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Howling II
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Shout! Factory Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (7th August 2015). |
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The Film
 You almost have to admire producers who run a franchise so far into the ground it exits out somewhere in Asia and goes halfway to the Moon. A show of hands – how many of you are familiar with the mostly-ignored-for-a-reason “Witchcraft” (1988)? Now, how many of you know there are thirteen (!) films in the series? - the most recent of which hit in 2008. I’ll admit to being almost masochistic enough to one day sit through horror’s answer to “Days of Our Lives” (1965-present) but who has been renting these frequently enough to justify additional entries? I digress. The focus in this review is the series spawned from Joe Dante’s “The Howling” (1980). There are now eight films in the franchise and it wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see a studio remake in the not-too-distant future. Dante’s film was fairly successful; praised for Rob Bottin’s FX work, among other things. The franchise put out a new film on average every 1.86 years from 1980 to 1995, then it took a sixteen-year break until “The Howling: Reborn” (2011). “The Howling” is an above average werewolf film (damning with faint praise, I know) that holds up reasonably well, but it’s amazing the name holds enough marquee value to keep green-lighting sequels. “The Howling II: …Your Sister is a Werewolf” (1984) is the only film in the series to be a direct sequel to “The Howling”. Ben White (Reb Brown), the brother of Karen White (played by Dee Wallace Stone in the first film, not here), attends his sister’s funeral after she was killed live on-air when transforming into a werewolf. Except this film ret-cons that part and Karen’s death was actually unseen by the public. At her funeral, Ben meets Jenny (Annie McEnroe), one of Karen’s co-workers who also wants to know what happened to her. Also there is Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee), an occult investigator who tells Ben & Jenny that Karen was only a piece of a larger werewolf culture. There is a werewolf leader, Stirba (Sybil Danning), who lives in Europe and has parties that admittedly look like a really good time. Crosscoe plans to kill her for… some reason. The trio heads over to Transylvania to try their luck at knocking off Stirba and ending her reign as werewolf queen. There are bad movies; there are movies so bad they’re “good”; and then there’s “Howling II”. There isn’t a single frame of this film that isn’t inept in some way, and that includes any scene featuring Christopher Lee, who admitted he only took his role because he hadn’t yet done a werewolf movie. If there’s a shred of gravitas in this picture, it’s hanging between Lee’s legs. The plot makes so little sense it’s like they were writing it as the cameras rolled and yelling new scenes to the actors. The film also manages to screw with werewolf lore, conflating it with vampire rules. At one point Lee’s character wants to stake Karen’s body. Also, silver isn’t effective this time around (not for every werewolf, at least); killing Stirba requires titanium, a metal that wasn’t discovered until 1791. Pre-18th century werewolf hunters must’ve had it rough. And then there’s the neon lightning Stirba shoots from her hands because… black magic? Making sense of anything here is a fool’s errand. At least we’ve got FX from the legendary Steve Johnson, right?! Surely he will save the day! Think again. In Johnson’s interview on the disc, he admits to having little time to complete the effects and not enough money to do them even decently, resulting in the “Planet of the Apes” (1967) style masks seen on screen. Drugstore Halloween masks aside, even the effects used for death scenes are weak and lacking the finesse you’d expect from a sequel to “The Howling”. Those FX made the first film; here, they almost break it. There is one really nice make-up, done on an old werewolf who is killed early on. Otherwise, it’s bleak. Anyone here a big fan of Babel? You know, that hot New Wave act that went exactly nowhere? You’re bound to be in love with their track “The Howling” by the end of the film because it gets repeated so many times you won’t have a choice. It isn’t exactly a terrible song, but hearing it once met my lifetime quota. Here, it’s played in full at least twice, maybe more. It’s stuck in my head right now. This film is a big fan of repetition, and not just with songs. Be sure to stick around for the end credits. “The Howling” is played again, only this time it’s set to scenes from the film, including a shot of Danning forcefully ripping her top off to reveal a magnificent pair of breasts. And this shot is repeated at least 17 times. Go ahead, count along. Rewind and count again if you have to. It’s hard to imagine the end credits of a film being more enticing than the film itself, yet here we are.
Video
“Howling II” makes its Blu-ray debut here, with a 1.85:1 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded picture that is generally pleasing. Colors are nicely saturated and there is a reasonable amount of detail present in the image; close-ups look fairly impressive even. Film grain is moderate and doesn’t appear to have been lessened in any way. Contrast is stable in well-lit shots and not so stable when lighting is poorer. Black levels are a bit more gray-ish than true black.
Audio
Hopefully you’re a fan of New Wave music because the English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track pumps it out aplenty. That’s about as boisterous as things get here, in a film which is mostly populated with dialogue and requisite howls at the moon. It’s clean and free from hissing (unless intentional) and popping. Optional subtitles are included in English.
Extras
Never a company to leave fans wanting for more, Scream Factory has loaded this Blu-ray with tons of features – audio commentaries, featurettes, interviews, alternate scenes, a theatrical trailer and more. The first audio commentary is with director Philippe Mora, who delivers a track dense with information that might be better than the film itself. Second up is another audio commentary with composer Steve Parsons and editor Charles Bornstein are interviewed separately by bonus features producer Michael Felsher. Parsons comments fill the first half of the film, while Bornstein graces the second. These are not scene specific, with each participant answering general questions about their duties by Felsher while the film plays. “Leading Man – An Interview with Actor Reb Brown” featurette (1080p) runs for 13 minutes and 51 seconds. Brown seems like the kind of guy you could throw back more than a few with at the bar and he’d regale you with all sorts of tall tales. He does not, however, seem like the kind of guy you’d cast to lead your film. “Queen of the Werewolves – An Interview with Sybil Danning” featurette (1080p) runs for 17 minutes and 3 seconds. Can you believe this woman is in her sixties? Danning looks fantastic. It also sounds like she had fun working on this film. “A Monkey Phase – Interviews with Special Make-Up Effects Artists Steve Johnson and Scott Wheeler” featurette (1080p) runs for 15 minutes and 29 seconds. Wheeler was the green one on this film, so everything was still new and exciting to him. Johnson, on the other hand, had already done some major work and his recollections here are sharp and hilariously candid. An alternate opening (1080p) runs for 10 minutes and 34 seconds. By my account, all I see different here is the title card. An alternate ending (1080p) runs for 9 minutes and 35 seconds. There’s not much different here, either. “Behind the Scenes” featurette (1080p) runs for 3 minutes and 52 seconds, featuring some on-set camcorder footage of a werewolf eating a victim. The theatrical trailer (1080i) runs for 1 minute and 2 seconds. A still gallery (1080p) runs for 8 minutes and 17 seconds.
Packaging
The single disc comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keep case. The cover art is reversible, allowing fans to show off the “Stirba – Werewolf B*tch” art. Nice touch.
Overall
Aside from Danning’s repeated topless shot in the closing credits, I can’t think of a single reason to recommend this to anyone. This is bad, even for a werewolf film.
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