Battle Blog: American Werewolf in London vs. TheHowling Pt. 2

Next is The Howling which you may not be as familiar with. I think this film has more of a cult following while AWiL is more mainstream. I’m too lazy to do any research on how much money each made, but I’m willing to bet that AWiL made more and it did have a bigger name director I think, but I don’t know. I vaguely remember commercials for AWiL, but not as many for The Howling and I would have seen them because I watched all sorts of stuff I “shouldn’t have” when I was little. (Dude, I saw The Exorcist when I was at the oldest 8.) Plus there was that whole Thriller connection that American Werewolf in London had. Okay, they weren’t so much connected except they were both directed by John Landis and used make-up artist Rick Baker, but I think a lot of people who loved “Thriller” (the long form video, not just the album or the song) decided to check out the film that Michael Jackson based his video on. I’m just guessing though.

But anyway, so yeah, The Howling. Here, a Los Angeles news reporter Karen White (played by horror icon Dee Wallace, Dee Wallace Stone at the time) agrees to meet a serial killer, Eddie Quist, who’s been terrorizing the city at a porno theater. She is being tailed by police and a news crew from her station, but they briefly lose her. At the theater, the serial killer smooth talks her from behind before his voice changes and he orders her to look at him. She freaks out when she does, but suddenly the cops burst in and shoot dude dead. They haul the shocked Karen out who claims she doesn’t remember any of what happened.

Over the course of the next few (days? weeks?), Karen experiences weird nightmares and has intimacy difficulties with her husband, Bill Neil. She tries returning to work, but freezes in front of the camera. A doctor whom she had worked with during the Quist investigation suggests she come to his retreat called the Colony to work on getting her memory back. She’s reluctant, but her husband and a couple of her co-workers, Chris and Terry, convince her to go.

At the Colony, she and Bill mingle with some of the other Colonists at a cookout/bonfire. Bill encounters Marsha who gives him the hairy eyeball while Karen is off talking with another couple. After they go to bed, Karen hears howling out in the woods. When she goes to the window to listen closer, she sees a large animal-like figure standing outside her window. When she wakes Bill to check it out, the figure is gone.

Back in L.A., Chris and Terry are doing further investigation into Eddie Quist. They visit his apartment where they find articles on the serial killings as well as drawings of werewolf-like people and a photo of a lake. They also visit the morgue where it is discovered that Eddie’s body has disappeared. Later, they head to a book store which has everything from books on the occult to silver bullets someone ordered but never picked up. They pick up a couple of books on werewolf lore.

At the Colony, Karen and Bill are hanging out separately with their fellow Colonists. Bill, who was established earlier as a vegetarian, goes off hunting with a bunch of the men. He kills a rabbit with his first shot and goes over to Marsha’s to have it cooked and cleaned. Not surprisingly, she hits on him (it was also established that she’s a “nymphomaniac”). He gives in for a minute, but then pushes her away and leaves.

While Bill is off hunting, Karen takes a stroll with another woman. They hear weird animal noises and find a mangled cow carcass before being startled by the sheriff and his deputy. The sheriff says another cow was found a ways away. He offers to take the two frightened women back to the camp.

On his way back to his and Karen’s cabin, Bill is attacked and bitten by an animal. He makes it back to the cabin and is later treated by doc. Karen wants to leave, but the doctor quickly tells her it isn’t good for Bill to travel with his wound. So Karen calls up Terry and Chris who agree to come up to ease Karen’s mind.

The next day, the two couples are having a little ocean-side picnic. Terry realizes she hasn’t brought any vegetables and apologizes to Bill, but he dismisses it as he practically gnaws at the bone of some hunk of meat. (My theory is most vegetarians really just need a good slab or two of bacon to turn them around. Kidding!)

That night, Karen wakes from a bad dream to find Bill’s half of the bed empty. Bill it seems has headed out for a midnight booty call with Marsha. The two make whoopee by a fire and change into werewolves during the act. Terry is woken up by their howls and leaps up to record the sounds.

The next day, Chris has to return to the city. Terry decides to do a bit of sightseeing (snooping). While taking pictures she notices the view from a particular shot is the same as the picture she found at Eddie’s apartment. She wanders further into the woods and finds Marsha’s cabin. Nosy Parker that she is, she goes in and starts poking around. She sees many drawings similar to those from Eddie’s apartment. She’s snapping pictures when she hears animal noises from behind a door. She runs out of the room, closing the door behind her. As the thing tries to break through that door, she leaps from the window and grabs a nearby hatchet. She goes to hide under the porch, but the beast busts through and grabs at her. She manages to wriggle away and hack half its arm off. As the arm changes back to a human hand, she freaks out and runs from under the porch to doc’s office.

