangler" Quist (Creator/RobertPicardo), television anchorwoman Karen White (Dee Wallace) is left traumatized and in dire need of a rest. Her psychiatrist Dr. George Waggner (Creator/PatrickMacnee) sends her and her husband Bill (Christopher Stone) to The Colony, a rural retreat where select patients go to relax and participate in group therapy. However, Karen notices that The Colony appears to be populated by a number of odd characters, which together with the remote location and the strange howling she hears at night soon lead Karen to believe that something is very wrong here. When she starts looking into The Colony's affairs, the apparent resurrection of Eddie Quist soon proves to be the least of her problems...

After a bizarre and near-fatal encounter with serial killer Eddie "The Mangler" Quist (Creator/RobertPicardo), television anchorwoman Karen White (Dee Wallace) is left traumatized and in dire need of a rest. Her psychiatrist Dr. George Waggner (Creator/PatrickMacnee) sends her and her husband Chris (Christopher Stone) to The Colony, a rural retreat where select patients go to relax and participate in group therapy. However, Karen notices that The Colony appears to be populated by a number of odd characters, which together with the remote location and the strange howling she hears at night soon lead Karen to believe that something is very wrong here. When she starts looking into The Colony's affairs, the apparent resurrection of Eddie Quist soon proves to be the least of her problems...

After a bizarre and near-fatal encounter with serial killer Eddie "The Mangler" Quist (Creator/RobertPicardo), television anchorwoman Karen White (Dee Wallace) is left traumatized and in dire need of a rest. Her psychiatrist Dr. George Waggner (Creator/PatrickMacnee) sends her and her husband to The Colony, a rural retreat where select patients go to relax and participate in group therapy. However, Karen notices that The Colony appears to be populated by a number of odd characters, which together with the remote location and the strange howling she hears at night soon lead Karen to believe that something is very wrong here. When she starts looking into The Colony's affairs, the apparent resurrection of Eddie Quist soon proves to be the least of her problems...

* AntiVillain[=/=]TokenGoodTeammate: [[spoiler: Dr. Waggner wants the Colony to have both their human and animal instincts be harmonious, and even try to live with the rest of civilization. The rest of the Colony ultimately reject this, preferring being taken over by their primitive instincts.]]

* DeathSeeker / SuicideByCop: [[spoiler: After realizing that Chris has silver bullets, Dr. Waggner intentionally goads Chris into shooting him.]]

* {{Fan Disservice}}: [[spoiler: Marsha and Bill's sex scene becomes more primal as their animal instincts take over... and then they transform in the middle of it.]]

** [[spoiler:Chris pretty much waits there while Karen turns into a werewolf. When the transformation is complete, she shoots her on live television.]] Justified in that [[spoiler: they're doing this to show the world that werewolves exist.]]

''The Howling'' (1981) is a [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent werewolf]] {{horror}} {{film}} directed by Creator/JoeDante and scripted by Creator/JohnSayles, loosely based on the book of the same name by Gary Brandner.

After a bizarre and near-fatal encounter with serial killer Eddie "The Mangler" Quist (Creator/RobertPicardo), television anchorwoman Karen White (Dee Wallace) is left traumatized and in dire need of a rest. Her psychiatrist sends her and her husband to The Colony, a rural retreat where select patients go to relax and participate in group therapy. However, Karen notices that The Colony appears to be populated by a number of odd characters, which together with the remote location and the strange howling she hears at night soon lead Karen to believe that something is very wrong here. When she starts looking into The Colony's affairs, the apparent resurrection of Eddie Quist soon proves to be the least of her problems...

After a bizarre and near-fatal encounter with serial killer Eddie "The Mangler" Quist (Creator/RobertoPicardo), television anchorwoman Karen White (Creator/DeeWallace) is left traumatized and in dire need of a rest. Her psychiatrist sends her and her husband to The Colony, a rural retreat where select patients go to relax and participate in group therapy. However, Karen notices that The Colony appears to be populated by a number of odd characters, which together with the remote location and the strange howling she hears at night soon lead Karen to believe that something is very wrong here. When she starts looking into The Colony's affairs, the apparent resurrection of Eddie Quist soon proves to be the least of her problems...

After a bizarre and near-fatal encounter with serial killer Eddie "The Mangler" Quist, television anchorwoman Karen White is left traumatized and in dire need of a rest. Her psychiatrist sends her and her husband to The Colony, a rural retreat where select patients go to relax and participate in group therapy. However, Karen notices that The Colony appears to be populated by a number of odd characters, which together with the remote location and the strange howling she hears at night soon lead Karen to believe that something is very wrong here. When she starts looking into The Colony's affairs, the apparent resurrection of Eddie Quist soon proves to be the least of her problems...

