History Film / TheHowling

* TruerToTheText: The plot follows the original Gary Brandner novel more closely than the first film, though it still makes some notable changes to the story and characters. This includes:

* DenserAndWackier: The first film has a lot of BlackComedy, satire and humorous inside jokes regarding werewolf fiction, but overall it's serious and scary horror film. Some of the sequels incorporate more comedy, with ''Stirba: Werewolf Bitch'', ''The Marsupials'' and especially ''New Moon Rising'' having a lot more goofy and campy moments. The other four sequels are generally more serious in tone.

* 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.

* TruerToTheText: The plot follows the original Gary Brandner novel more closely than the first film.

* BigBad: R.B Harker.

* MeaningfulName: The vampire is named "Harker".

** 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.

* BigBad: [[spoiler:Kathyn Kidman]].
* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to the previous sequels.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/howling.jpg]]

''The Howling'' is a 1981 [[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 (Creator/DeeWallace) is left traumatized and in dire need of a rest. Her psychiatrist Dr. George Waggner (Creator/PatrickMacnee) sends her and her husband Bill (Creator/ChristopherStone) 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...

''The Howling'' was followed by seven sequels, the most recent in 2011. A remake of the original is in early planning stages for Creator/{{Netflix}}. It's, as of this writing, planned to directed by Creator/AndresMuschietti, the director of the ''[[Film/It2017 It]]'' [[Film/ItChapterTwo duology]].

''The Howling: Revenge of the Werewolf Queen'' is a comic by Space Goat Publishing, continuing from the first film.

