Customer Reviews

Howling III - The Marsupials

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

 

 

PLOT: The film opens with archival footage labeled as "Cape York, Australia, 1905." A group of Aborigines are posing with a dead werewolf that is tied to a tree. The film then jumps to modern day. The U.S. government intercepts a KGB report of a werewolf killing three villagers in a small Siberian village and that a special army has been dispatched to take care of the beast. Some think that the Soviets are using the word "werewolf" as a code name. Others think that it is the real thing. Next, the film introduces us to Professor Harry Beckmeyer (Barry Otto), an anthropologist. He shows his class the archival footage from the beginning of the film. The footage was made by his grandfather on an anthropological expedition of the Australian outback. He never returned but this was the footage that was found. The Aborigines are shown dancing around the werewolf tied to a tree. Then they throw spears at it and kill it. Harry says that the werewolf is a woman wearing an unbelievably lifelike wolf-mask, but he secretly believes that it is a real werewolf. The U.S. government later summons Harry and informs him about the KGB reports. He admits that he thinks that werewolves really exist and that they live in places like Russia and Australia. Harry goes back to Sydney, Australia and meets up with his colleague Professor Sharp (Ralph Cotterill). He tells Sharp about his plans to get evidence of the existence of werewolves. The film next takes us to a small outback village outside of Sydney named Flow (that's Wolf spelled backwards.) A beautiful young werewolf woman there named Jerboa (Imogen Annesley) is being mistreated by her stepfather (and den leader) Thylo (Max Fairchild). She hits him and runs off. She charters a bus to Sydney. A priest on board asks her why she is running away. She simply replies, "Because my stepfather tried to rape me and he's a werewolf." After arriving in Sydney, Jerboa spends the night on a park bench. Two drunken Australians start harassing her. She quickly starts sprouting fangs and green werewolf eyes and scares them away. The next morning, Jerboa awakens to see the beauty that is Sydney. A young man driving by (Leigh Biolos) sees Jerboa on the park bench and falls in love with her at first sight. He parks his car and starts to approach her. Jerboa, fearing the man might want to hurt her, runs off. The man chases her to a dead end and quickly proclaims that he is not trying to hurt her but that he wants to offer her a job. He says that his name is Donny and that he is the assistant director on a horror film called "Shape Shifters Part 8." He says that she is perfect for the female part because she is "beautiful and wild-looking." He tells her that she won't get much money, being that it is a low-budget film, but she agrees to take the part anyway. It turns out that Donny gets a lot more than he bargained for.

COMMENTS: This is the first Howling sequel that has nothing to do with the original, or any of the other films for that matter. It was also the last one to be released theatrically. Philippe Mora, who directed Howling II, also directed this film. He felt that the producers and editors ruined Howling II, so he made sure that no one got in the way of this one. The story and screenplay were written by Mora himself. He cites Gary Brandner's novel "The Howling III: Echoes" (1985) as the source material, but it is an extremely unfaithful adaptation. The novel takes place in the same village from the original Howling. I've got to give Mora an A+ for originality here. He's an Australian so he thought it would be cool to have a movie about Australian werewolves which descended from the thylacine (Tasmanian wolf), a marsupial predator that carried its young in a pouch. I think that this was a great idea and it makes the film stand out as one of the better Howling sequels. Mora shows that the werewolves are people like anybody else and he makes the audience feel sorry for them. It is also the only Howling film to get a PG-13 rating. Mora intended for this film to not be very gory and be sort of a "tongue-in-pouch" horror comedy. In many ways it is a spoof of the first two films. The makeup and special effects are a big improvement over Howling II, though they still don't match up with Rob Bottin's makeup and special effects from the original Howling. The werewolves in this film resemble the original Howling werewolves a lot more than the ones in Howling II. A contradictory problem with this film is that some of the werewolves seem to be killed when shot by regular bullets, as opposed to silver ones. If there is one thing that the Howling series introduced us to, it is sexy female werewolves (i.e. Elisabeth Brooks, Marsha A. Hunt, Sybil Danning) and Imogen Annesley as Jerboa is no exception. The franchise also introduced us to "werewolf sex scenes", which is replaced in this film by a "werewolf birth scene". I would recommend this film to most horror fans and all werewolf fans. This new DVD version is pretty nice. The picture and sound have been completely remastered and it is presented in the original widescreen theatrical ratio. It also features a photo gallery, original promotional trailer, TV spot, and an interesting commentary by Philippe Mora. He mentions how the film within the film is called "Shape Shifters Part 8" and how the Howling franchise ironically made it up to Part 7. Check out my reviews for The Howling and Howling II DVDs as well.

