Howling III

Last updated

Howling III: The Marsupials
Howling III, The.jpg
Elite Entertainment DVD cover
Directed by Philippe Mora
Written by
  • Philippe Mora
Based on The Howling III: Echoes
by Gary Brandner
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyLouis Irving
Edited by Lee Smith
Music by Allan Zavod
Distributed by CBS/Fox Video
Release date
  • 13 November 1987 (1987-11-13)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryAustralia [1]
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million [2] or $1 million [3]

Howling III (also known as Howling III: The Marsupials and The Marsupials: The Howling III) is a 1987 Australian comedy-horror film and the sequel to The Howling , directed by Philippe Mora and filmed on location in and around Sydney, Australia. [4] Starring Barry Otto, Imogen Annesley and Max Fairchild, Howling III is the only PG-13 rated entry in the Howling film series and also the last film in the series to be released theatrically. In this sequel, werewolves have evolved, with females having marsupial-like pouches to nurse their young. Scientists attempt to study them, while soldiers try to track and kill them in the Australian Outback.

Contents

Although Gary Brandner, author of the Howling novel series, approved the director's purchase of the rights to the name The Howling and the screen credits claim that it is based on Brandner's novel The Howling III: Echoes , the novel is set in the United States and has a different story than the film, with only slight similarities in terms of plot and a sympathetic view of werewolves. This aspect would be revisited in Howling VI: The Freaks .

Plot

Harry Beckmeyer, an Australian anthropologist, obtains film footage from 1905 that shows Australian Aborigine ceremonially sacrificing a wolf-like creature. Alarmed by the reports of a werewolf killing a man in Siberia, Beckmeyer tries to warn the U.S. president about widespread werewolf attacks, but the president is dismissive. Jerboa, a young Australian werewolf, flees her sexually abusive stepfather, Thylo. After spending the night on a park bench near the Sydney Opera House, she is spotted by a young American, Donny Martin, who offers her a role in a horror film, Shape Shifters Part 8. Jack Citron, the film's director, praises her natural talent and hires her immediately.

After Jerboa and Donny attend a film that depicts a werewolf transforming, she insists the scene is inaccurate and admits she is a werewolf to an unbelieving Donny. After they have sex, Donny notices that Jerboa's lower abdomen is covered in downy white fur and a large scar. At the wrap party for the film, Jerboa is exposed to a strobe light and starts transforming. She flees the party and is hit by a car. At the hospital, doctors find she has a marsupial-like pouch and striped fur on her back like a thylacine, an extinct carnivorous marsupial. They also discover that Jerboa is pregnant and question Donny about her unusual anatomy.

Beckmeyer's father disappears in the Outback shortly after recording a film of tribal villagers killing a werewolf. Three of Jerboa's sisters track her to Sydney and take her back to the pack's hidden werewolf town, Flow (wolf spelled backward). Beckmeyer and his colleague Professor Sharp spend the evening watching a visiting ballet troupe practice. They witness the prima ballerina, the Russian Olga Gorki, transform into a werewolf—to the horror of her troupe. After being captured and taken to a laboratory, she quickly escapes. She goes to Flow, where the pack wants her to be Thylo's mate.

Jerboa gives birth to a baby werewolf, which crawls into her pouch. Donny informs Beckmeyer that his girlfriend is from Flow, and they are trying to find her. Jerboa smells Donny nearby and meets him at night. She shows him their baby boy and tells him about the impending danger; they flee to the hills. The following day, a government task force captures the werewolf pack. Beckmeyer convinces Olga to allow scientists to study her and Thylo. After Thylo is tortured with strobe lights to make him transform, Beckmeyer frees him and Olga. The trio escapes into the Outback and finds Kendi, Donny, Jerboa, and the baby.

Kendi summons the spirit of a phantom wolf, which massacres hunters pursuing the group. Kendi dies afterward, and the pack burns off his flesh, but the smoke alerts soldiers still in pursuit of the pack. Kendi's skeleton attacks the soldiers before being destroyed by a soldier's machine gun. Thylo summons the spirit at night and transforms into a giant wolf. He attacks the remaining soldiers before being killed by a bazooka blast that destroys the rest of the encampment. Olga and Beckmeyer fall in love and hide with Jerboa and Donny at an idyllic riverside camp. Eventually, Jerboa and Donny leave, assuming new identities; the Beckmeyers remain behind to raise their daughter and newborn son. Sharp locates Harry and informs him that all lycanthropes have been given amnesty due to the crimes committed against them. The Beckmeyers move back to the city.

