Some might find a little treasure here; but one's treasure is the majority's trash, in this case...
Added 10/20/2009
Friends, what can I say?
The original "Howling" is in my opinion one of the best horror movies out there, and is at the top of the list of werewolf movies, challenged only by "An American Werewolf In London" for my choice of best. I know sequels are seldom as good as their source material, and thus I didn't really expect much from this one...
Hoo-boy, did I underestimate.
Take terrible acting (the only exception being the fantastic Christopher Lee, and seeing him in this movie was like watching Ali fight Holmes that last time...and even his skills could not add much to this schlok-fest), bad effects shots (that were re-used and re-used and re-used), "werewolves" that looked like rejects from "Where the Wild Things Are", a script that was obviously written on the fly, and a soundtrack song that was obviously the pride of the producers for the amount that you heard it, and you get....THIS.
I've said before I like bad horror films, and I DO...and I'm certain that this movie will appeal to many...but for this to have "Howling" in the title AND feature an icon like Christopher Lee, I gotta admit, I expected a heck of a lot more from it. To me, the film seemed to start off seriously, but as it went on, it seemed that they almost intentionally fell into self-parody, culminating in the closing credits being a montage that would make "Porky's" blush (I'm of course referring to the footage of Miss Danning revealing her rather copious assets over and over and over and over again).
If you want kitschy cheese in your horror flick, then maybe this one's a good, inexpensive choice for you...but if you're looking for something even close to the original, don't walk, RUN from this one.
I give it two stars ONLY because of the presence of Christoper Lee.
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Terrible sequel to a great film.
Added 3/7/2009
"The Howling" was a seminal film. It inspired a generation of filmmakers and redefined the werewolf genre (well, with a little help from "An American Werewolf in London" but that's a different story).
So, it's so sad that "Howling II...Your Sister is a Werewolf" is just another cheesy horror film that the original successfully fought so hard to stand above.
The story, what little there is, centers around Stefan Cosscoe (Christopher Lee) who is hell-bent to stop Stirba, the queen of werewolves. He informs Ben that his sister, Karen White from the previous film, was indeed a werewolf and must kill her (again, I guess) with some metal rod before a clan of wolves can take her body and...I sort of lost interest there. Anyway, before he can kill her as she rithes in her coffin, said werewolves show up, a small fight ensues and suddenly Crosscoe is leaving for Transylvania with Ben and Jenny, who was a co-worker with Karen. It's never clear if Crosscoe is successful in dispatching Karen or not
Off to the 'Dark Country' as Crosscoe calls it where hilarity ensues. None of the story makes a lick of sense, like just what is Stirba's ultimate goal. World domination? Endless orgies? We'll never know. Oh, and don't get too excited by the term 'Queen of Werewolves'. If you're expecting a cool werewolf at the end, like the rest of this trash, you'll be sorely disappointed. Aside from a few scenes where Sybil Danning is hairy, she never changes. The queen of werewolves never once becomes...A WEREWOLF! She just struts around in some God-awful leather outfit and sends bat-things to do her killing.
Probably what's saddest most about this atrocity is that out of all the sequels this one's one of the more enjoyable ones just because of how bad it was. Director Philippe Mora has said that studio tempering is why "Howling II" turned out so bad and that was the reason he made "Howling III." If no one interfered with "Howling III" I'd say the studio was doing him a favor on two.
Oh and by the way, I've read that they repeat Sybil's disrobing scene during the end credits a total of 17 times.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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The Worst Movie Ever. No Joke.
Added 10/30/2008
Apparently, there was something much worse than Hard Rock Zombies, which thanks to this, is now #3 on my worst movies list (It used to be #1 btw. Howling 4 is still the second worse. Read my review on that for more details.) And like I said in my Howling 4 review, just because that was awful didn't mean I would be put off from finishing off the series, but now that I've stumbled upon this abomination, I'm becoming more reluctant. Remember back in the 80s when VHS covers where awesome and imaginative? Yeah. Howling II had a very awesome cover for when it was first released on home video in the 1980s, and to be truthful, for 8 years, I had been wanting to see this movie, especially since the movie's theme song got stuck in my head. Then in 2005, it finally came out on DVD, uncut (The original VHS was cut, from what I understand.) Unfortunately, I was treated to a really crappy cover which slightly mocked the cover of the original and 3 years later, as a well as a very crappy movie. Now that I got that off my mind, let's move onto the movie.