* TransformationIsAFreeAction: [[spoiler: When Eddie transforms into a werewolf to kill Karen, frozen in place as he shifts, she makes no attempt to try to escape the room and instead gapes at his transformation for a good minute. Eventually, she notices a vial of acid nearby and decides to use that against him, but still waits until he's done transforming to do so.]]

* MeaningfulName: Nearly all the characters are named after werewolf film directors.

[[folder:''Howling II: Stirba: Werewolf Bitch'']]
* TheArtifact: There's some strong evidence that the movie was originally going to be a vampire movie due to all the traditional vampire-killing methods being applied to werewolves, their leader being a woman who stays alive by sucking the youth out of people, it taking place in Transylvania and so on.
* BigBad: Stirba.
* BlindIdiotTranslation: In Russian bootleg translation, the translator mixed up milleniums and millions, and thus made poor Stirba ten ''million'' years old.
* DueToTheDead: At the start of the film, [[spoiler:Karen]] receives a Christian burial; her body is laid to rest in a mausoleum at the church's graveyard.
* EyeScream: Stirba has a spell that causes its victims' eyeballs to explode in a fountain of blood. Fortunately, the heroes are able to neutralize the spell with their holy earplugs (yes, you read that correctly)... until Stefan's dwarf friend trips over and loses his earplugs.
* FanService: Virtually every moment that Sybil Danning spends on-screen in the film. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7sXM7_X1g Especially the end credits]], which take it UpToEleven by repeating the scene where Stirba rips off her top ''sixteen times.''
* FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin: They don't even make [[spoiler:Karen's on-air transformation]] remotely look like the scene from the first movie. Possibly lampshaded when Ben calls the footage he is shown fake and claims the Karen in the video looks nothing like his sister.
* HunterOfMonsters: Stefan, Creator/ChristopherLee's character, holds basically the same role Van Helsing does in most interpretations of Literature/{{Dracula}} (with Stirba in place of the Count).
* LiquidAssets: Stirba's rejuvenating technique requires a young victim, from whom Stirba magically steals her youth.
* MonsterProgenitor: Stirba for the werewolves.
* MutualKill: [[spoiler:Stefan and Stirba burn together in the end]].
* ShoutOut:
** A murderous dwarf with a knife? Sounds suspiciously like ''[[spoiler:Film/DontLookNow]]''.
** During the credits, the graffiti says [[Franchise/{{Batman}} BATCAVE]].
* SorcerousOverlord: Stirba operates like this in Transylvania.
* TimeAbyss: Unlike other werewolves, Stirba can restore her youth. She is very nearly ten thousand years old.
* TitleDrop: For the second version of the title.
--> '''Stefan:''' This type of bullet, Mr. White, means '''your sister is a werewolf.'''
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: The ''Holy Grail'' gets casually mentioned when Stefan lists the heroes' werewolf-killing weapons before the final assault and nobody as much as bats an eye.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Stirba is so old that she somehow became immune to silver. Luckily for the heroes, it appears that werewolves, including Stirba, also can be harmed by titanium weapons. For some odd reason [[spoiler:Karen]] is also immune to silver, despite only having been a werewolf for a couple of weeks at most.

[[folder:''Howling III: Marsupials'']]
* AshesToCrashes: The ashes of a deceased werewolf emerge from the remains of a funeral pyre to attack a group of hunters.
* InvoluntaryShapeshifter: Do ''not'' flash strobe lights in a werewolf's eyesight. They ''will'' transform whenever that happens, whether you like it or not.
* MoodDissonance: WordOfGod says it's a comedy, but the tone makes it not clear if this is supposed to be a comedy, a horror, or a GreenAesop about not hunting animals to extinction.
* OurWerebeastsAreDifferent: Features were-thylacines. Thylacines are an extinct marsupial predator more commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger.
* SdrawkcabAlias: The town of Flow.
* ShowWithinAShow: There are two. Donny is acting in a horror film called ''The Shapershifters Part 8''. He wants Jerboa to join the cast, but she's never seen a horror film before, so he takes her to a [[TheresNoBInMovie B-movie]] called ''It Came from Uranus''.
* StandAloneEpisode: Whereas ''II'' follows directly on from the first film, and the following four sequels are revealed to form a BroadStrokes continuity in ''New Moon Rising'', this entry is completely divorced any of the other films.

[[folder:''Howling IV: The Original Nightmare'']]
* BodyHorror: Especially prominent in this film. The first transformation is quite horrific - it consists of the body [[ImMelting disintegrating into a puddle of goo]] and then rebuilding itself into a wolfman shape.
* HollywoodSatanism: These werewolves happen to worship Satan.
* HongKongDub: A lot of the film was shot without any on-set sound recording due to budget problems. As a result, we get a mixture of this trope and the characters constantly having their backs facing the camera when speaking their dialogue.
* TruerToTheText: The plot follows the original Gary Brandner novel more closely than the first film.

