Wolfen, Wolf, The Howling: Are You Confused Yet?

Yeah, yeah, I know Halloween just passed us by like a shamed mistress retreating back to her den of sin, but I still think horror movies deserve their time in the spotlight even after the appropriate holiday has come and gone. You may be saying to yourself, "Hmm, wait a minute self. Aren't these actually the same flick?" and the answer would be "No, ill-informed '80s and '90s horror fan, they are not."

In order to properly dissect these wolf-themed but vastly different classics, I'm going to have to ask you to dig deep into the recesses of your twenty-year-old archives and travel back with me. Don't worry, for those without the ability to do so, I will provide trailers for memory prompts.

Wolfen

What do you mean you don't remember Wolfen?! It had a cast roster that read like pure cinematic gold! Albert Finney, Gregory Hines,Edward James Olmos, and some chick with dark hair whose name currently escapes me.

These creatures lived in the rubble of your city and skulked around waiting for you to either be drunk or alone before making minced meat out of you, so of course there would be a New York City detective on the case trying desperately to untangle this mystery before another attack. Great acting, decent special effects, tons of people dying.



Wolf

Another one sporting a star-studded cast. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about this movie until last month when I watched it again and I remember thinking to myself that Jack Nicholson has played just about every mythical creature and villain there is to play.

Enjoyable, but I got mixed reviews from people who also re-watched it around the same time I did. Still, it's hard not to get on board a Mike Nichols-helmed flick where your main character is down on his luck, losing his wife, and being replaced at work.



The Howling

Let me get this right out on the table.

I love Dee Wallace.

Yes, I'm aware that she's Dee Wallace Stone now and that her more iconic and beloved role as Elliot's mom in ET is the one everybody foams at the mouth over, but before she was taking care of Gertie and the gang, she was hanging with Cujo and the Wolves.

In The Howling, she plays a traumatized anchorwoman whose time at at rehabilitation center turns out not to be as relaxing as she originally anticipated.

One of my favorite final movie scenes EVER.


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