Exploring 'The Howling' Franchise Backwards: The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf and Howling IV: The Original Nightmare

 I am behind on these recaps, forgive me, it's been a very rough few days.

This last Sunday, I watched two more films in The Howling franchise, the sequel, and the fourth film in the franchise. Like the third film, the fourth has nothing to do with the first film. The second one is a direct sequel of the first one. You actually don't need to see the original film to enjoy the second. 

Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985)

Brief content warning: there is an attempted (but thwarted assault).

Howling II starts up where the first film left off: the funeral of  late journalist Karen White, who had transformed into a werewolf on live television at the end of the first film. Her brother Ben and her former colleague from the news station, Jenny Templeton, attend the funeral. After the service, they are stopped by a mysterious man (Stefan Crosscoe) played by Christopher Lee. Stefan, Jenny, and Ben must travel to Transylvania to stop an ancient Werewolf Queen.

The film is...not great, but it's not bad, either. It has the same crap creature designs the whole rest of the franchise has. The writing is okay. It has some really great performances, and some really great music. I was way into the werewolf goth club gang, especially their exceptionally attractive leader, Mariana. I would have loved to see more of Mariana. There is some retconning  from the first movie, apparently. There is some really unnecessary... steamy elements that is found in all of the films in this franchise. All in all, I would give this one a C- if I had to put a grade on it. It's also hard to be scared when the creature designs are so fugly.

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988)

TW/ CW: gaslighting, emotional abuse, graphic pet death.

This was the first film in the franchise to actually scare me! It's directed by John Hough, who did The Legend of Hell House, the Witch Mountain movies, The Watcher in the Woods (which scared the bejeezus out of me as a kid), so that's probably why. There is a lot of psychological build up and a decent mystery.

Mystery author Marie Adams is being plagued by horrifying visions, and her husband, at the recommendation of her doctor, takes her to go stay in the woods outside of Los Angeles for a while. The townsfolk are kind, but unnerving.  Marie hears howling in the woods every night, which her husband ignores. A former nun named Janice, who is a huge fan of Marie's novels, shows up one day and she and Marie embark on a Jessica Fletcher-esque quest for the truth. 

I was legitimately spooked with this one. As someone who lives in the woods, it was pretty unnerving! I don't scare very easily, but it did give me a couple of good scares! It's the best written of all of the films in this ugly and weird franchise thus far, and the wolves were actually scary!!! The theme song, "Something Evil, Something Dangerous,"  rocks. I have to say, the best part of this whole film franchise has been the music, aside from a few knock out performances. This was the first film I had seen in the whole 4 films of the franchise I've seen thus far to actually impress me on some level, I'd give it a B- to a C+, if I had to actually grade it.