While teaching a class in Los Angeles, Beckmeyer is approached by a young man who introduces himself as Zack, Jerboa and Donny's son. Zack informs Beckmeyer that his parents are living in Los Angeles under new identities: Jerboa is now the famous actress "Loretta Carson" and Donny is the famous director "Sully Spellingberg". That night, Olga and Beckmeyer watched Jerboa win the Best Actor award on a television show hosted by Dame Edna Everage. As Jerboa accepts the award, the flashing cameras and stage lights cause her to change into a werewolf. Olga also transforms, to her husband's dismay. Jerboa goes on the attack as her sisters howl in glee; Sharp laughs deviously in his living room as the camera zooms in on a framed photo of a thylacine that Sharp has hanging up.

Cast

Production

Howling III is considered a standalone film in the Howling series. Though Philippe Mora directed Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf , Howling III features no references or characters from the previous two films. The werewolves in Howling III are also portrayed more sympathetically.[ citation needed ]

Mora had been unhappy with Howling II's story and how the producers added extra footage, such as additional shots of breasts, after he left. [5]

Mora wanted to make a third film himself to make amends and raised the money himself with co-producer Charles Waterstreet. [6] Once Mora pitched his take to Howling rights holder Steven Lane, Lane agreed to assign the rights to an Australian company at Mora's suggestion. [5] Mora got the idea for Howling III from the Tasmanian tiger and reframed the story as one that sides with the werewolves to subvert conventions of the sub-genre. [5]

Home media

The film was released directly to VHS in Australia by CBS/Fox Video.

Elite Entertainment first released the film on DVD in 2001. The out-of-print DVD contained a widescreen print of the film, trailers, and an audio commentary by the director. In 2007, Timeless Media Group released a pan and scan DVD and Blu-ray of the film with no bonus material.[ citation needed ]

Scream Factory released Howling III on Blu-ray in North America on 15 January 2019, with extra features, both new and vintage.[ citation needed ]

Critical reception

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote: "If you only see one werewolf movie this year, you might as well make it Howling III, Philippe Mora's not-altogether straight-faced howler on behalf of lycanthropes' liberation". [7] Variety noted that the film "will have a career on video, but should also please the buffs in theaters ... Mora knows his horror films, and has great fun sending them up". [8] Leonard Klady of the Los Angeles Times called it "a campy recycling of familiar fangoria that is fitfully entertaining". [9] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune awarded 1 star out of 4 and wrote that the film "seems destined to languish in dusty obscurity on the higher shelves of less discriminating video stores. Director Philippe Mora, who also filmed the dismal Howling II, here gives up any attempt to create a serious horror film, allowing the project to slither quietly into the swamp of self-conscious camp". [10] Richard Harrington of The Washington Post wrote: "Howling III is much better than the shoddy II but nowhere near as sharp as the Joe Dante original ... Mora's got some intriguing strands to weave together, but the film has no internal rhythm (though it has incessant and usually inadequate music pulsing under every scene). The changeovers are surprisingly mild in this age of great special-effects expectations. Perhaps it's because the director seems unsure how he really feels about werewolves". [11]

The film holds a 23% approval rating with an average rating of 3.9/10 on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Werewolf</span> Mythological human with acquired ability to transform into a wolflike creature

In folklore, a werewolf, or occasionally lycanthrope, is an individual who can shape-shift into a wolf, or especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse or affliction, often a bite or the occasional scratch from another werewolf, with the transformations occurring on the night of a full moon. Early sources for belief in this ability or affliction, called lycanthropy, are Petronius (27–66) and Gervase of Tilbury (1150–1228).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Werewolf fiction</span> Fantasy genre

Werewolf fiction denotes the portrayal of werewolves and other shapeshifting therianthropes, in the media of literature, drama, film, games and music. Werewolf literature includes folklore, legend, saga, fairy tales, Gothic and horror fiction, fantasy fiction and poetry. Such stories may be supernatural, symbolic or allegorical. A classic cinematic example of the theme is The Wolf Man (1941) which in later films joins with the Frankenstein Monster and Count Dracula as one of the three famous icons of modern day horror. However, werewolf fiction is an exceptionally diverse genre, with ancient folkloric roots and manifold modern re-interpretations.