[[folder:''The Howling'']]
* ActorAllusion: Creator/DickMiller plays Walter Paisley, named after his character from ''Film/ABucketOfBlood''.
* AdaptationalJobChange: In the novel, Karen works part-time at a department store and keeps house the rest of the time, with her husband being the main breadwinner. Here, Karen is a prominent news anchor, which is heavily incorporated into the plot.
* AdaptationNameChange:
** A [[DownplayedTrope slight example]] with the heroine. In the novel, the heroine is named Karyn Beatty. Here, her name is Karen (with an "e") and her surname is White, with it being noted that she didn't take her husband's surname for career reasons.
** The heroine's husband is named Roy Beatty in the novel, while in the movie he's named Bill Neil.
** The FemmeFatale werewolf who seduces Karen's husband is named Marcia Lura in the novel, while here she's named Marsha Quist. Marsha is a [[DownplayedTrope variation]] of Marcia (both mean "warlike" or "dedicated to Mars" - as in the Roman war god), while her surname being changed to Quist is to highlight her [[RelatedInTheAdaptation familial connection]] with Eddie.
* AdaptationOriginConnection: Eddie Quist, the serial killer who stalks and attacks Karen, is revealed to be a resident of the werewolf town known as the Colony; it's also revealed that [[spoiler:Karen's therapist (also a werewolf) intentionally sent her to the Colony, presumably to keep an eye on her in case she [[TraumaInducedAmnesia regained her memories]] of the attack]]. In the book, [[AdaptationNameChange Max]] Quist is just some random psycho with no connection to the werewolves and poor Karen is unlucky enough to coincidentally move to a werewolf-populated town following Max's attack on her.
* AffablyEvil: Most of the werewolves are actually pretty friendly when they aren't killing people or the like.
* AmbiguousEnding: A lot depends on whether the viewer thinks anyone will believe Karen's report.
* 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 warn other people about their existence.]]
* AnimalMotifs: As if all the werewolves weren't enough, there's lots of wolf motifs present.
* AntiVillain: [[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.]]
* AutopsySnackTime: The medical examiner keeps his lunch next to a pan full of body parts.
* BackFromTheDead: The cops apparently kill Eddie ten minutes into the film, but since they're not packing department-issue silver bullets (budget cuts...) he comes back.
%%* BigBad: Eddie Quist.
* BigDamnHeroes: Chris arrives in the nick of time to rescue Karen from the werewolves.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Some of the residents of the Colony appear friendly and welcoming to outsiders, but it's revealed most of them are bloodthirsty werewolves who dislike being kept on a leash so-to-speak.
* BodyHorror: The werewolf transformations are courtesy of Rob Bottin, the effects guy from ''Film/TheThing1982'', and are quite horrifying to look at, with bubbling skin, snapping bones, contorting facial features etc. No wonder Karen got PTSD after witnessing Eddie turning into a werewolf.
* CreatorCameo: Co-producer Creator/JohnSayles appears as a morgue attendant.
* DeadlineNews: I wonder if there's a Peabody pending for that final broadcast?
* DeerInTheHeadlights: When Eddie starts to transform in front of Karen, she's completely frozen in terror; it's justified given that she's suffering PTSD, stemming from Eddie trying to attack her in his wolf form (which she had pushed into her subconscious until now). It's also a good excuse to keep the camera on Eddie so the audience can see the elaborate transformation sequence. [[spoiler:Karen is able to snap out of it, grabbing a jar of silver nitrate to chuck on Eddie and making a run for it]].
* DontGoInTheWoods: The Colony is situated deep in the woods in a remote area of northern California. It initially seems like a peaceful place for people with mental health struggles to recuperate... but Karen is disturbed by sinister howling from the woods and Bill gets attacks by some kind of animal while walking in the woods. It soon becomes clear the Colony is inhabited by werewolves.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Karen manages to escape the werewolf colony and kill them all before they go on a rampage. However, she decides she has to expose the existence of werewolves to the world, and then transforms on live television. She is willingly shot by Chris as a MercyKill, and the public believes it's special effects. What makes this a downer rather than a mostly bitter bittersweet? One of the colony werewolves survived, and continues on her merry way.]]
* TheEndOrIsIt: The final line of the movie: "...rare."
* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Bill and Dr. Waggner.]]
* FacialHorror: Karen throws silver nitrate over [[spoiler:Eddie's]] face while he's in wolf form. The end result isn't pretty.
* 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.]]
%%* FemmeFatale: Marsha.
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Karen is shot after turning into a werewolf on live TV.]]
* HeroicBSOD: Karen suffers one after narrowly surviving being attacked by Eddie, which incites the entire film. It's strongly implied she has post-traumatic stress disorder; she blocks out her conscious memories of the attack, but still suffers nightmares, flashbacks and anxiety. Her trauma causes her to freeze up on camera and struggle with being intimate with her husband.
%%* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Karen.]]
* TheImmodestOrgasm: When [[spoiler:Bill and Marsha]] have sex, ending with actual wolf howls as they transform.
* IntrepidReporter:
** Karen puts herself in danger as part of a sting to nail Eddie.
** Later, Terri travels to the Colony, breaks into the Quist house to look for clues and and infiltrates their records' room to unravel their secrets. She gets attacked by a werewolf and manages to fight it off [[spoiler:though she's not fortunate a second time]].
* KillItWithFire: Other than silver, fire is the werewolves' Achilles heel. [[spoiler:Karen and Chris deal with many of the werewolves by locking them in a barn and torching it]].
* LighterAndSofter: [[DownplayedTrope At least compared to the novel]]. While the movie is still a horror story with some grisly moments, it has a more satirical and [[BlackComedy darkly comedic tone]], while the book is much more serious. While Karen suffers PTSD in both versions, the film softens things slightly by having Karen be rescued from her attacker at the last moment (although she's still understandably traumatized), while the book graphically depicts Karyn being sexually assaulted and goes into detail over how the rape impacts her wellbeing (including flashbacks etc).
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: How the werewolves decide to deal with Karen when she figures out the truth of the Colony, seeing as she ''is'' a famous anchorwoman, and she ''would'' be missed.
* MassOhCrap: When the werewolves realize that Chris actually managed to wrangle up some silver bullets.
* MercyKill: [[spoiler:Chris shoots Karen with one last silver bullet after she transforms.]]
* NoodleIncident: Whatever happened to/with the guy who originally ordered the silver bullets that Chris ends up using.
* OneWingedAngel: The primary transformation scene is so elaborate that it ends up verging on this trope.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: The film popularized the bipedal "man-wolf" style of werewolf. Here the wolves can transform at will, without need to rely on phases of the moon. They also seem to retain their memories and consciousness after transforming, although many of them embrace their more bestial instincts anyway.
* PainfulTransformation: Eddie's transformation looks quite painful, including blood pouring from fingernails and bones cracking, although Eddie seems to enjoy it.
* RapeAsDrama: In the book Karen is actually raped. In the movie, the police sting saves her at the last minute, but the trope still plays out more or less the same in a symbolic sense (she has difficulties being intimate with husband due to suffering flashbacks to Eddie's attack and so forth).
%%* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Chris.
* ShoutOut: Nearly all the characters are named after werewolf film directors.
* SilverBullet: One of the only things capable of killing a werewolf; normal bullets are painful but don't have much of an effect in the long-term.
* TheSociopath: Eddie Quist. He's a SerialKiller mixed with a werewolf who thinks that normal people are just food or playthings.
* StalkerWithACrush: Eddie has his eye on Karen for a long time, sending her messages and following her around. His sexualised comments towards her makes it clear he's attracted to her [[spoiler:and his later reaction to her having "betrayed" his trust makes him sound like a spurned lover]].
* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:After realizing that Chris has silver bullets, Dr. Waggner intentionally goads Chris into shooting him.]]
* TemptingFate: Eddie Quist once surprises Chris and takes away his rifle, but a bit later, in order to gloat, returns the rifle and invites Chris to shoot him, because as a werewolf he's ImmuneToBullets: "Don't you know anything?" [[spoiler:What we know and Eddie doesn't, is that the rifle is loaded with silver bullets. Whoops...]]
%%* TheTitling
* TookALevelInBadass: Chris, once he figures out the werewolf deal. He stocks up on silver bullets and goes charging into the Colony without any backup to save Karen.
* 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 silver nitrate nearby and decides to use that against him, but still waits until after he's done transforming to do so. This is justified given that Karen is suffering from PTSD from the earlier attack, so she's initially too frightened to move]].
** [[spoiler:Chris pretty much waits there while Karen turns into a werewolf. When the transformation is complete, he shoots her on live television.]] Justified in that [[spoiler:they're doing this to show the world that werewolves exist.]]
* TransformationSequence: It can't be a werewolf movie without a good ol' werewolf transformation, now could it? The film has three notable ones: [[spoiler:Marsha and Bill]] are briefly shown transforming as they have sex, [[spoiler:the not-so-dead Eddie]] transforms in front of Karen in a lengthy and elaborate sequence (finally causing Karen to regain her memories) and at the end of the film [[spoiler:Karen transforms on-camera to expose the werewolves' existence]].
* TranshumanTreachery: After being bitten, [[spoiler: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]].
* UrbanFantasy: PlayedForHorror by showing it from the perspective of {{Muggles}} without any romanticism. Many of the features of urban fantasy depictions of werewolves -- internal politics within werewolf society, the effort that werewolves put into [[TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse blending in among humans]], people being KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade, a WeirdnessCensor that prevents society from noticing the monsters in their midst, a [[YouSexyBeast sexy female werewolf]] who tempts one of the male heroes, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent a set of werewolf "rules"]] (particularly their ability to transform at will) that in many depictions is used to make them more sympathetic -- are all here... but to the protagonists, those changes simply make the werewolves an even more dangerous threat. In short, it makes for a pretty good approximation of what it's like to be a human trapped in the world of ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse''.
* WeaksauceWeakness: The werewolves are weak to silver and to fire. Normal bullets don't do much serious long-term damage, but silver bullets can kill them.
* WeirdnessCensor: ApatheticCitizens see a werewolf on the evening news and react in bland, skeptical fashion.
%%* WildWilderness
[[/folder]]

