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Last year during Festivids nominations and disputes, I had a huge stick up my butt about fandoms being complete (I disputed Land Before Time and argued that the nine billion sequels should be part of the fandom -- yeah, I was an asshole). Anyway, when I nominated The Howling, I nominated The Howling II alongside of it, because I knew that it followed on the events of The Howling.

I was wrong. So very very very wrong.

Yes, technically the film opens on the funeral of the main character from the first Howling and her brother is one of the main characters, but beyond that and the werewolves being the monsters, there was nothing in common. From a pure canon standpoint, they altered the ending of The Howling and also the established canon (mixing in a lot of religious mumbo-jumbo and vampire lore).

From a visual standpoint... I don't know how to really describe it, but the director loves randomly intercutting bits from other parts of the film. This is a great technique in vidding when used with restraint. It's a lousy technique when it runs rampant over a 90 minute film. There's a variety of wipes used throughout the movie... it's like somebody gave the director a catalog and he said, "I shall have them all!" The action is confusing and muddled, but there are flashes of inspiration here and there.

The acting is terrible. Sybil Danning plays the the werewolf queen, Stirba, in a manner that I think is supposed to be sexy, but kind of comes off as nonchalant and wooden. She's not helped by the number of "I am describing the evil things we will do now" speeches she has to give, which seem straight out of bad children's television. Heroes Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe hit their marks and speak their lines and no more can really be said for them. Only Christopher Lee does his stentorian best with some terrible dialogue and comes off the best of anyone in the film.

Oh and they either didn't have money for either music or they really liked the song "Howling" by Stephen Parsons, because it pops up five or six times throughout the film, including over the end credits.

So, yeah, it's terrible. Enjoyably awful in some ways, but just embarrassing and difficult for the most part.

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Going to Night Vale Live tonight. I'll post about that tomorrow along with whatever movie I end up posting about.

DW Post: http://jetpack-monkey.dreamwidth.org/480318.html (

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