The first and only time I've seen this movie is when I was ten or eleven years old. I had taped some of the other "Howling" sequels off of HBO, and liked them, and also really loved the original Joe Dante movie. So I made the major mistake of thinking this was some sort of significant entry in the series. I think my cousin and I rented this along with one or two other "Howling" movies from the now-long-defunct What's Up? What's New? video store outside Philadelphia.
My most vivid memory doesn't even involve watching the movie. On the way home from the video store, my mom stopped at a traffic light. As we sat there, these two hot blonde 1980s-looking girls pulled up next to us in a convertible. It was just like the Christie Brinkley scene from "Vacation," and probably just as stupid. Since I was a kid, they were playing around by waving hi to me and smiling flirtatiously. Now, I don't know what to do when women initiate contact with me. Generally I start shaking and feeling nauseous, and I was just as clueless twenty years ago as I am today. But thankfully I didn't convulse or vomit. Instead, I did the first thing that came to mind. I held up my newly rented copy of "Howling II" and smiled mischievously. Hopefully they were impressed with my taste in movies.
But they shouldn't be. God, the movie was terrible. I couldn't believe we rented this crap. I remember liking the punk music at the beginning, and then pretty much not caring about most of what happened next. The boobs were nice, but I couldn't shake the feeling that watching the movie caused some form of irreversible brain damage. All I can recall is a bunch of random scenes, and Chrisopher Lee shows up for some reason, and there is a werewolf orgy, and Ilsa She-Wolf of the Castle is the villain or whatever. I remember being disappointed that the movie had little to nothing to do with the other "Howling" films, and thinking the whole thing was pretty awful. (Which is really saying something, considering some of the other "Howling" sequels). One thing I will say, is this movie is the reason something like the USA Network existed in the 80s. This is the exact kind of trash they were meant to show. So in that sense, I remember it fondly.
Anyway, this movie was pretty much the "Piranha 3DD" of its time. They would make a good DDouble bill.
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