* ''Film/HowlingIIStirbaWerewolfBitch''
* ''Film/HowlingIIITheMarsupials''

%%* DontGoInTheWoods

* HeroicBSOD: Karen, after being attacked by Eddie. This incites the entire film.

* IntrepidReporter: Karen put herself in danger as part of a sting to nail Eddie. Later, it's Terri who actually unravels the secret of the colony.
* KillItWithFire: Other than silver, fire is the werewolves' Achilles heel.

* TheSociopath: Eddie Quist. He's a SerialKiller mixed with a werewolf who thinks that normal people are just nothing.
* StalkerWithACrush: Eddie has his eye on Karen for a long time.

** [[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 silver nitrate 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 a werewolf movie without a good ol' werewolf transformation, now could it?

* WeaksauceWeakness: The werewolves are weak to silver and to fire.

''The Howling'' was followed by seven sequels, the most recent in 2011. A remake of the original is in early planning stages for Netflix. It's, as of this writing, planned to directed by Andy Muschietti, the director of the ''It'' duology.

** A [[DownplayedPlayed slight example]] with the heroine. In the novel, the heroine is named Karyn Beatty. Here, her name is Karen (with an "e") and her surname is White, with it being noted that she didn't take her husband's surname for career reasons.

* 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 warn other people about their existence.]]

* AntiVillain: [[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.]]

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler: Bill and Dr. Waggner.]]
* FacialHorror: Karen throws silver nitrate over [[spoiler: Eddie's]] face while he's in wolf form. The end result isn't pretty.
* 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.]]

%%* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Karen.]]

* MercyKill: [[spoiler: Chris shoots Karen with one last silver bullet after she transforms.]]

