HOWLING III (1987)

 

(a.k.a. HOWLING III: THE MARSUPIALS. Director/screenwriter: Phillipe Mora, his script barely based on Gary Brandner’s 1985 book The Howling III.)

Storyline

A young lycanthropic runaway’s bad luck turns when she’s cast in a horror film. Unfortunately, members of her werewolf clan have followed her to the big city to return her to their fold.

 

Review

CAVEAT: possible mini-spoilers in this review.

Billed as a lyncathropic terror flick, HOWLING III is a quirky dramedy punctuated with horror elements. In it, a young woman, Jerboa (Imogen Annesley, QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, 2002) flees her backwater town (Flow) and her abusive stepparent, Thylo (Max Fairchild, THE ROAD WARRIOR, 1981) for a big city, where she─seen on the street by a sharp-eyed film crew member (Donny Martin)─is cast in a werewolf film (SHAPESHIFTERS PART 8).

Meanwhile, an American scientist, Professor Harry Beckmeyer (Barry Otto), working for his government, has flown to Australia (where HOWLING III takes place) to prove that werewolves exist, and stop furry-beast attacks across the globe. Beckmeyer’s not the only one seeking Jerboa─a trio of funny, shapeshifting nuns also track her. It’s not long before Jerboa, pregnant and close to giving birth, and Donny (Lee Biolos, billed as Leigh Biolos) find themselves in Flow, along with Beckmeyer and his associates, who study the town’s denizens in a laboratory. Local hunters and American and Australian soldiers show up as well.

One of the things I like about HOWLING III is how it delves into its distinctive, Oz-centric history, mixed biology, and mythology. I also like how it embraces its amiable, humane and sometimes goofy tone (even if the nun-based storyline fizzles out into an underexplained dead-end, and its ending, echoing that of the first HOWLING film, undercuts the largely positive and solid vibe of what came before it. Though effectively foreshadowed, this finish is character/situation inconsistent.

Unfortunately, HOWLING III sometimes comes off as unintentionally funny (e.g., the scenes where Dagmar Bláhová, playing Olga Gorki, appears to be overacting when her werewolf tendencies come to the fore─ Bláhová is solid when she’s not given ridiculous reaction scenes, so more’s the pity). Speaking of ridiculous scenes, fans of Larry Blamire’s THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (2001) may enjoy a certain scene involving bones and dumb hunters. It does not help that many of the FX (e.g., the nuns’ wolfed-out scenes) feel like a silly Claymation, something more suitable for an early Peter Jackson film. Another potential minus for many viewers is its lack of suspense, though I don’t see it as a demerit, considering that the movie is not a horror flick. That said, it’s too bad that this subgenre-hybrid film got marketed as a terror work, making it almost certain to disappoint horror fans, who are often catholic in their narrowly defined expectations.

Horror and western fans may recognize some of HOWLING III’s players. Michael Pate (CURSE OF THE UNDEAD, 1959) played the American “President.” Frank Thring (MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME, 1985) played Jack Citron, a movie director. Ralph Cotterill (THE PROPOSITION, 2005) played Professor Sharp. Barry Humphries (SHOCK TREATMENT, 1981) played one of his iconic characters, Dame Edna Everage, as an “Academy Award Presenter.”

I wouldn’t recommend HOWLING III unless you’re looking for an ambitious, experimental werewolf dramedy with a few glaring flaws and a seriously low budget.