Joe Dante’s ‘81 rendering is so distinct from its basis that it’s practically a different beast.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 10, 2025

Well performed, with convincing effects for its time, The Howling isn’t the best werewolf feature, but it’s required viewing for any fan.

| Oct 26, 2022

Rob Bottin's Howling man-to-werewolf sequence is like nothing you've ever seen before. It's amazing!

| Jul 27, 2022

...still shocks and amuses in equal parts...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 27, 2021

A clever story that deals with cults and media coverage.

| Oct 15, 2021

[Dante] has demonstrated a deft touch at mixing genuinely horrifying effects and sly humour in The Howling.

| Aug 18, 2021

humorous and self-aware as it often is, The Howling fundamentally works as a scary-gory werewolf thriller, with Bottin's transformation effects casting a nearly hypnotic spell

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 17, 2021

The Howling is a fantastic off-beat horror flick with a dash of comedy that still holds up great 40 years later. The effects are fantastic, the script, acting and directing are superb and it's just an all-around fun movie.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 6, 2021

The atmosphere is too bright and insincere, with a focus on creating dread through untrustworthy accomplices rather than terrifying bloodshed.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Sep 6, 2020

The monster movie is back!

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 27, 2020

Dante manages to overcome his limitations to some degree, but the film itself never quite leaves the middle of the road.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 7, 2019

The Howling may be 35 years old, but age is just a number. Insight is eternal.

| Aug 5, 2019

Essential viewing for anyone with a serious interest in the history of the genre.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 12, 2017

The Howling is Network meets The Island of Dr Moreau, a treatise on nature versus nurture that isn't afraid to poke fun at its practitioners, and while it's not as entertaining as American Werewolf, in the final reckoning it is in many ways ... superior.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 25, 2017

One of the rare good werewolf films.

| Original Score: B | Jul 7, 2013

An almost unparalleled horror mystery that gave its werewolves fangs and humanity.

| Jun 10, 2013

I don't think there's a better werewolf movie than this.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 29, 2013

[UPDATED 2024 REVIEW] Second only to 1941’s The Wolf Man as the greatest werewolf flick ever made.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 22, 2011

Dante is a rabid horror fan and pays tribute at every opportunity to any number of well-known and obscure classics. His enthusiasm can be infectious.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 14, 2006

A perverse, satirical contribution to the oft-maligned werewolf genre.

| Original Score: B | Nov 6, 2005