Howling III (1987)

Directed by Philippe Mora [Other horror films: The Beast Within (1982), Howling II: Stirba – Werewolf Bitch (1985), Communion (1989), I was a Communist Werewolf (2021)]

For the first ten minutes or so, I found Howling III a mess. Not that portions past the first ten minutes weren’t messy, but things did stabilize a bit. Even so, while this movie certainly had some interesting ideas, along with a couple of strong elements, I can’t say that I necessarily found it all that enjoyable.

It’s such a wild story, though. You have werewolves in Australia, a Russian werewolf ballerina defecting to Australia, a young woman wanting to escape her life in her Australian werewolf tribe, and falling in love with a human, all while an American is coming over to Australia to find evidence of the existence of werewolves.

First off, this has nothing to do with the first two movies of the series. There is a reference made by one of the werewolves of a possible group of Lycanthropes in California, but that’s as close as this movie gets to making a connection. Thematically, the final scene is quite similar to how the first movie ended, so there’s that, but for this most part, this is very much a stand alone sequel.

As stated, the story is wild enough, but what’s really interesting is the approach they take to the werewolves in the film. At first, as expected, they’re generally an antagonistic force, but as the main character (Barry Otto) is an anthropologist, he’s interested in purely studying these creatures as opposed to causing them harm, putting him in conflict with the military. It doesn’t help matters that he falls in love with a half-human/half-werewolf, and that’s when things get more fascinating.

Obviously, I don’t want to divulge the end of this one, but it’s just odd. The final 15 minutes took me on a trip I really didn’t expect, and, save a single scene, it’s almost entirely void of what people would generally call ‘horror.’ We follow the lives of four characters, and their offspring, as they live for 15+ years in the wilderness, eventually being found out and brought back into the modern world. It was such an odd, and oddly wholesome, finale, and that final scene in Otto’s classroom was almost emotional.

I don’t know Barry Otto, but I pretty much liked his character from beginning to end. Imogen Annesley was solid, reminding me personality-wise of Louise Jameson’s Leela from Doctor Who. Though his character had his ups and downs, Ralph Cotterill (The Survivor) turned out a solid performance also. Lee Biolos was an oddly decent, upstanding character, and Frank Thring was the MVP. He didn’t get a lot of screen-time, and he wasn’t important to the plot, but I loved his fun character.

Burnham Burnham (Dark Age) was decent, though I wish his character had a bit more to do. Max Fairchild’s character has an interesting route – you sort of expect him to be the main antagonist, especially toward the finale, but that never really happens. His character arc just strikes me as odd. The only main performance to not really leave an impression on me was Dagmar Bláhová’s, though toward the end, I could at least appreciate her.

Though the movie is almost an hour and 40 minutes long, I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say it ever dragged. It’s not a conventional werewolf movie, in many aspects, plus it’s Australian, so it does have an odd vibe to it, but boring isn’t one of the sins Howling III commits.

I do think I could have done without some of the more humorous portions. There’s not a lot, but toward the end, for instance, with the three werewolf nuns watching the television program – that’s something I didn’t need. I also could have done without some of the body-horror elements, such as that kangaroo-like pouch. I get the point, but I didn’t enjoy those portions at all.

In the end, though, Howling III is a very flawed film. I do think it’s better than the atrocious second movie, though – it may be low praise, but it’s what I’ve got. Certainly the finale of this one did carry with it some decent emotion, save the final scene, and if they had been able to expand that to the rest of the film, perhaps the final product would have been better. It might not have been horror – more a wholesome day-in-the-life of a werewolf community – but at least more consistent.

Really, it’s an odd movie. It can be entertaining, and it does have some strong portions, but I still find Howling III a decent bit below average. That said, this is one that I’ll ruminate on, as it does have the potential to move up, I think.

5.5/10