Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf review.
After covering Joe Dante’s The Howling for last cycle’s Full Moon Feature…we couldn’t resist jumping on its batshit crazy sequel. It’s crap. But it’s entertaining crap.
Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.
Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf
Directed by Philippe Mora
Screenplay by Robert Sarno and Gary Brander
Starring Christopher Lee, Annie McEnroe, Reb Brown, Marsha Hunt and Sybil Danning
Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf Review
Joe Dante’s 1981 werewolf classic The Howling inspired seven future installments (so far). After watching Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf I can confidently say that “inspired” is the wrong word. The only franchise entry to serve as a direct sequel to Dante’s original, Howling II is pretty bad. Not content with simply being a bad movie…it also takes special care to crap on the vastly superior original film. Whereas Dante’s work holds up as an interesting and timeless werewolf story…Your Sister is a Werewolf is an unintentionally hilarious piece of pure 80s dreck.
We pick up the story at Karen’s funeral. Fans of the first film will recall that Karen was shot by silver bullets after transforming into her wolf form. She did this so that the world would know that her story about werewolves was true. Dante shows us viewers dismissing the revelation as a trick. Howling II takes it a step further in making the live broadcast a thing of myth. An event that apparently no one remembers and that failed to make any impact whatsoever. Her own brother Ben (our new, boring lead) doesn’t believe any of this until he sees a copy of the broadcast. I get that this is done to catch viewers up…but it’s the first of many stupid choices made by Howling II.
Ben (Reb Brown) is joined by reporter/love interest Jenny (Annie McEnroe), a person who he has no chemistry with. They are supposed to represent the audience…I guess. The investigative characters who seek to learn the truth about Karen and the curse of the werewolves. The problem is, unlike Ben and Jenny, we’ve seen the first movie and don’t require an entire act devoted to discovering that Ben’s sister is, in fact, a werewolf. Hell…they even put it in the title.
The inclusion of another reporter is kind of funny. For as much as Howling II appears to have no respect for the original film…it can’t get away from it. Not only does it continue Karen’s story…it just gets a different reporter to replace her. Ben and Jenny become true believers when Karen rises as a werewolf again. I can’t accurately explain how stupid this is. Not only does it undo the ending of the first movie…it does it for unnecessary reasons. If her brother had just read the title of the movie, we could have skipped all this nonsense. Apparently, silver isn’t enough for Howling II. You need titanium. It was at this point I became angry with Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf.
Luckily, we have Christopher Lee around to guide us through this foolishness. Stefan (Lee) is the character who explains all the rules of the world to us. He’s a wolf hunter who wants to track down and kill the leader of the werewolves, Stirba (Sybil Danning). Stefan must defeat Stirba before the next full moon. If not…all werewolves will be revealed. Or…something. Christopher Lee is great, but he’s given too much garbage here for even him to elevate. The group heads out to find and destroy Stirba in the only place a movie this dumb could possibly take us. Transylvania.
We’re pretty deep into this cycle’s Full Moon Feature to have not yet talked about the actual wolf aspect of Howling II. That’s not an oversight. These are some terrible wolves. The first movie gave us a few excellent transformation scenes and some great wolf action. Howling II shows us a lot of werewolves getting shot. A. Lot. Your Sister is a Werewolf’s only idea to end a scene is to shoot a werewolf. It’s only idea for action scenes is to shoot many werewolves. We rarely get to see someone transform into said werewolf…they just pop onto screen and get shot. The effects we do get are underwhelming at their best. The peak of wolf action in Howling II is a fully transformed werewolf hilariously popping up in the backseat of a car. This is a dumb, dumb movie.
There are two redeeming qualities here. The first is that Christopher Lee brings a fully formed Van Helsing character with him. He leads a team of wolf hunters who have lost loved ones to the curse. That sounds way cooler in theory than it plays out in execution. Jenny’s role is reduced to a damsel in distress. Ben fails to rise above a piece of plywood. Lee carries interest in the hero side of the story as far as he can. Which…isn’t far…but that’s not on him.
The second thing is Danning’s complete understanding that she is in a campy, foolish movie. While it may be short on wolf action…Danning eats anyway. She mostly overseas orgies…but she does it in the way that makes bad 80s movies good. Or…so bad they’re good, anyway. Howling II does its own take on the transformation during sex scene from Dante’s movie. Like everything else…it’s a pale comparison that largely seem to misunderstand why it worked in the first place.
Stefan and Stirba face off in the climax. At least it didn’t come down to Ben trying to do something useful. That’s a small victory. Lee and Danning are in two completely different movies for most of Howling II…so their inevitable face off is, at least, interesting. In the end they both die…consumed by the fire of stupidity. Their souls hopefully ascending out of a movie they were far too good for.
I guess it’s obvious this Full Moon Feature is a bust. I’d almost recommend watching it just to see how bad it is. There are enough unintentional laughs to get you through. I’m not sure who this movie is for. If you loved The Howling…this direct sequel isn’t for you. It hates The Howling. If you like werewolf movies…Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf hates you. If you love bad 80s movies…well…I might have good news for you.
Scare Value
Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf is a bad movie. There’s no way to sugarcoat that. For extra fun, it takes special care to crap all over the vastly superior original. The werewolf rules are all over the place in this one and it can’t see fit to deliver a transformation worth a damn. Misses the mark as a werewolf movie and as a… movie…movie. But it’s weird enough to almost recommend anyway. Christopher Lee and Sybil Danning are in two completely different movies…and spend this one heading towards an underwhelming showdown. But you can’t look away.
2/5
Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf Links
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Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf Trailer
If you enjoyed this review of Howling II, check out other Full Moon Features: Wolf Hollow, Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman and The Curse of the Werewolf
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