Review #71:The Howling 2: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985)

Cast/Notable Credits:
Philippee Mora (Director): The Howling 3 (1987)

Christopher Lee (Stefan Crosscoe)

Annie McEnroe (Jenny): The Hand, Beetlejuice (1988)

Reb Brown (Ben): Space Mutiny (1988), Captain America 1 & 2 (1979) T.V.

Sybil Danning (Stirba): Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), Chained Heat (1983), Halloween

Judd Omen (Vlad): Red Dawn (1984), Dune (1984), Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Ferdy Mayne (Erle): Conan the Destroyer (1984), Night Train to Terror (1985), Warlock: Armageddon (1993)
Trailer:


Plot:

The film picks up shortly after the first movie. Karen is deceased and at her funeral, a "cult investigator" (C.Lee ~ Stefan) approaches her brother Ben and warns him that she is a werewolf. Ben is skeptical at first, but after some convincing by Stefan he joins the good fight and wants to seek revenge for his sister's death and battle the fur balls who are aiming to take over the Earth.
Ben, Stefan and a reporter name Jenny journeys from L.A. over to Transylvania to kill the lead werewolf, Stirba. No...I'm not making this up. Silliness and 80-ness follows.

First of all, doesn't Dracula come from Transylvania? I did a little research and...yeah...some dude named Bram Stoker first introduced Dracula from the Transylvania region. Not the wolfman.

Here's some more mythology and research on the werewolf courtesy of: Wikipedia

Secondly,...ah fuck it. I'm not gonna waste my breath. It's not worth it. Back to the review...

Anyways...this movie falls into the category of "It's sooo bad it's good". Horrible, cheesy special effects, writing, acting, music...you name it the film did it. Despite all of the film's cheesiness, it did offer some great moments. Like when Stirba threw the clay, puppet gargoyle at the priest, I just lost it. I had to literally stop the movie to catch my breath. The film also featured a werewolf transformation sex scene. Gotta say, that's pretty weird. Cool, but still weird. The film also reached into it's special effect's bag of tricks and pulled out the "colored laser light show" to represent the powers of the supernatural.

And let's not forget the Super Friends cast of characters:

Ben. Brother of the previous turned puppy, Karen, from part one. Torn between anger and the snoopy hot chick reporter, Ben ventures over seas to become the man he wanted to be. A little too deep? Yeah, probably. Honestly, I couldn't take the Ben character seriously after learning that he was the lead character in Space Mutiny. Yeah. That slow, big, white guy who the bad guys couldn't shoot even though he was a slow moving, enormous target. And lets not forget the space ship effects of that movie. Hey, let's rip off of old Battlestar Galatica footage and use it as our movie's main special effects! What a great idea! Secondly, he played football at USC. So every time he said something... TROJAN MAN!...popped into my head. It was a lost cause from there on out. It's pretty hard to root for a character with that history.

Stirba. Yes...Stirba. Played by Sybil Danning. She had a hell of a role in this one. Acting as the Queen Bee or Mother Puppy of the werewolves. What made her so evil...I don't know, but apparently she was. There was excellent screen writing for her. Such as rrpping off her clothes and showing off the twins. Bravo, gentleman. Bravo. So great, that they replayed it like a dozen times during the film's ending credits. Sybil also appeared in one of my favorite Roger Corman space flicks...Battle Beyond the Stars. The flying "scrotum" spaceship movie. We're 2 for 2 in casting!

Erle. Poor Old man Erle. Never had a chance to grow in the film, gone in the early goings. He was the "crazy old guy", but with a twist...a werewolf. The most important thing you outta know about Erle, is that the actor, Ferdy Mayne, starred in one of the worst flicks of all time...Night Train to Terror. If you've ever seen it, you want your hour and a half of your life back. Eventually I'll be reviewing that one...so I'm not gonna go too far down that road. But I'll give you a hint...he played the character of God in that movie. I guess if you can find work in Hollywood, you take it.

Stefan (Christopher Lee), is the "expert cult investigator", so he knows everything on werewolves. First of all, I love Christopher Lee. He has one of those deep, dark voices. It creates an ambiance to his characters. He also delivers professionalism to his characters and is a great horror movie icon. With all that said, I couldn't buy into his character. I mean, there was nothing I really liked about it. The coolest thing was during his final showdown with Stirba, the special effects added a orange-green glow around his body. But that's it. His character was totally under-used. There was so much more potential for his character. But it wasn't his fault!

If you need to waste a ninety minute block of your day and need a good chuckle, then check this flick out. It's not the best sooo bad it's good movie, but definitely in the Top 20. One final thought...can they do a special edition of this film and edit out the David Bowie wannabe singer who is blasted his crappy song through out the film?

Misc. Movie Trivia:
-Film released in January 1986
-Also known as Howling 2: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch
-Christopher Lee accepted the role...because he had never appeared in a werewolf movie