Customer Reviews

Howling II - Your Sister Is a Werewolf

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Wow...I can't remember the last time I saw where a sequel was so much worse than the film it followed...and that's definitely the case with Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1986), original titled Howling II: Striba - Werewolf B*tch. One generally accepts sequels will almost never be as good as from whence it was spawned (i.e. the original), but there's a serious case of devolution here in terms of just about every aspect of this film, which was directed by Philippe Mora (Howling III: The Marsupials, Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills), and features Reb `Captain America' Brown (The Sword and the Sorcerer, Yor, the Hunter from the Future), Annie McEnroe (True Stories, Beetle Juice), Sybil Danning, queen of the heaving cleavage (Malibu Express, Young Lady Chatterley II), whose ego is about the same size as her massive, chestal appendages (she was once quoted as saying, "What I am is the new dream girl - one who has both body and intelligence."), and Christopher Lee (The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula), obviously during a low point in his extensive career. Also appearing is Judd Omen (Red Dawn, Pee-wee's Big Adventure), and Marsha A. Hunt (Dracula A.D. 1972), who, with big lipped Brit rocker Mick Jagger, produced one of his seven offspring, that of Karis Jagger.

The film starts out in L.A. during a funeral for Karen White, a main character from the first film, played by Dee Wallace (Ms. Wallace did not reprise her role for this film, probably due her having read the script). Among those in attendance is Ben (Brown), brother to the recently deceased, Jenny (McEnroe), who apparently took over Karen's position as a reporter (this aspect was unclear), and Stefan Crosscoe (Lee), an investigator of the occult, among other things. Stephen chooses this appropriate opportunity to inform Ben that his sister, was in fact, a hairy creature of the night, and orchestrated her own demise in an effort to stave off an existence which she thought too awful to bare. Ben doesn't buy it, even after Stephen shows him a bootleg of Karen's last broadcast, the one featuring her transformation and subsequent death (the footage used is not from the original film, but a crummy re-enactment using other actors). I have to admit, even thought I saw the original film, even I had a hard time buying off on Stephen's unconvincing claims...anyway, there's some nonsense about the werewolves wanting to retrieve Karen's body from the cemetery as they couldn't let it rest on consecrated ground, which leads to a skirmish, and results in a vengeful Ben and an inquisitive Jenny (ever the reporter) traveling with the mysterious Stephen to `the dark country', i.e. Transylvania to confront the queen mother of all werewolves, named Striba (Danning), prior to some sort of ceremony in which she'll become all powerful, or some such thing (another aspect never really developed). The trio arrive in a small, European village populated by rejects from a David Lee Roth video, and soon discover they may be in over their collective heads as Stirba and her mangy mongrels have been busy creating an army of hairy minions, perhaps in an effort to become top of the food chain.

Man, this Czechoslovakian production was just one big mish mash mess...the connection to the original film is highly suspect, the plot has gaping holes throughout and seems made up as they went along, the dialog truly insipid, and the acting just plain rotten to the core. The biggest disappointment for me, in comparison to the original film, was the werewolves themselves. In the original they were huge, menacing, frightening, vicious, slavering beasts who, if you encountered, would surely cause you to have a serious brown out in your shorts prior to their hacking you up into chunk sized bits. Here, the werewolves are normal sized people with a lot of hair pasted on...and get a load of the transformations...how many times can one stretch a rubber mask before it breaks (quite a few, according to this film). The special effects were altogether pathetic, probably due to a lack of funds after paying Christopher Lee's salary (the filmmakers often replay the same transformation effects over and over again). Director Mora seems to try and tie things together as best he can, but it is a impossible chore as the plot is all over the place. The dialog is particularly rancid, causing a terminal case of the cringe among viewers. I think the intent was to infuse some comedy into the story, given the cartoonish transition wipes, but there was enough unintentional material available to preclude this effort. The smartest thing the makers of this film did was to rope Lee into the cast, as he does bring along a good deal of class, but not nearly enough to elevate the movie out of the boggy morass to which it's firmly entrenched. Too bad his character was about as effective as a lump of sod. Reb Brown...his acting here is lame to say the least (watch how quickly he loses his character's western drawl), but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the guy, ever since he appeared as Captain America in those TV movies of the late 70s. He may not be a great actor, but he seems to know it, and accept it, rather than come off with a pretentious attitude like many do, including Ms. Danning. I'm really unsure the point of Ms. McEnroe's character of Jenny in relation to the story, other than to provide a lame, romantic foil to Ben, but she was about the worst performer in this pile...thankfully her lines were kept to a minimum. Of all the actors in this film, Ms. Danning seemed perfectly at home, playing a hairy, witchy, wolf queen, bringing out the twins on command, and strutting around in a really awkward looking leather outfit complete with reflective strips...and was she wearing blu-blockers? Seriously, you really have to see her outfit to believe it...some scenes to watch for...Striba in a matted, hairy three-way with two of her minions (now I know why European women are so hairy...they all got a bit of the wolf in them...full body bikini waxes for everyone!)...the massive Bacchanalian orgee with all the wolfie brethren and sisters...a fake, dwarf head complete with exploding eyeballs...it's all here...along with lots and lots of boobage...if Ms. Danning and her titular twosome is your motivation for seeing this movie, you might just want to skip to the credits as they replay her dress popping/mammary revelation scene like twenty times, mixed in with some other footage from the film. As far as I can tell, this is the uncut, 91-minute version, for what it's worth. All in all, if you really liked the original and are expecting a decent continuation of the story (which really didn't need any sequels), stay away...if you're a not so discriminating viewer looking for some cheap thrills and lots of milk mounds, you've come to the right place. Two stars for the film, plus one extra for Christopher Lee and Danning's ample flotation devices.