<i>Dog Soldiers</i> (film) 2002 film directed by Neil Marshall

Dog Soldiers is a 2002 British action horror film written, directed and edited by Neil Marshall in his feature directorial debut. Starring Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Emma Cleasby and Liam Cunningham, the film follows a squad of soldiers fighting to survive an attack by a pack of werewolves during a military training exercise in the Scottish Highlands.

<i>The Howling</i> (film) 1981 American horror film by Joe Dante

The Howling is a 1981 American horror film directed and edited by Joe Dante. Written by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless, based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, the film follows a news anchor who, following a traumatic encounter with a serial killer, visits a resort secretly inhabited by werewolves. The cast includes Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski, Kevin McCarthy, John Carradine, Slim Pickens, and Elisabeth Brooks.

<i>Werewolf</i> (TV series) 1987 American TV series or program

Werewolf is an American horror series, and one of the original shows in the Fox network's broadcast line-up during its inaugural season of 1987–1988.

<i>Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf</i> 1985 American horror film by Philippe Mora

Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf is a 1985 American horror film directed by Philippe Mora and direct sequel to the 1981 film The Howling. The film stars horror film veteran Christopher Lee along with Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe as they try to defeat Sybil Danning's werewolf queen Stirba and stop a werewolf group's plans to conquer the world. Although Gary Brandner, author of The Howling novels, co-wrote the screenplay, the Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf is largely unrelated to his 1979 novel The Howling II.

<i>Howling IV: The Original Nightmare</i> 1988 British horror film

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is a 1988 British direct-to-video horror film directed by John Hough from a screenplay by Freddie Rowe and Clive Turner. Starring Romy Windsor, Michael T. Weiss, Antony Hamilton, Susanne Severeid and Lamya Derval, The Original Nightmare is the fourth entry in the series of seven standalone films with loose continuity and is not so much a sequel but rather a more faithful adaptation of Gary Brandner's source novel The Howling (1977).

<i>Howling VI: The Freaks</i> 1991 British horror film

Howling VI: The Freaks is a 1991 British direct-to-video horror film directed by Hope Perello, from a screenplay by Kevin Rock, starring Brendan Hughes, Bruce Payne, Michele Matheson, Sean Gregory Sullivan,, and Carol Lynley. The Freaks is the sixth entry in the series of eight standalone films with a loose continuity.

<i>Howling: New Moon Rising</i> 1995 British film

Howling: New Moon Rising is a 1995 British direct-to-video comedy horror film, directed, produced, and written by Clive Turner, the seventh film in The Howling film series. The film reuses footage from the previous three sequels in the Howling series, and features characters from each film. The plot has a detective in the film uncover several clues that connect events of the latter part of the series. It was followed by The Howling: Reborn in 2011.

Burnum Burnum was an Aboriginal Australian sportsman, activist, actor, and author. He was a Woiworrung and Yorta Yorta man, born at Wallaga Lake in southern New South Wales. He was originally christened Harry Penrith but in 1976, he changed his name to Burnum Burnum after his grandfather both to honour him and acknowledge his Aboriginal identity.

<i>Werewolf of London</i> 1935 film by Stuart Walker

Werewolf of London is a 1935 horror film directed by Stuart Walker and starring Henry Hull as the titular werewolf. The supporting cast includes Warner Oland, Valerie Hobson, Lester Matthews, and Spring Byington. Jack Pierce, who is best known for creating the iconic makeup worn by Boris Karloff in the 1931 film Frankenstein, created the film's werewolf makeup. Produced by Universal Pictures, Werewolf of London was the first feature-length werewolf film.

