Genre: Horror/Thriller Director: Joe Dante (Gremlins, Explorers, Innerspace). Starring: Dee Wallace-Stone as Karen White, Patrick Macnee as Dr. George Waggner and Robert Picardo as Eddie Quist.
The synopsis goes something like this ... After a close encounter with the serial killer Eddie Quist (Picardo), Wallace's big city television news reporter, Karen White, is sent by her psychiatrist Dr. Waggner (Macnee) to his secluded rehabilitation centre in the country called The Colony. Karen soon discovers though she and husband Bill (Christopher Stone) have been set up, with the good doctor planning to make the pair the latest additions to his werewolf pack - or its dinner. While Bill gets suckered in, seduced by one of the 'residents', nymphomaniac Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks), Karen fights tooth and nail to escape.
Something to sink your teeth into ...
Rick Baker was originally tapped to oversee the special effects for the film, but backed out to work on An American Werewolf in London (1981), leaving his assistant Rob Bottin to take over - and produce some mighty fine work for the time. The Howling is based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, though The Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988) is a more faithful adaptation. Many characters in The Howling are named after werewolf film directors such as George Waggner (The Wolf Man), Terence Fisher (The Curse of the Werewolf), Charles Barton (Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein), and Jacinto Molina (La Marca del Hombre Lobo) among others.