Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!
Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon
Below!
Title: The
Howling: Special Edition
Region: One
Genre:
Horror
Stars: Dee
Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin
McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, and Elisabeth Brooks
Writers:
John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless
Based On The
Novel By: Gary Brandner
Director:
Joe Dante
Feature
length: 91 minutes
Extras:
“Unleashing The Beast: Making “The Howling” Multi-Part Documentary,
Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, “Making A Monster Movie: Inside “The Howling”
Featurette, Audio Commentary With Director Joe Dante, Dee Wallace, Christopher
Stone, and Robert Picardo, Photo Gallery, Original Theatrical Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Monaural Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French and Spanish Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 32
Sound: Dolby
Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Monaural Sound
Year of
Theatrical Release: 1981/DVD Release: 2003
Theatrical
Distributor: Avco Embassy Pictures
Home Video
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment
MPAA Rating:
R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
A serial
killer is loose in Los Angels. TV newscaster Karen White (Dee Wallace)
encounters him in an arranged interview within an adult bookstore. The
experience leaves her emotionally ill. Her husband takes her to a retreat where
she attends therapy sessions under “Colony” guru Patrick Macnee. Soon after
she discovers a strange connection between her attacker and the haven she is
staying in. With her tormenting nightmares becoming more vivid as she is haunted
by the numerous howling noises she hears just outside her window at night she
discovers she might have been better off back in LA after all.
Joe
Dante’s “The Howling” along with John Landis’ “An American Werewolf In
London” broke new ground in makeup effects showing through various techniques
the image of a human being actually transforming into a giant werewolf. Not just
a guy with some fangs and a mask, but a realistic giant wolf that can stand
upright like a man. A graduate of Roger Corman’s learn as you go low budget
filmmaking school, Joe Dante would later move on to direct various pictures for
Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment like “Gremlins” and “Inner
Space.” Actress Dee Wallace went on to appear in Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.:
The Extra-Terrestrial.” There are a number of genre cameo appearances in the
film as well that include Corman character actor Dick Miller, “Thing From
Another World” alumni Kenneth Tobey, Co-Screenwriter and acclaimed Director
John Sayles, Forrest J. Ackerman, Editor of “Famous Monster Of Film Land”,
the legendary Roger Corman, and Actor Robert Picardo who plays the shape
shifting serial killer in “The Howling” and went on to play the character of
the holographic Doctor in “Star Trek: Voyager.” There were a few sequels
made by other filmmakers, but none ever were as effective as the original film.
It has been
about two years since MGM released a bare bones DVD edition of “The
Howling,” but now the film is finally getting the “Special Edition”
treatment it deserves with a mix of new exclusive DVD features as well as the
commentary track from the Image Entertainment laserdisc, making this new MGM DVD
release the definitive home video version commercially available at this time.
The film is presented in an anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) aspect ratio and the
transfer is very good with minimal grain and solid blacks. A full screen
(1.33:1) version is also encoded onto the dual layered side of this DVD-14. A
new English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack has been created for this DVD
release and while not quite as discrete as one might hope, the soundtrack is far
from flat. The English Two-Channel
Monaural Soundtrack is also included along with English Captions and Closed
Captions for the hearing impaired and French and Spanish Language Subtitles.
The feature length audio commentary with Director Joe Dante and Dee
Wallace, the late Chris Stone, and Robert Picardo is retrospective in nature
with the participants being both screen specific and sharing their appreciation
for the film as well as a few laughs too. Watching “The Howling” twenty
years later does lend the film a certain nostalgic quality not unlike watching
the old Universal or Hammer horror classics. The phrase “They just don’t
make them like they used to” certainly applies here. Highlight the smiley face
on the “Special Features” menu next to the commentary choice and viewers
will get a bonus interview with character actor “Dick Miller” (3:30)
discussing how he began his career as an actor. Mr. Miller has appeared in 150
films and counting.
On the
single layered side of the DVD are the balance of the special features that
include the five part documentary “Unleashing The Beast: Making The Howling”
(54:07), which can be viewed individually or as one reel. Automat Pictures
produced the documentary and they have done a great job with getting
new-videotaped interviews with Director Joe Dante, Co-Screenwriter John Sayles,
and Actors Dee Wallace-Stone and Robert Picardo among others. The documentary is
made up of “A Brief History Of Werewolves” (10:15), which covers the
development of the screenplay, “A Company Of Werewolves” (16:04), which
covers the casting; “How To Make A Werewolf Picture” (12:20) focuses on the
production of “The Howling,” “I Was A Latex Werewolf” (12:20) discusses
the then state of the art makeup effects developed for the film, and “Requiem
For A Werewolf” (9:37), which covers the ad campaign, the film’s success,
and the many sequels. The 1981 videotaped featurette “Making A Monster Movie:
The Howling” (8:02), has been kept in surprisingly great condition in terms of
picture and sound quality and features interviews with Joe Dante, Patrick Macnee,
and makeup effects guru Rob Bottin, who looks like a wolf man with the long
hair, beard, and hairy as a rug chest hair sticking out from his open collar
button-down shirt. Mr. Bottin was only 21 when he did the effects for “The
Howling.”
There is a
reel of deleted scenes (9:31), outtakes (5:19), and two photo galleries made up
of publicity and production shots. The theatrical trailer (2:16) and teaser
(1:32) wrap up the extra features directly related to the film and there are
bonus DVD trailers for MGM’s “The Fog: Special Edition” (: 53), “Carrie:
Special Edition” (1:33), and “Jeepers Creepers: Special Edition” (: 58) as
well as an “MGM Means Great Movies” promo (1:14). The menus are well
rendered and easy to navigate. There is an insert with liner notes and trivia
within the DVD keep case and the keep case comes within a cardboard sleeve.
As a
whole I think this is a terrific DVD and well worth the upgrade for those who
bought the movie-only DVD when “The Howling: Special Edition” debuts on DVD-Video
with a suggested retail price of $19.98 at retailers on and offline on Tuesday,
August 26, 2003 from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Home Entertainment.
© Copyright
2003 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
Buy This DVD Now By Clicking On The Icon Below!