Howling III is one wacked out movie. Director Philip Mora must have had his tongue firmly stuck in his cheek when he wrote and directed this film. It's about Marsupial werewolfs for goodness sake! It you take it for what it is, Howling III is entertaining for the first half. It's so odd that it keeps you interested. The last half tends to drag, and seems to overstay its welcome. This DVD is beautifully remastered, in widescreen, and comes with plenty of extras. I can't believe this movie was treated so well on its DVD release when it's not even liked that well by horror movie fans? It just strikes me as strange. Anyway, I have to say I liked the Director's communtary by Philip Mora. He seems to take this movie so seriously, saying that he "wanted to make a Howling movie he could call his own since Howling II (which he also directed) was the product of the editors and producers". I can't say that Howling III is much better than Howling II. Both are pretty lame in my book. Anyway, I like these wacked out horror movies every once-in-awhile. Make sure to also pick up the MGM's new special edition of The Howling and the Artisan double feature Howling V/Howling VI DVD to help complete your oddball werewolf collection. I wonder if Howling II and Howling IV will be released on DVD soon. I'd like to complete my collection, and lets pray that Howling (7): New Moon Rising never gets released.

PLOT: The film opens with archival footage labeled as "Cape York, Australia, 1905." A group of Aborigines are posing with a dead werewolf that is tied to a tree. The film then jumps to modern day. The U.S. government intercepts a KGB report of a werewolf killing three villagers in a small Siberian village and that a special army has been dispatched to take care of the beast. Some think that the Soviets are using the word "werewolf" as a code name. Others think that it is the real thing. Next, the film introduces us to Professor Harry Beckmeyer (Barry Otto), an anthropologist. He shows his class the archival footage from the beginning of the film. The footage was made by his grandfather on an anthropological expedition of the Australian outback. He never returned but this was the footage that was found. The Aborigines are shown dancing around the werewolf tied to a tree. Then they throw spears at it and kill it. Harry says that the werewolf is a woman wearing an unbelievably lifelike wolf-mask, but he secretly believes that it is a real werewolf. The U.S. government later summons Harry and informs him about the KGB reports. He admits that he thinks that werewolves really exist and that they live in places like Russia and Australia. Harry goes back to Sydney, Australia and meets up with his colleague Professor Sharp (Ralph Cotterill). He tells Sharp about his plans to get evidence of the existence of werewolves. The film next takes us to a small outback village outside of Sydney named Flow (that's Wolf spelled backwards.) A beautiful young werewolf woman there named Jerboa (Imogen Annesley) is being mistreated by her stepfather (and den leader) Thylo (Max Fairchild). She hits him and runs off. She charters a bus to Sydney. A priest on board asks her why she is running away. She simply replies, "Because my stepfather tried to rape me and he's a werewolf." After arriving in Sydney, Jerboa spends the night on a park bench. Two drunken Australians start harassing her. She quickly starts sprouting fangs and green werewolf eyes and scares them away. The next morning, Jerboa awakens to see the beauty that is Sydney. A young man driving by (Leigh Biolos) sees Jerboa on the park bench and falls in love with her at first sight. He parks his car and starts to approach her. Jerboa, fearing the man might want to hurt her, runs off. The man chases her to a dead end and quickly proclaims that he is not trying to hurt her but that he wants to offer her a job. He says that his name is Donny and that he is the assistant director on a horror film called "Shape Shifters Part 8." He says that she is perfect for the female part because she is "beautiful and wild-looking." He tells her that she won't get much money, being that it is a low-budget film, but she agrees to take the part anyway. It turns out that Donny gets a lot more than he bargained for.

