Howling Redux in the Works?

By Jon Condit
July 12th, 2006

I really don’t know how I feel about this story. On the one hand, I grew up watching The Howling; it was one of two primary films that got me into horror in general and werewolf films in particular (guess the other…). On the other, it’s definitely a flawed movie that could benefit from a fresh perspective on it.

Howling director Joe Dante was recently interviewed by iFMagazine about his Masters of Horror episode, "Homecoming" (DVD review), during which he made mention that it’s starting to look like someone’s interested in redoing his seminal werewolf movie: "They are definitely going to do it, because people keep calling me asking about who owns the rights to it." He also mentions the oft-rumored redux of another of his classics, Piranha, with a wonder as to why anyone would bother.

My only fears with a Howling remake would be A) a CGI transformation (the original featured a fantastic transformation courtesy of Thing effects man Rob Bottin) and B) it would inspire yet another string of horrible sequels like the original.

I guess it’s all conjecture at this point anyway, so we’ll wait and see. Dante did an episode for Season 2 of Masters as well, a story called "Screwfly Solution" about a plague that makes violent people behave strangely.

- Johnny Butane