Over at Karen and Bill’s, Karen wakes up late and asks Bill where he was last night. He changes his shirt as he tells her he just went for a walk. Karen notices scratches on his back and Bill blames them on the attack the previous night. Karen points out that they were not there the night before. Bill accuses her of being paranoid and Karen accuses him of being a cheat at which point Bill slaps her. He tries to apologize, but Karen shirks him off and tells him she’s going to get Terry and she is going have Chris drive them out of there.

Terry reaches doc’s place and immediately phones Chris. She tells him about the photo and the pictures she saw at the cabin. She also tells him she thinks the doctor is in on it. Chris asks her to look for Eddie’s file. Terry finds not only Eddie Quist, but also Marsha and SomeOtherDude Quist, but before she can elaborate the file is taken from her hand by a giant mangy dog standing on its hind legs. The dog smacks her across the face sending her, the phone, and the files flying while Chris calls her name over the phone line. Terry desperately tries to elude the creature, but it ultimately grabs her, lifts her up, and takes a bite out of her neck, killing her.

Chris rushes to her aid. He goes to the book shop and buys the silver bullets and heads up to the Colony. Meanwhile, Karen and her bags storm into doc’s office to call Chris. She finds the place in shambles and when she pulls back the sheet on a nearby gurney, she finds Terry’s body. Karen then goes to make a phone call, but is startled by a noise or something. She backs into the gurney and up jumps Eddie. He makes threat-noises to Karen about how she betrayed him and then starts to transform in front of her. Karen stands there gawking at him till he’s practically totally wolfy and about to pounce, then she throws acid in his face and hauls it out of there.

She runs out to a car and tries to start it before a couple of Colonists grab her and take her over to a big barn. The rest of the Colonists are there and they have Terry’s body splayed out on some kind of altar and it appears they’ve been feeding off her. The doc walks in and Karen runs to him for help, but he gently pushes her away letting her know he’s one of THEM. The Colonists and the doc get into an argument about disposing of Karen. Seems the doc has been trying to teach the Colonists how to fit into society and feed off cattle. Marsha and a few of the others want to go back to being separate and hunting humans for food. Doc tries to make them see it his way, but Marsha claws his face and tells him Karen is theirs for the feeding. Someone else points out that Karen’s high-profile would draw attention to the Colony. So they decide to cover up her and Terry’s deaths with a staged auto accident.

During this time, Chris reaches the Colony. He goes over to doc’s office where he finds the mess. He hears howling and backs up to the door where burn-face Eddie punches through the glass and grabs Chris’ shotgun. Eddie plays a tape of Terry’s death and taunts Chris for coming to “save” Terry. He then gives him back the shotgun and challenges him to take his best shot. He then begins to transform again, but Chris shoots him in the throat and Eddie is surprised to actually be dying from this. Chris then books it out of there over to the barn.

He arrives just in time to confront the other Colonists before they kill Karen. He orders them to let her go and warns them about his silver bullets. The doc advances on him and he shoots and kills him. Next, SomeOtherDude Quist (who is now one handed thanks to Terry) starts at him, but he gets shot and dies much to the surprise of the others. One guy decides to shoot Chris, but Chris gets off his shot first. He forces the others to retreat into the barn where he and Karen lock them in. They (well, HE, since Karen is just a useless ball of tears) pour gasoline around the whole building and set it ablaze. Werewolves howl and whine and die.

They head off down the road out of there, but see that the sheriff has blocked the road up ahead. Karen is at first relieved to see him, but then the sheriff raises his gun and begins firing on their car. Chris manages to shoot him and hustle Karen over to the police car. They hop in but are quickly surrounded by other werewolves. Chris has trouble starting the car at first and one werewolf manages to punch through the back window and bite Karen before she is able to shoot him. When she turns to see the creature, she discovers that it was Bill. She tells Chris they have to warn people and make them believe what they experienced. The werewolves stand in the road and bay at the moon.

Some time later, Karen back at work. Because of her earlier breakdown everyone is fawning over her, but Karen assures them she’s fine. Chris doesn’t want her to go through with it, but she firmly tells them they have to. The news starts and Karen is introduced as doing a special segment about the Quist investigation. She freaks her coworkers out when she starts reciting stuff about the animal in all of us and making everyone believe that isn’t on the teleprompter. They try to cut her off, but Chris orders them to leave it. Karen starts to tremble and shake, then she lets out a loud scream and we see she is beginning to change. We see different people reacting to the broadcast before Chris shoots her and they cut to a commercial. At a local bar a couple of guys debate whether what they saw was real. Another guy comes in and orders a pepper steak for himself and a burger for his ladyfriend who happens to be…Marsha. The End.