The movie revolves around Ben Brown (The brother of Karen from the first Howling. In this one, there's no Dee Wallace Stone, but some extra playing Karen) who's approached by a werewolf hunter, Stefan Crosscoe (Played by the great Christopher Lee, who must have needed the $$$$$), who claims that Karen has in fact, become a werewolf. So then, Ben, Jenny (His Girlfriend, who has the have the 2nd worst acting in this) and Stefan go to Transylvania, where Striba, The Werewolf Queen (Played by Sybil Danning. Okay, I like Sybil Danning, but her acting was horrible in this. The acting she did in those old Adventure Video Segments in the 80s were better than this, and in those, she intentionally acted poorly) resides. And I will also say that I defintely agree with HorrorMan. There were some extremly sick moments in the film, like, obviously, the werewolf sex scenes, the worst of them being this one scene with Sybil in the middle between these 2 other werewolves, apparently trying to kiss each other, yechh. And not only is it sick, it's also pretty ridiculous as well. And a very stupid part in the movie was the midget with the exploding eyes. The movie is also pretty boring, as the film's main song plays over and over and over.
Overall, the film is just simply abominable. I also agree with HorrorMan on the factor that it's hard to believe that people could get away with calling this a horror movie, or god forbid, a comedy, as it ain't scary, and it's certainly not funny either. Other people seem to see this as a so-bad-it's-good-film, and that's perfectly fine. I'm pretty much the kind of guy to enjoy a so-bad-it's-good-film, but in the case of Howling II, this movie is so abominable, not even MST3K or RiffTrax would make this movie any better. The biggest WTF moment in this movie had to be the ending. And the worse part, like I previously stated in the Comments Section for HorrorMan's review of this "movie", I paid only $3 for this at BigLots...and that's all it's worth. Avoid this movie like the plague, and like Howling IV, I wish I could give this a zero, but it's not a valid rating on either Amazon or IMDB, so a 1 will have to do. It'll probably go to Half Price Books soon.
Feel free to comment, and Happy Halloween.
3 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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THE WORST!
Added 9/29/2008
This is without the slightest doubt one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It has absolutely nothing to redeem it. Howling 2 makes even Howling 4 look good by comparison. Christopher Lee, who has spent much time complaining about some of the Hammer Dracula films he has appeared in, should hide in shame for agreeing to be in this sorry excuse for a movie. Special mention should be made of the music as it is incredibly awful particularly the song played endlessly by the punk band throughout. One star is too good for this movie.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Boring II: Your DVD player deserves better!
Added 9/13/2008
HOWLING II is nothing more than your typical 80s video store rental faux horror flick. It doesn't try to be scary. IT doesn't really try to do much of anything well at all. Christopher Lee, for whatever reason inspired him, does his best with an absolutely ridiculous script. The "werewolves" look more like borrowed costumes from PLANET OF THE APES. No, actually that is being too generous. Want gore? You got it a la the Kmart Halloween costume aisle variety. Want scary music? You will find it here with the terrible punk band which insists on playing their sets throughout this mess. Want a wicked female villain? Well you got that too (sorta) a la the cheap Sybil Danning variety. Want a dust collector in you DVD collection? Just buy this DVD.
3 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Some might find a little treasure here; but one's treasure is the majority's trash, in this case...
Added 10/20/2009
Friends, what can I say?
The original "Howling" is in my opinion one of the best horror movies out there, and is at the top of the list of werewolf movies, challenged only by "An American Werewolf In London" for my choice of best. I know sequels are seldom as good as their source material, and thus I didn't really expect much from this one...
Hoo-boy, did I underestimate.
Take terrible acting (the only exception being the fantastic Christopher Lee, and seeing him in this movie was like watching Ali fight Holmes that last time...and even his skills could not add much to this schlok-fest), bad effects shots (that were re-used and re-used and re-used), "werewolves" that looked like rejects from "Where the Wild Things Are", a script that was obviously written on the fly, and a soundtrack song that was obviously the pride of the producers for the amount that you heard it, and you get....THIS.
I've said before I like bad horror films, and I DO...and I'm certain that this movie will appeal to many...but for this to have "Howling" in the title AND feature an icon like Christopher Lee, I gotta admit, I expected a heck of a lot more from it. To me, the film seemed to start off seriously, but as it went on, it seemed that they almost intentionally fell into self-parody, culminating in the closing credits being a montage that would make "Porky's" blush (I'm of course referring to the footage of Miss Danning revealing her rather copious assets over and over and over and over again).
If you want kitschy cheese in your horror flick, then maybe this one's a good, inexpensive choice for you...but if you're looking for something even close to the original, don't walk, RUN from this one.
I give it two stars ONLY because of the presence of Christoper Lee.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Terrible sequel to a great film.
Added 3/7/2009
"The Howling" was a seminal film. It inspired a generation of filmmakers and redefined the werewolf genre (well, with a little help from "An American Werewolf in London" but that's a different story).
