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simon947
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Howling II: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch (1985)
A thought-provoking, cinematic tour-de-force...
..."Howling II" is not. It is, however, a comically bad and therefore highly enjoyable film.
The plot (if you can call it that) goes something like this: Some Flock of Seagulls-looking bloke loses his sister to a werewolf attack (yet another peril of living in Los Angeles). He and this reporter chick meet up with a werewolf hunter (a deadpan Christopher Lee) at the dead girl's funeral. For reasons unclear, the trio voyage to Transylvania, where they do battle with the queen of the undead, Stirba (the frequently nude Sybil Danning). From there on, things get confusing.
There's some sort of arts fair going on in Transylvania, which I thought was vampire country but apparently has a burgeoning lycanthrope population. The Flock of Seagulls dude nails the reporter chick with his pants still on. Three partially transformed (read: hairy) werewolves enjoy a spirited, if somewhat testy, menage a trois. A dwarf's eye explodes. Much fun is had by all.
"Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf" (its alternate title, "Stirba the Werewolf Bitch" had me laughing for days) is, indeed, a terrible movie. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, and after watching it on cable the other night I can't believe how bad it was. But I'm giving it a high rating and a sincere recommendation because they just don't make horror flicks like this anymore.
The werewolf transformations are just awful. The filmmakers were definitely going for "An American Werewolf in London" (which won an Oscar for its special effects), but, ahem, "fell prey" to their own kitschiness, which permeates the entire film. There are some incredibly cheesy transitions between scenes; swipes, swirls, and spirals abound. And the script? I've seen more substance on a roll of Charmin. But it's great; how often do you get to hear lines such as, "That dwarf is staring at us"?
Compared to today's era of Macintosh-generated "special effects" (which look incredibly dated now, and will look even worse in ten years), a film like "Howling II" is a gem, a last hurrah of the last great era of horror films. You'll never see pools of blood or cheesy puppets or laughable laser rays done like this again. Get some beer, pop it in, and laugh yourself stupid. By the film's conclusion (in which Sybil Danning rips her clothes off seventeen times, all in time with a Cramps-sounding 80s band called Babel), you'll be glad you did.
"By the pale, pale light/pale, pale light of the moonglow..."