Marsupials: The Howling III

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I think one of the hardest horror films to make is a satire. Every horror filmmaker, particularly those on the indie circuit, seems to have tried their hand at a horror comedy, but the satire is a bit more difficult. A satire on something quite popular within horror—whether it be vampires, werewolves, or the undead—oftentimes has to be balanced between a poking fun at its subject in an ingenious or clever way and giving what the horror fans crave (that being horror). 

When Philip Mora’s Howling III opens, I was afraid he would once again tread the same pratfalls that damaged his previous installment in the Howling franchise. A wide-smiling tribe seems well pleased with the werewolf they have captured. It appears as if this is a ruse as those in front of the camera seem to be guided by the person behind the camera; yet, this is considered plausible evidence of a werewolf by what the film considers a certifiable scientist. When he talks with others about this, they consider his scientific excitement rather misguided. Then there’s this Siberian sequence where someone in Russia who so happens to fall prey to a werewolf. This looks like a scene made by Ed Wood, but it is considered, again, as credible evidence of a werewolf attack. Both these early scenes carry an amateurishness that concerned me. The film, though, to me gathers itself and kind of improves. There are some hokey effects on occasion. A Russian ballerina turns into a werewolf as she is rehearsing with other dancers and at the end of the transition it’s obvious a costume wolf head. There are some “bubble effects” (early transformation has little air bubbles enlarging on faces before the hair and claws come out, some of the nose protruding is a bit lo-fi, and the little marsupial human baby hybrid as it first emerges from the heroine’s vagina is hokey) and a pregnancy that produces a baby werewolf human that just kind of weirded me out.

I do like the early “film within a film” subplot where a young man working as an assistant to a Hitchcock-inspired director shooting a horror film that meets the wildling who fled her tribe of werewolves from the little nothing town of “Flow” after she arrives in Sydney (the film takes place almost entirely in Australia). It has a jolly old time mimicking Hitchcock, the horror industry itself, sex between two types of species (who fall in love despite the unusual birth that results from their union and the threat of humans who have led to the werewolves near extinction), how the movies “doesn’t get it right” regarding how werewolves transform and what causes the process (and how the transition takes place), and how humans and werewolves don’t mix so well (three werewolves from the tribe show up as nuns and leave a trail of dead bodies in the hospital when they remove the wildling that got away from a room where intrigued doctors and nurses were seeing after her).

Imogen Annesley is absolutely stunning as wildling Jerboa Jerboa, leaving the tribe headed by her “stepfather” Thylo (Max Fairchild) for “greener pastures”. She is wanting freedom but a life outside those like her kind could be dangerous if something (like strobe lights) was the catalyst in a werewolf transformation. I throw around “werewolf” but I guess they are instead supposed to be a variation on the marsupial. Jerboa has a pouch for her offspring even! I throw around werewolf because once transformed they look more like the lycanthrope than a marsupial. Donny Martin (Leigh Biolos) is the young man who spots Jerboa, pleading with her to join his director’s horror film, Shape Shifters Part 8. She hesitantly agrees, soon becoming the star of Jack Citron’s movie. Frank Thring is a hoot as the Hitchcock-like director, perfectly imitating his talk and stance. He even looks like him; it’s uncanny and quite amusing. Barry Otto is the anthropologist out to find and study werewolves. Otto’s colleague is a professor in Sydney played by Ralph Cotterill. When they realize that a ballerina named Olga (Dasha Blahova) is a werewolf, this is their chance to learn about her species. But she seems fated to be Thylo’s mate which does kind of cause complications. Violence on both sides (werewolves killing humans and vice versa) causes plenty of friction and intense relations even though Donny and Jerboa fell in love.

What I found particularly interesting was the different approach to the werewolves and humans. Humans (for the most part; exceptions being Otto’s anthropologist and Donny) are seemingly the villains, always afraid of the werewolves (the military once again have the “let’s get them animals” attitude while the view of them as “freaks”) and/or want to harm them in some way. The werewolf assault in the hospital is the one true scene that seems to show malicious homicide (but because of human hunting them to near extinction gives them an out in this regard, though; that and the “capture of Jerboa” could be viewed by them as an act deserved of a full scale attack) on the part of the marsupial tribe. There’s room to critique both sides for their violence towards the other so the film doesn’t necessarily let either off the hook. I admired that willingness on Mora’s part to complicate matters somewhat instead of just saying “humans are the real monsters”.

The end has Thylo resisting the military scourge, but in trying to return himself and Olga to their rightful domain has unfortunate consequences. The film goes for broke when there's a "call for help" through a type of magic (!), and Otto eventually becomes involved with Olga. Then there's more fun poking at Hollywood as a prestigious reward is awarded to a certain actress with lycanthrope tendencies. Mora holds nothing back in this film. He is able, much to his credit, to not just present a slapshod of developments that makes his direction feel haphazard and chaotic. I always felt Howling II was a fine mess with a sense of fun but had something go wrong in the editing room. I always felt like the scissors were taken to it and what is left behind was a raucous, mishmash of poor acting, odd plotting, sex (werewolf orgy anyone?), and anarchic scene-to-scene transition. This film at least seems to be more professional and absent that amateurishness that totally plagued Howling II. I'll say this for Howling III, it isn't boring (neither was Howling II but it was entertaining to me despite itself; that and Lee seemed to be so out of place yet at home in the film it that can make any sense whatsover. If anything, it throws a lot at you) like the next sequel, The Original Nightmare.