COMMENTS: This is the first Howling sequel that has nothing to do with the original, or any of the other films for that matter. It was also the last one to be released theatrically. Philippe Mora, who directed Howling II, also directed this film. He felt that the producers and editors ruined Howling II, so he made sure that no one got in the way of this one. The story and screenplay were written by Mora himself. He cites Gary Brandner's novel "The Howling III: Echoes" (1985) as the source material, but it is an extremely unfaithful adaptation. The novel takes place in the same village from the original Howling. I've got to give Mora an A+ for originality here. He's an Australian so he thought it would be cool to have a movie about Australian werewolves which descended from the thylacine (Tasmanian wolf), a marsupial predator that carried its young in a pouch. I think that this was a great idea and it makes the film stand out as one of the better Howling sequels. Mora shows that the werewolves are people like anybody else and he makes the audience feel sorry for them. It is also the only Howling film to get a PG-13 rating. Mora intended for this film to not be very gory and be sort of a "tongue-in-pouch" horror comedy. In many ways it is a spoof of the first two films. The makeup and special effects are a big improvement over Howling II, though they still don't match up with Rob Bottin's makeup and special effects from the original Howling. The werewolves in this film resemble the original Howling werewolves a lot more than the ones in Howling II. A contradictory problem with this film is that some of the werewolves seem to be killed when shot by regular bullets, as opposed to silver ones. If there is one thing that the Howling series introduced us to, it is sexy female werewolves (i.e. Elisabeth Brooks, Marsha A. Hunt, Sybil Danning) and Imogen Annesley as Jerboa is no exception. The franchise also introduced us to "werewolf sex scenes", which is replaced in this film by a "werewolf birth scene". I would recommend this film to most horror fans and all werewolf fans. This new DVD version is pretty nice. The picture and sound have been completely remastered and it is presented in the original widescreen theatrical ratio. It also features a photo gallery, original promotional trailer, TV spot, and an interesting commentary by Philippe Mora. He mentions how the film within the film is called "Shape Shifters Part 8" and how the Howling franchise ironically made it up to Part 7. Check out my reviews for The Howling and Howling II DVDs as well.

"Howling III" is not really related to the earlier "Howling" entries, though it manages to create howls of an entirely different type. The film opens in Australia in 1905 with villagers taunting a half-man, half-bear creature, but before you can figure out what is going on or even whether or not the creature has a pouch and eats eucalyptus leaves, the film snaps your neck in a jump cut to a man screaming at the top of his lungs in Siberia. That's about thirty seconds into the film, and if you know what's good for you, you'll stop right there.

In a matter of national security, US intelligence picks up evidence of werewolves marauding in the Soviet Union (this was, after all, made before the Berlin Wall fell.) My question: what kind of apparatus does the US have for monitoring worldwide werewolf activity: I was skeptical. Speaking of skeptical, the President was also skeptical, but we were both wrong, as it turns out. It turns out that there is an unemployed actress who is also a werewolf marsupial named Jerboa Jerboa (Imogen Annesley.) I really can't tell you what happens for about the next twenty minutes of the movie, because I was laughing way too hard at that name to concentrate for quite a while. Jerboa gets involved with a human, they breed, and the creepy offspring makes it's home in Jerboa's warm belly pouch. Before you know it, there are werewolves everywhere (my favorite onscreen werewolf transmogrification ever is at the ballet rehearsal) and they are terrorizing polite society, causing rifts in both the scientific community and in society at large.

This isn't a typical werewolf movie, though. It's more of a lycanthropic love story, complete with hot marsupial action (so do they have kids, pups, or cubs?) There are actually two separate love stories here, and the social discourse that is unveiled is just the kind of thinking we need in a progressive world: even the Pope blesses lycanthropic halfbreeds, enabling them to reenter society (which Jerboa and husband do in Hollywood, of course.) It was a real puzzler knowing what rating to give this movie. It's not a particularly funny spoof; it's certainly not a scary horror story; it has terrible acting and over-the-top plot devices throughout that definitely induce eye-rolling, but despite it's lack of success in any well-defined, conventional sense, I still found it entertaining as a camp classic. It's more elegantly made than most campy movies (although many funny 1980's relics are on prime display,) but it's oddly appealing. I settled on three stars with these conditions: if you want a genuinely scary sequel to an earlier "Howling" installment, this is not it, and would rate a single star; if you want a piece of peculiar, slyly funny sci-fi camp, this is close to five stars. Beauty has never been more in the eye of the beholder: "Howling III" is utterly ridiculous, campy, funny (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not,) and strangely entertaining.

Remember Seeing this when I was little it was scary then,but it doesn't make any sense. The 1st Howling is still the best one to see. all the others afterwards are just nonsense. they used to put this on tv alot.