The picture quality, presented in both widescreen (1.85:1), enhanced for 16X9 TVs, and fullscreen, looks very clean and sharp, and the Dolby Digital 2.0 audio comes through very well. There is a short theatrical trailer included, but that's it. If you enjoyed this film, then you'd probably dig on the multitude of sequels that followed including Howling III: The Marsupials (1987), Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988), Howling V: The Rebirth (1989), Howling VI: The Freaks (1991), and Howling: New Moon Rising (1995) aka Howling VII: Mystery Woman.

Cookieman108

By the way, why did dum dum Jenny pack a string of garlic cloves in her suitcase prior to coming to Transylvania? Was it meant to be used to ward off werewolves, or just because she enjoys a pungent reek infused in her clothing?

I was feeling a little down this morning and while killing time at the DVD store I came across this underrated masterpiece, no more no less than ... you guessed it... "Howling 2 you're sister is a werewolf bitch" (whatever), so i decided to pluck down almost full retail price for this little Palm D'or. Having liked the original Howling, and yet having read that this was an extremely so-bad-it's-good affair complete with werewolf orgies, an endlessly disrobing Sybil Danning and cheap and ridiculous special effects... all this and Christopher Lee too! Well... I thought I was in the perfect mood for a little 80's bottom of the barrel cheesefest! Man I was wroooooooooonnnngggg!

I just finished watching it and let me tell you that all I can think right now is that these are 90 minutes of my life that ain't coming back ... and neither are my 13 bucks! Well, it turns out that the film not only has everything I mentioned above but it also turns out that it's also goddamn boring, the gore is actually quite ridiculous (when you can actually see it!), and it's filled with silly czheckoslovaquian folk dancing, the heroes have very brief sex while slightly clothed (See bottom of the frame) and the girl can't even fake the proper sounds! By the time we reach the climax (of the film, that is) and Christopher Lee "battles" Sybil Danning, I couldn't care less and kept wishing the whole thing to get over.... maybe I was falling asleep or something because I couldn't tell who was winning the battle since the whole thing was so ridiculous.

Now... all I can say is, if you think all the things I wrote above are the type of "cult item" you want to own, then better know that all of what I mentioned sounds much better, written, than it looks onscreen. You even get to hear the same rock song all through the movie. You don't get to see a quarter of the amount of werewolf material you saw in the original... I should have paid attention to the fact that this film ranks among the bottom 100 in the imdb list...

Most people don't like this film..I love it..Not because it has a great storyline,or because the acting is outstanding..No..I love this film because it is bizarre..There are a lot of holes in the plot of this sequel,but the film itself is quite unique..It takes up where the original left off,with the scene where the infected female reporter is shot on-screen while giving a broadcast and transforming into a werewolf..At this point the script-writers went all out to be bizarre,concocting a storyline about a female queen of the werewolves who re-animates herself every thousand years,another reporter after the werewolf story,the brother of the slain female reporter out for vengence,and,as an added delight,the dark avenger himself,Christopher Lee,as the brother of the werewolf queen,out to stop her once and for all...Also included are a bunch of randy werewolves,a town somewhere in Romania that looks the part of a domain populated by lupine predators,a dwarf werewolf hunter,a bunch of gypsies,well the list of bizarre elements goers on and on..Some films are just so bad that they are,somehow good,if only that they are entertaining without being pretentious...The Howling/2=Your sister is a werewolf is one of these gems.

Reasons to watch it:

1) Christopher Lee in new wave wraparound sunglasses. I even use it as my live journal avatar. He looks cool as hell. LOL.

2) Sybill Danning ripping her shirt off. In case you miss it, they play the same clip about 1000 times repeatedly at the end. Hilarious!

3) Christopher Lee has the magical ability to make any bad movie watchable.

4) A grotesquely amusing hirstute orgy. Seeing is believing.

5) Sybill Danning's bizarre costumes. Think Pointer Sisters meets Conan.

Since I have been unable to resist this film anytime it airs since the first time I ever watched it in the 80s (I write this as I watch it on cable on Xmas Eve), I am going to break down and add it to my collection. You should too.

I don't care what anyone says this is the best movie in the howling series...its campy gory and just plain fun!

On a completely different level than the first Howling -- more like another planet, to be honest. This uses the barest thread of the original to jump into a story about some strange, kinky werewolf cult led by the topless Sybil Danning in Transylvania, and Christopher Lee's attempt to destroy it. It does have a couple of scary moments, not-bad though very brief makeup effects, also some well-done locations, production design, and photography (and a heavy use of New Wave-y music on the soundtrack if you're into that); this is sabotaged by wooden acting from almost everybody involved, a REALLY idiotic script which either makes no sense or seems as though it came from a comic book, and some really strange, choppy editing that renders a few parts incoherent. Also a couple of overly disgusting moments and an end-credit recap that has to be seen to be believed. No great shakes but never boring (just stupid).

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.

This is one of the all time worst sequels. Unbelievable what is Christopher Lee doing in it. Maybe you should see for laughing or to learn how can an original tremendous movie be followed by a almost non-related sequel (note that the name of this movie doesn't have "The" as the original had). It is a shame that "The Howling" (Joe Dante, 1980) was not re-released in VHS (in a letterbox format for instance) or released in DVD. Well, "Howling II" is still a werewolf movie and a Christopher Lee movie...

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.

Werewolf threesomes! A dwarf with exploding eyeballs! Christopher Lee! 1980s' synth-rock! This is a movie with something for everyone. Howling II is so wonderfully ludicrous it will leave your head spinning. Most amazing, despite his immersion in total cheese, Christopher Lee still manages to bring a certain weight and dignity to his cartoonish character. It may be low budget, but Howling II qualifies as high entertainment.