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

* TheTitling

** [[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 silver nitrate nearby and decides to use that against him, but still waits until after he's done transforming to do so.]]
** [[spoiler:Chris pretty much waits there while Karen turns into a werewolf. When the transformation is complete, he shoots her on live television.]] Justified in that [[spoiler: they're doing this to show the world that werewolves exist.]]

* TranshumanTreachery: After being bitten, [[spoiler: 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]].

* BigBad: [[spoiler: Kathyn Kidman]].

* DeerInTheHeadlights: When Eddie starts to transform in front of Karen, she's completely frozen in terror; it's justified given that she's suffering PTSD, stemming from Eddie trying to attack her in his wolf form (which she had pushed into her subconscious until now). It's also a good excuse to keep the camera on Eddie so the audience can see the elaborate transformation sequence. [[spoiler:Karen is able to snap out of it, grabbing a jar of acid to chuck on Eddie and making a run for it]].

* FacialHorror: Karen throws acid over [[spoiler: Eddie's]] face while he's in wolf form. The end result isn't pretty.

** [[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.]]

After a bizarre and near-fatal encounter with serial killer Eddie "The Mangler" Quist (Creator/RobertPicardo), television anchorwoman Karen White (Creator/DeeWallace) 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...

* StockSubtitle

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The Howling 2 was criticized for having too many comedic elements to the point where it could no longer be taken seriously as a dark werewolf horror film. Thing is, the original had numerous comedic and satirical elements but it was still first and foremost a horror film with humor so subtle you could easily miss it and even then it was still generally a serious movie, just with some clever and subtle satirical elements. Indeed, the humor in the original was not conventional humor but rather {{Self-ReferentialHumor}} that warmly referenced the werewolf genre and the associated tropes and cliches within it, and managed to be subtle enough to not take away from the iconic werewolf horror that The Howling ended up establishing. The Howling 2, however, featured openly humorous elements that weren’t even satirical homages to werewolf fiction but rather just in-your-face, low-brow humor that really dampened the horror. It’s not surprising that trying to emulate a form of humor that was incredibly subtle was not successful and it’s not surprising then that later sequels eliminated the humor completely. The fact that when the sequels reverted back to serious horror starting with Howling 4 they were 100% serious horror with no comedic elements really shows just how subtle and clever the humor in the original The Howling was.
** As the budget for the sequels got lower and lower they began to get criticized for the lack of screen time for werewolves, with the werewolves often not being fully shown but rather using shots that show the werewolf mauling someone from a distance to help mask just how presumably poor the werewolf effects were with the low budgets. In werewolf films getting to see the werewolves in all their terrifying glory is a big part of the appeal but The Howling sequels had the issue of the werewolves rarely being shown obviously due to the low budgets and not an artistic case of {{GoryDiscretionShot}} But this problem is also featured to an extent in the original. In the original The Howling the werewolves appearing is more of a slow-burn where for much of the film the werewolves are slowly teased and implied. But it was harder to criticize because the slow-burn was part of the film’s fantastic build up from Karen dealing with her trauma to {{TheClimax}} with intense action. The sequels however often had a “build up” because the budgets didn’t permit much screen times for werewolves and even then the climaxes were hardly a payoff. Summarized, the original The Howling was able to cover up the fact that it took a while for werewolves to appear by having a fantastic and suspenseful build up, by having revolutionary effects that helped establish werewolves actually having wolf-like heads in werewolf cinema, and by just being a fantastic and clever film overall. But with the sequels lacking the strong script and effects of the original, the issue of the lack of screen time for werewolves went from hard to notice, to painfully obvious

* FranchiseOriginalSin: The Howling 2 was criticized for having too many comedic elements to the point where it could no longer be taken seriously as a dark werewolf horror film. Thing is, the original had numerous comedic and satirical elements but it was still first and foremost a horror film with humor so subtle you could easily miss it and even then it was still generally a serious movie, just with some clever and subtle satirical elements. The Howling 2, however, featured openly humorous elements that weren’t even satirical homages to werewolf fiction but rather just in-your-face, low-brow humor that really dampened the horror. The fact that when the sequels reverted back to serious horror starting with Howling 4 they were 100% serious horror with no comedic elements really shows just how subtle and clever the humor in the original The Howling was.
** As the budget for the sequels got lower and lower they began to get criticized for the lack of screen time for werewolves, with the werewolves often not being fully shown but rather using shots that show the werewolf mauling someone from a distance to help mask just how presumably poor the werewolf effects were with the low budgets. In werewolf films getting to see the werewolves in all their terrifying glory is a big part of the appeal but The Howling sequels had the issue of the werewolves rarely being shown obviously due to the low budgets and not an artistic case of {{GoryDiscretionShot}} But this problem is also featured to an extent in the original. In the original The Howling the werewolves appearing is more of a slow-burn where for much of the film the werewolves are slowly teased and implied. But it was harder to criticize because the slow-burn was part of the film’s fantastic build up from Karen dealing with her trauma to {{TheClimax}} with intense action. The sequels however often had a “build up” because the budgets didn’t permit much screen times for werewolves and even then the climaxes were hardly a payoff.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Karen manages to escape the werewolf colony and kill them all before they go on a rampage. However, she decides she has to expose the existence of werewolves to the world, and then transforms on live television. She is willingly shot by Chris as a MercyKill, and the public believes it's special effects. What males this a downer rather than bittersweet? One of the colony werewolves survived, and continues on her merry way.]]