<i>Skinwalkers</i> (2007 film) 2006 film by James Isaac

Skinwalkers is a 2006 action horror film. It was released in the United States by Lions Gate Entertainment and After Dark Films, and focuses on werewolves. Directed by James Isaac, it stars Jason Behr, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, and Tom Jackson. The film was originally announced for theatrical release on December 1, 2006, but was delayed until August 10, 2007.

<i>The Howling</i> Novel by Gary Brandner

The Howling is a 1977 horror novel by Gary Brandner, first published by Fawcett as a paperback original. It was the inspiration for the film The Howling (1981), although the plot of the film was only vaguely similar to that of the book.

Kitty Norville is the main character of a series of novels by Carrie Vaughn. She is a werewolf who hosts a popular syndicated radio phone-in show based in Denver called "The Midnight Hour". The program focuses on supernatural issues, beings and creatures she encounters.

<i>The Howling II</i> (novel) Novel by Gary Brandner

The Howling II is a 1979 horror novel by Gary Brandner. It is the first of two sequels to his 1977 werewolf novel, The Howling. The novel was later republished under the alternative titles The Howling II: The Return and Return of the Howling.

<i>The Howling III: Echoes</i> Novel by Gary Brandner

The Howling III: Echoes is a 1985 horror novel by the American author Gary Brandner. It is the third and final entry in his Howling series of novels. Like its predecessor, The Howling II, the book has not been adapted for the screen and bears virtually no similarity to the Howling III film or any of the other films in The Howling series. Minor elements of the novel were used in the film Howling VI: The Freaks, though this idea was actually first seen in the 1975 British horror film Legend of the Werewolf.

<i>The Howling: Reborn</i> 2011 film

The Howling: Reborn is a 2011 teen horror film directed by Joe Nimziki and starring Lindsey Shaw, Landon Liboiron and Ivana Miličević. It is the eighth film and a reboot of The Howling film series. The film was released on DVD on October 18, 2011.

<i>The Howling</i> (franchise) American media franchise

The Howling is an American werewolf-themed horror media franchise that includes three novels and eight films. The series began with the 1977 horror novel The Howling by Gary Brandner, which was in 1981 adapted into the film of the same name, directed by Joe Dante.

<i>Howl</i> (2015 film) 2015 British film

Howl is a 2015 British horror film directed by Paul Hyett and starring Ed Speleers, Sean Pertwee, Holly Weston, Shauna Macdonald, Elliot Cowan, Rosie Day, Calvin Dean, Duncan Preston and Ross Mullan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ginger Fitzgerald</span> Fictional character

Ginger Fitzgerald is a fictional character and the anti-villain of the Ginger Snaps trilogy. She is the sister of Brigitte Fitzgerald. Ginger was portrayed by Katharine Isabelle while her werewolf form is performed by Nick Nolan.

References

  1. ↑ "The Marsupials: The Howling III (1987)". British Film Institute . Archived from the original on 24 October 2016. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
  2. ↑ "Australian Productions Top $175 million", Cinema Papers, March 1986 p64
  3. ↑ Philippe Mora, 'Werewolves du jour: Philippe Mora on the making and selling of Australian myth', ACMI, June 2008 Archived 28 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 28 September 2012
  4. ↑ Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995, Oxford Uni Press 1996, p. 106
  5. 1 2 3 Jones, Alan; Goldman, Lowell (March 1988). "Howling III". Cinefantastique. Fourth Castle Micromedia. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  6. ↑ Nick Roddick, "Mora way of life," Cinema Papers, January 1987 p9
  7. ↑ Canby, Vincent (13 November 1987). "Film: Australian 'Howling'". The New York Times . C5.
  8. ↑ "Film Reviews: The Marsupials: The Howling III". Variety . 20 May 1987. 103.
  9. ↑ Klady, Leonard (13 November 1987). "'Howling III'—Mindless Marsupial Madness". Los Angeles Times . Part VI, p. 12.
  10. ↑ Kehr, Dave (18 December 1987). "Self-conscious Howling III reduced from horror to hoot". Chicago Tribune . 7T.
  11. ↑ Harrington, Richard (5 December 1987). "'Howling,' Reaching Pretty Fur". The Washington Post . D6.
  12. ↑ HOWLING III: THE MARSUPIALS (1987) Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2 April 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.