Howling III (1987)

User Rating:

2.4/10   

Director:

Philippe Mora

Writers:

Gary Brandner (novel)
Philippe Mora (writer)

Release Date:

13 November 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror

Tagline:

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Down Under

Plot:

A strange race of human-like marsupials appear suddenly in Australia, and a sociologist who studies these creatures falls in love with a female one...

Plot Keywords:

Sociologist | Australia | Skull | Third Part | Skeleton

Cast

Barry Otto	...	Prof. Harry Beckmeyer
William Yang	...	Siberian Peasant
Imogen Annesley	...	Jerboa
Deby Wightman	...	Wolf Woman
Leigh Biolos	...	Donny Martin
Christopher Pate	...	Agent #1
Max Fairchild	...	Thylo
Jerome Patillo	...	Agent #2
Dagmar Bláhová	...	Olga Gorki (as Dasha Blahova)
Ralph Cotterill	...	Prof. Sharp
Michael Pate	...	President
Carole Skinner	...	Yara
Frank Thring	...	Jack Citron
Jenny Vuletic	...	Goolah
Glenda Linscott	...	Bahloo

Also Known As:

Howling III: The Marsupials
The Marsupials: The Howling III (UK)

Runtime:

USA:94 min | Finland:98 min (DVD) | Argentina:94 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Argentina:16 | Denmark:15 | Sweden:18 | Norway:18 | Finland:K-16 (cut) (1988) | Finland:K-18 (uncut) (2004) | Singapore:M18 | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | Norway:18 (video premiere) | UK:18 | USA:PG-13 | West Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Company:

Bancannia Holdings Pty. Ltd.

Trivia:

The only Howling sequel as of 2008 with no character seen in any other Howling entry (Stirba, Werewolf Bitch served as a direct sequel to the first film, with Karen White reviving in her tomb; while 5,6,7 all have Elisabeth She as Mary Lou and other common characters). An oblique reference to the previous two entries occurs when Barry Otto's character asks the Russian woman if other groups of werewolves live elsewhere; she says "Africa....China....maybe California". This may reference the varied groups of werewolves who attended to Stirba in Howling II, and Howling I and II took place in California.

Goofs:

Continuity: In this movie werewolves apparently die when they are shot. However, silver bullets are needed in the previous Howling movies.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Agent #1: Hey, have a look at this. Another K.G.B. intercept meaning "wolfman."
Agent #2: It has to be a code for *something.*
Agent #1: Doubt it is. Unless they know we're intercepting. "Werewolf was sighted near village of Leovich. Three villagers killed. Special army team are tracking monster." Well. Do we tell the powers that be?
Agent #2: Werewolves loose in the Soviet Union. I'm not telling them! Call Beckmeyer in Los Angeles and get his opinion. He's damn good on unexplained phenomenon. He knows how to deal with the White House and this weird shit.
Agent #1: Weird shit! I've got a weird feeling...
Agent #2: Indigestion?
Agent #1: No. Fear.

Movie Connections:

References The Birds (1963)

Is this the most catastrophically awful movie ever made?

The original Howling was a fun little Werewolf flick. Nothing too serious, just a simple but original premise, some well-handled tension, cool makeup effects and a nice healthy dose of gore and violence to round things off. Compared to its most immediate rival, An American Werewolf in London though it comes up second place, so why in the name of heaven it spawned so many follow ups is something of a mystery. The series is up to its seventh entry thus far and if the diminishing laws of sequels is anything to go on, they must be unspeakably terrible because Howling 3 (the only one I've been bored/curious/stupid enough to sit through) is so bad I'd have to say it's one of the worst films I've ever seen.

The principle reason for this is the premise, as director Philippe Mora decides to do away with the original's everyday people versus rampaging monsters approach and instead, provides us with what must be the only Marsupial Werewolf Romance Epic in movie history. The script is massively overambitious, the acting so bad the cast might as well have been made of cardboard and any promise of bloodthirsty violence a la the original goes forever unsatisfied. You might get a few laughs out of it, but ultimately it's just a very poor film.

The overambitious storyline considers an anthropologist, Dr Beckmeyer (Inspector Clouseau lookalike Barry Otto) and his studies of a race of marsupial werewolf people discovered in Australia. Mixed up in all this is a Russian ballet dancer who is secretly a non-marsupial werewolf herself come to breed with the Australians, a B-movie actress from the countryside who is also a werewolf and an idiot movie talent spotter who's fallen in love with her. So blindly in love with her in fact that he doesn't bat an eyelid when he first notices how hairy she is. Dr Beckmeyer is determined to prove that the werewolves are not to be frightened of and that studying them is the best approach, the Government is not so certain and wants to destroy them and eventually, after a painfully long set up, he joins up with the lycanthropes in an attempt to lead them to safety in the outback.

You might think a film with 'Marsupial Werewolves' in might be entertaining. It isn't. The delivery is slow and tedious, with characters and subplots being introduced with no concern for cohesion and what should have been a campy, violent and fun film instead is dull, pretentious twaddle. Indeed, the only attraction to come from this is Imogen Annesley, a very attractive young woman whose career has failed to take off since the high point of stripping naked in a barn, giving birth to a rodent thing and having it crawl up her belly and into a kangaroo pouch on her abdomen. She might be gorgeous in a "I wish you weren't a hideous mutant freak monster" kind of way but she's more or less the only noteworthy thing deserving praise in the entire sorry enterprise. Oh and Dame Edna pops up at the end.

So there you have it, a werewolf movie with a humanitarian message. Great, that's just what we needed. If you're a film student looking for a lesson in how not to make a movie you might just be capable of scraping some little residue of a hint out of this, but if not, I'd advise avoiding this movie like the bubonic plague.