Howling II: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch (1985)

Director:

Philippe Mora

Writers:

Gary Brandner (novel)
Robert Sarno (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

January 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Twice the terror! Twice the torment!

Plot:

A young girl whose sister was murdered by werewolves helps an investigator track down a gang of the beasts through the U.S. and Europe.

Plot Keywords:

Werewolf | Transylvania | Queen | Stabbed In The Chest | Severed Hand

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Christopher Lee	...	Stefan Crosscoe
Annie McEnroe	...	Jenny Templeton
Reb Brown	...	Ben White
Marsha A. Hunt	...	Mariana
Sybil Danning	...	Stirba
Judd Omen	...	Vlad
Ferdy Mayne	...	Erle (as Ferdinand Mayne)
Patrick Field	...	Deacon
Jimmy Nail	...	Dom
Steven Bronowski	...	Moon Devil
James Crawford	...	American Priest (as James M. Crawford)
Jirí Krytinár	...	Vasile (as Jiri Krytinar)
Ladislav Krecmer	...	Father Florin
Jan Kraus	...	Tondo
Petr Skarke	...	Konstantin

Also Known As:

Howling II (Philippines: English title)
Howling II: ... Your Sister Is a Werewolf (USA)
Howling II: It's Not Over Yet (USA) (poster title)
The Howling II: Bark at the Moon (USA) (working title)
The Howling II: She-Wolf (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1986) | Singapore:PG (cut) | Australia:R | France:-12 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | Sweden:(Banned) | UK:18 | USA:R (certificate #27714) | West Germany:18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Company:

Hemdale Film

Trivia:

When Christopher Lee was cast in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), one of the first things he did was apologize to director Joe Dante (who directed The Howling (1981)) for being in this film.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Stefan Crosscoe: For it is written: the inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with her blood. And I saw her sent upon a hairy beast and she held forth a golden chalice full of the filthiness of fornications. And upon her forehead was written: "Behold I am the great mother of harlots and all abominations of the Earth."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Grindhouse (2007)

A thought-provoking, cinematic tour-de-force...

..."Howling II" is not. It is, however, a comically bad and therefore highly enjoyable film.

The plot (if you can call it that) goes something like this: Some Flock of Seagulls-looking bloke loses his sister to a werewolf attack (yet another peril of living in Los Angeles). He and this reporter chick meet up with a werewolf hunter (a deadpan Christopher Lee) at the dead girl's funeral. For reasons unclear, the trio voyage to Transylvania, where they do battle with the queen of the undead, Stirba (the frequently nude Sybil Danning). From there on, things get confusing.

There's some sort of arts fair going on in Transylvania, which I thought was vampire country but apparently has a burgeoning lycanthrope population. The Flock of Seagulls dude nails the reporter chick with his pants still on. Three partially transformed (read: hairy) werewolves enjoy a spirited, if somewhat testy, menage a trois. A dwarf's eye explodes. Much fun is had by all.

"Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf" (its alternate title, "Stirba the Werewolf Bitch" had me laughing for days) is, indeed, a terrible movie. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, and after watching it on cable the other night I can't believe how bad it was. But I'm giving it a high rating and a sincere recommendation because they just don't make horror flicks like this anymore.

The werewolf transformations are just awful. The filmmakers were definitely going for "An American Werewolf in London" (which won an Oscar for its special effects), but, ahem, "fell prey" to their own kitschiness, which permeates the entire film. There are some incredibly cheesy transitions between scenes; swipes, swirls, and spirals abound. And the script? I've seen more substance on a roll of Charmin. But it's great; how often do you get to hear lines such as, "That dwarf is staring at us"?

Compared to today's era of Macintosh-generated "special effects" (which look incredibly dated now, and will look even worse in ten years), a film like "Howling II" is a gem, a last hurrah of the last great era of horror films. You'll never see pools of blood or cheesy puppets or laughable laser rays done like this again. Get some beer, pop it in, and laugh yourself stupid. By the film's conclusion (in which Sybil Danning rips her clothes off seventeen times, all in time with a Cramps-sounding 80s band called Babel), you'll be glad you did.



"By the pale, pale light/pale, pale light of the moonglow..."