Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf

Though it was released the same year as An American Werewolf in London, The Howling's legacy has not held up as nicely as John Landis's film. Easily the inferior werewolf flick, the fact that The Howling managed to produce six sequels has severely tarnished whatever rep Joe Dante's film had back in 1981. Howling II is however a much better movie than the seventh instalment, Howling: New Moon Rising, but that's not saying much. The ability to somehow attract legendary horror icon Christopher Lee to star in the film boggles the mind because this is a truly bad movie. The story picks up after the first, when anchorwoman Karen White turned into a werewolf on live television (a well-executed and memorable horror moment) and was then executed. Her brother Ben is approached by Stefan (Lee), who tells him that his sister was in fact a werewolf and that in order for the madness to stop they must travel to Transylvania of all places (hey, isn't that for vampires?) to destroy Stirba (Sybil Danning), the immortal queen of werewolves. Where the film really goes wrong — besides the abhorrent script, the shoddy overacting, etc. — is in its unwarranted special effects, which bring a supernatural element that is completely preposterous and diverts attention away from the fact that this is supposed to be about wolves having sex and attacking humans. When director Mora tries his hand at gore, like in an eye-popping, head-bursting scene or the bloody attack on the priest by the dragon-bat thing, his result is more comedic than stomach turning, which in the context of this film is a failure. However, the most idiotic moment comes at the end, during the credits, where for some reason Mora insisted on looping the scene where Stirba rips her clothes off. Yes, she has a nice body, but come on — this isn't Meatballs! (Sony/MGM)