Howling, The

The Howling Movie Poster

The Howling, originally released in 1981, was based on a novel by Gary Bradner.  The movie did fairly well at the box office, netting nearly $18 million on a $1.5 million budget.  For the most part, the reviews of the movie were positive.  There were still those that were not that impressed by the story, like Roger Ebert, who liked the special effects.  On the other hand, Gene Siskel gave the film 4 stars, and it is ranked by some as one of the scariest movies ever produced.

In this movie, Karen White (played be Dee Wallace), is a TV news anchor on the brink of a nervous breakdown.  After a confrontation with a stalker, she becomes amnesic.  Her doctor decides to check her into a clinic called "the Colony" in order to recuperate, and her husband tags along.  Little does anybody know, the Colony is actually a clinic of resident werewolves, and they really like it when somebody new checks in.  After Karen's husband is bitten, he turns into a werewolf himself.  After most of the main characters are either killed or transformed, Karen, with the help of an accomplice, kills the werewolves with silver bullets and burns down the colony.  In the end, we find that even Karen had been bitten and at least one other werewolf made it out alive; which is why there were a number of The Howling sequels (II through VI).