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Karen manages to escape the werewolf colony and kill them all before they go on a rampage. However, she decides she has to expose the existence of werewolves to the world, and then transforms on live television. She is shot by Chris as a MercyKill, and the public believes it's special effects. Meanwhile, one of the colony werewolves survived, and continues on her merry way.]]

* DeerInHeadlights: When Eddie starts to transform in front of Karen, she's completely frozen in terror; it's justified given that she's suffering PTSD, stemming from Eddie trying to attack her in his wolf form (which she had pushed into her subconscious until now). It's also a good excuse to keep the camera on Eddie so the audience can see the elaborate transformation sequence. [[spoiler:Karen is able to snap out of it, grabbing a jar of acid to chuck on Eddie and making a run for it]].

* BodyHorror: Transformations courtesy of Rob Bottin, the effects guy from ''Film/TheThing1982''. No wonder Karen got PTSD after witnessing Eddie turning into a werewolf.

* TheImmodestOrgasm: Ends with actual wolf howls.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Karen ''is'' a famous anchorwoman, and she ''would'' be missed.

* OhCrap: When the werewolves realize that Chris actually managed to wrangle up some silver bullets.

* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Popularized the "man-wolf" style of werewolf. Here the wolves can transform at will, without need to rely on phases of the moon.
* PainfulTransformation: Averted. Eddie seems to enjoy it.
* RapeAsDrama: In the book Karen is actually raped. In the movie, the police sting saves her at the last minute, but the trope still plays out more or less the same.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Chris.

* SilverBullet: Of course.

* TookALevelInBadass: Chris, once he figures out the werewolf deal.

* WeaksauceWeakness: To silver, and to fire.

* BigBad: Eddie Quist.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: The Colony.
* BodyHorror: Transformations courtesy of Rob Bottin, the effects guy from ''Film/TheThing1982''.

* FemmeFatale: Marsha.

* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: Karen.]]

* FamousLastWords:
** "Don't you know anything?" [[spoiler: Eddie Quist]]
** "Thank God.." [[spoiler: Dr. Waggner]]
** "Tonight... I'm going to show you something... to make you believe..." [[spoiler: Karen]]

* UrbanFantasy: PlayedForHorror by showing it from the perspective of {{Muggles}} without any romanticism. Many of the features of urban fantasy depictions of werewolves -- internal politics within werewolf society, people being KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade, a WeirdnessCensor that prevents society from noticing the monsters in their midst, a [[YouSexyBeast sexy female werewolf]] who tempts one of the male heroes, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent a set of werewolf "rules"]] (particularly their ability to transform at will) that in many depictions is used to make them more sympathetic -- are all here... but to the protagonists, those changes simply make the werewolves an even more dangerous threat. In short, it makes for a pretty good approximation of what it's like to be a human trapped in the world of ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse''.

* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:Karen manages to escape the werewolf colony and kill them all before they go on a rampage. However, she decides she has to expose the existence of werewolves to the world, and then transforms on live television. She is shot in the ensuing panic, and the public believes it's special effects. Meanwhile, one of the colony werewolves survived, and continues on her merry way.]]

* UrbanFantasy: PlayedForHorror by showing it from the perspective of {{Muggles}} without any romanticism. Many of the features of urban fantasy depictions of werewolves -- internal politics within werewolf society, people being KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade, a WeirdnessCensor that prevents society from noticing the monsters in their midst, [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent a set of werewolf "rules"]] (particularly their ability to transform at will) that in many depictions is used to make them more sympathetic -- are all here... but to the protagonists, those changes simply make the werewolves an even more dangerous threat. In short, it makes for a pretty good approximation of what it's like to be a human trapped in the world of ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse''.

* 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.]] In short, it makes for a pretty good approximation of what it's like to be a human trapped in the world of ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse''.