[[folder:''Howling V: The Rebirth'']]
* DeadlyHug: At the end of the film, [[spoiler:Peter and The Count tell Marylou to shoot the other, the Count being convinced that Peter is the werewolf killing everyone and Peter believing the Count is a crazy murderer. Marylou fires once...and Peter rushes to hug her telling her everything is okay now. Then the full moon shines down on the pair as Marylou grins savagely]].
* DecoyProtagonist: Gail is the first one to notice the strange things that start happening and is very suspicious of why they're at the castle. She's the third one killed.
* MagicPants: The werewolf is clearly a quick-change artist, due to how rapidly it appears and yet how fully clothed everyone is (including the werewolf's human form).
* PrettyInMink: Anna, a Scandinavian movie star, first appears with a silver and white mink coat draped over her shoulders.
* TenLittleMurderVictims: There's exactly one werewolf among the castle guests (at least the film implies that). And the guests are killed one by one...
* ThereWasADoor: The werewolf is huge and has a tendency to simply ''explode'' through walls, snow drifts and doors--how the thing quietly disguises itself as human is anyone's guess.

[[folder:''Howling VI: The Freaks'']]
* BigBad: R.B Harker.
* ComeToGawk: Harker owns a carnival, with a freak sideshow among its attractions. He tries to get Ian into the sideshow.
* EmpathyDollShot: After transforming back to human, Ian finds a doll next to him. Knowing that its owner is most certainly dead, he picks it up, racked with guilt. [[spoiler:It was planted by Harker]].
* MeaningfulName: The vampire is named "Harker".
* TheReveal: [[spoiler:Harker is a vampire, and has been framing Ian for the murders. After this, FurAgainstFang climax gets into gear]].
* VillainousBreakdown: Harker loses his cool near the end when the mob he formed to kill the werewolf hero refuses to shoot him because he is still in human form -- they were prepared to kill a dangerous monster, not an unarmed man. Harker then tries to kill the hero personally.

[[folder:''Howling VII: New Moon Rising'']]
* ArcWelding: Clive Turner does a fairly admirable job at assembling the plots from the previous sequels into one narrative... unfortunately, these are delivered mainly in massive {{Info Dump}}s.
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Features a bunch of Australians who just happen to be living in the California Desert for no apparent reason. Since most of the film's cast were the real-life inhabitants of a Californian town, odds are that these random Australians are friends of the film's Aussie director, Clive Turner.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome:
** Subverted: two very minor characters in ''4'' and ''5'' are revealed to be the same person... who is also the hero of ''7''.
** Played straight in the same film -- the heroine of the ''4'' turns out to have survived the events of that film... only to be KilledOffForReal after an appearance lasting about ten minutes.
* UnPerson: Janice, who died in a HeroicSacrifice at the end of ''4'', isn't mentioned or seen at all in the flashback footage, which gives the unwitting impression that Marie is attempting to take all the credit for stopping the werewolves in that film.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''The Howling: Reborn'']]
* BigBad: [[spoiler: Kathyn Kidman]].
* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to the previous sequels.
* IncestSubtext: Kathryn's interest towards her son is laced with disturbing sexual undertones. WordOfGod claims that this was intentional, to make her look more bestial since embracing her werewolf side.
* StockSubtitle
[[/folder]]

* TransformationIsAFreeAction: [[spoiler:Chris pretty much waits there while Karen turns into a werewolf. When the transformation is complete, she shoots her on live television.]] Justified in that [[spoiler: they're doing this to show the world that werewolves exist.]]

* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler: Chris is able to save Karen, but by this point she has become a werewolf as well. She ultimately gives up her life to train and warn other people about their existence.]]

** "Don't you know anything?"
** "Thank God.."
** "Tonight... I'm going to show you something... to make you believe..."

* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler: After realizing that Chris has silver bullets, Dr. Waggner intentionally goads Chris into shooting him.]]

* TransformationIsAFreeAction: [[spoiler:Chris pretty much waits there while Karen turns into a werewolf. When the transformation is complete, she shoots her on live television.]]

* FlashbackWithTheOtherDarrin: They don't even make [[spoiler:Karen's on-air transformation]] remotely look like the scene from the first movie.

* TitleDrop

* TheHunter: Stefan, Creator/ChristopherLee's character, holds basically the same role Van Helsing does in most interpretations of Literature/{{Dracula}} (with Stirba in place of the Count).

* {{Fandisservice}}: [[spoiler: Marsha and Bill's sex scene becomes more primal as their animal instincts take over... and then they transform in the middle of it.]]