For anyone who loves horror movies(like I do) or 80's horror movies (like I mostly do!) this one will make you "howl at the moon with joy! Granted nobody in this movie is all that famous or well-known, also granted Howling III has nothing to do with parts 1&2 story or character wise. But as stand alone sequels go this one is definitely one of the best! The way I see it you got some excellent elements to work with here: Those being it's got alot of 80's and horror style,a really HOT BABE, relatable and lovable characters,personability, camp, light-heartedness, romance, loyalty to your friends loved ones and such, it's not too scary or gory, it showcases human beings as the bad guys instead, and above there being something for everyone aside it's also the perfect horror movie for those who either hate horror movies or are only casual watchers of them! In closing I do also recommend parts 1,2,5,and 6 and also I love that it takes place in lovely Australia!

(I am over 13 by the way, this is just easier.) HOWLING III is a really weird film. But it is so weird that it is really entertaining. It takes place in Austrailia, and a new race of werewolves have been born. Marsuplial-werewolves (hence the name). Believe it or not, there are werewolf nuns in this movie! But the DVD is the best part. It has been beautifully remastered and now is in widescreen. There are two really good extras worth mentioning. The trailer and the Director's Commitary. You should check them both out. Special effects are cheezy, but what did you expect?

In a moment of Christmas spirit overload I pick up two copies of this movie. One for the office party and one for myself.
I get home and see it's PG-13 and figure I'll watch it with my daughter after the spousal unit falls asleep. What momma doesn't know can't hurt her.
The Howling III starts off pretty good. Cheesey special effects (none of that CG crud) , quirky characters, and good looking women. Typical 80's horror with the exception of it being filmed in Australia.
Basically a band of marsupial werewolves live in the outback to avoid man's encroachment and scientists that may want to do experiments on them. After all, they are werewolves with pouches, that's fairly rare these days.
The first half of the movie had plenty of good old fashioned special effects and entertaining sequences that kept both my daughter and I interested. Of course it was a bit uncomfortable when the lead female (Kanga-lycanthrope) gives birth to a little marsupial werewolf baby. Ugly little bugger at that!
The second half of the flick just doesn't have enough special effect type sequences to keep it interesting.
You may think the storyline has enough clout to stand on it's own but it doesn't.
Still I'm happy to add it to my collection of 80's horror films.
The DVD is of good quality.(widescreen) and it does contain several extras which is rare for a film of this type and price.
Good day mate!!

"The Howling" film series is a mixed bag to be sure. Starting with the original 1981 film, we got a classic genre film and one of the best werewolf films ever made. After it's success at the box office came "Howling II" a few years later. A low budget, low class sequel.... Over the course of the 80's and early 90's followed more Howling sequels. With seven films in total, the quality ("Howling 7: New Moon Rising" is the only one that's UNWATCHABLE) varies quite a bit, but it really goes without saying that thanks to a great script, some outrageous moments and effects and a good cast, "Howling III-The Marsupials" is quite a fun ride. There's nothing too scary going on here, but this film provides some amazing weird moments, some darkly twisted touches and an overall sense of fun that for the horror/werewolf fan, it's real hard to dislike this film.Having nothing to do with the previous films other than the fact that part III also involves werewolves, the story centers around the existance of and subsequent hunt for a tribe of marsupial werewolves. Descended from the extinct Tasmanian Tiger, the tribe of marsupials have remained a secret until one of their own escapes to America and becomes a popular B Movie actress. Before long, other members of the tribe are sent to bring her back, attention is called to the tribe when she becomes famous and eventally, the marsupial tribe is being hunted through the outback by the military while a small band of humans race to protect them. Toss into the mix, werewolf nuns, a Russian werewolf ballerina, a 'Hitchcockian' B movie director and some other truly odd moments and you have a werewolf film unlike any other!There's a surprising amount of character depth here that really engages the viewer. You'll be engorssed in the love story that ignites between the refugee werewolf and the film producer, when they return to the outback to protect her tribe from the military, the viewer is generally rooting for the good guys to win the day. "Howling III" is a real crazy film, chaulk full of strange ideas, likable characters and some nice fx work. Don't let the PG-13 rating turn you off, it's not as tame as you'd think and it's so much fun that it doesn't matter what it's rated. One of the true sleeper greats of the 80's has arrived on DVD, don't pass this little gem up, get it before it's gone!

This is the most unique and the best werewolf movie I've ever seen! You'll love it if you're deeply interested in werewolves. Check this out: We've got a beautiful main charachter named Jerboa (who looks a cross between Linda Hamilton and Milla Jovovich)who runs away from her home town FLOW. At the same time,Professor Harry Beckmeyer is trying to find her race, the marsupial werewolves. When he does find her, he must protect her from the government in an electrifying showdown! Buy it! See It! It's Awesome!