So, it's so sad that "Howling II...Your Sister is a Werewolf" is just another cheesy horror film that the original successfully fought so hard to stand above.
The story, what little there is, centers around Stefan Cosscoe (Christopher Lee) who is hell-bent to stop Stirba, the queen of werewolves. He informs Ben that his sister, Karen White from the previous film, was indeed a werewolf and must kill her (again, I guess) with some metal rod before a clan of wolves can take her body and...I sort of lost interest there. Anyway, before he can kill her as she rithes in her coffin, said werewolves show up, a small fight ensues and suddenly Crosscoe is leaving for Transylvania with Ben and Jenny, who was a co-worker with Karen. It's never clear if Crosscoe is successful in dispatching Karen or not
Off to the 'Dark Country' as Crosscoe calls it where hilarity ensues. None of the story makes a lick of sense, like just what is Stirba's ultimate goal. World domination? Endless orgies? We'll never know. Oh, and don't get too excited by the term 'Queen of Werewolves'. If you're expecting a cool werewolf at the end, like the rest of this trash, you'll be sorely disappointed. Aside from a few scenes where Sybil Danning is hairy, she never changes. The queen of werewolves never once becomes...A WEREWOLF! She just struts around in some God-awful leather outfit and sends bat-things to do her killing.
Probably what's saddest most about this atrocity is that out of all the sequels this one's one of the more enjoyable ones just because of how bad it was. Director Philippe Mora has said that studio tempering is why "Howling II" turned out so bad and that was the reason he made "Howling III." If no one interfered with "Howling III" I'd say the studio was doing him a favor on two.
Oh and by the way, I've read that they repeat Sybil's disrobing scene during the end credits a total of 17 times.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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The Worst Movie Ever. No Joke.
Added 10/30/2008
Apparently, there was something much worse than Hard Rock Zombies, which thanks to this, is now #3 on my worst movies list (It used to be #1 btw. Howling 4 is still the second worse. Read my review on that for more details.) And like I said in my Howling 4 review, just because that was awful didn't mean I would be put off from finishing off the series, but now that I've stumbled upon this abomination, I'm becoming more reluctant. Remember back in the 80s when VHS covers where awesome and imaginative? Yeah. Howling II had a very awesome cover for when it was first released on home video in the 1980s, and to be truthful, for 8 years, I had been wanting to see this movie, especially since the movie's theme song got stuck in my head. Then in 2005, it finally came out on DVD, uncut (The original VHS was cut, from what I understand.) Unfortunately, I was treated to a really crappy cover which slightly mocked the cover of the original and 3 years later, as a well as a very crappy movie. Now that I got that off my mind, let's move onto the movie.
The movie revolves around Ben Brown (The brother of Karen from the first Howling. In this one, there's no Dee Wallace Stone, but some extra playing Karen) who's approached by a werewolf hunter, Stefan Crosscoe (Played by the great Christopher Lee, who must have needed the $$$$$), who claims that Karen has in fact, become a werewolf. So then, Ben, Jenny (His Girlfriend, who has the have the 2nd worst acting in this) and Stefan go to Transylvania, where Striba, The Werewolf Queen (Played by Sybil Danning. Okay, I like Sybil Danning, but her acting was horrible in this. The acting she did in those old Adventure Video Segments in the 80s were better than this, and in those, she intentionally acted poorly) resides. And I will also say that I defintely agree with HorrorMan. There were some extremly sick moments in the film, like, obviously, the werewolf sex scenes, the worst of them being this one scene with Sybil in the middle between these 2 other werewolves, apparently trying to kiss each other, yechh. And not only is it sick, it's also pretty ridiculous as well. And a very stupid part in the movie was the midget with the exploding eyes. The movie is also pretty boring, as the film's main song plays over and over and over.
Overall, the film is just simply abominable. I also agree with HorrorMan on the factor that it's hard to believe that people could get away with calling this a horror movie, or god forbid, a comedy, as it ain't scary, and it's certainly not funny either. Other people seem to see this as a so-bad-it's-good-film, and that's perfectly fine. I'm pretty much the kind of guy to enjoy a so-bad-it's-good-film, but in the case of Howling II, this movie is so abominable, not even MST3K or RiffTrax would make this movie any better. The biggest WTF moment in this movie had to be the ending. And the worse part, like I previously stated in the Comments Section for HorrorMan's review of this "movie", I paid only $3 for this at BigLots...and that's all it's worth. Avoid this movie like the plague, and like Howling IV, I wish I could give this a zero, but it's not a valid rating on either Amazon or IMDB, so a 1 will have to do. It'll probably go to Half Price Books soon.
Feel free to comment, and Happy Halloween.
3 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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