Quasar Sniffer

Probable influence for some of this movie's imagery, The Face of Another, a Japanese film from 1966 (which I have never seen), directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara: I've been wanting to see this movie since high school when I thought that anything conceptual in music was, by being conceptual, like, so DEEP MAAAAAAAN (plus I legitimately like Pink Floyd and still love concept albums SO THERE!). After the first couple scenes, I just started to think of this movie as a series of loosely connected music videos, with the same central character, and was able to enjoy it on that level. I found myself very compelled by the animation sequences more than anything, mostly because they are the most visually interesting sections, but also because they are they only times where we didn't have to put up with Pink and his self-obsessed bullshit.

Thank you for posting this! This kind of stuff fascinates me. It didn't strike me while watching the movie (probably because I wasn't watching this thing particularly closely) but now that you list all those filming locations, I of course recognize those sets and those tiles. Cool stuff!

Howling 3 has Nundercover Werewolves?!?! HDTGM has gotta cover that one!

I paid to see this movie in theaters because The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies... but also because I hate myself, I guess.

I guess, from a narrative sense, if this movie wanted to change up the normal Werewolf Weakness formula (i.e. "these are EVOLVED werewolves, we need something special to kill them!"), gold would have been a better choice than titanium. It has similar physical properties to lead (heavy, low melting point, dense, soft), making it more analogous to everyday bullets. It also has a rarefied nature that would make it seem more special, more specific to these boob-revealing beasts. PLUS, all your knives and ammo would look FAAAAAAAAAABULOUS!

But yes Cameron, that phenomenon of characters in a horror movie so easily dismissing signs of the terror they have ALREADY ENCOUNTERED is fucking infuriating. As a horror fan, it's why I love when movies avoid this trope and treat its characters like actual thinking, sentient beings. A recent example of this is Get Out, obviously, but one of the many reasons why American Werewolf in London is one of my favorite movies is that it does this from the get-go. As David and Jack are making their way across the moors in the beginning, just after leaving the pub full of Creepy English People, they find themselves alone on a dark night, hearing sounds of a strange beast in the distance. They tell themselves it's just a dog or something, but in reality, you can see the terror on their faces, they know it's something more terrifying, And so they fucking run. The movie knows how fear works and uses it to great effect to make and impact on the characters and the viewer. Howling II, being garbage, does not.

So what you're saying is, our "protagonists" are dumb as fuck? However, the one smart decision they made is teaming up with Sir Christopher for some Eastern European Werewolf Slaying. I would totally join up with that mellifluous baritone for any supernatural shenanigans. But oh, a boy can only dream, I suppose...

This is kinda sorta a Correction and Omission, but it was mentioned on the show that Howling II was the first movie to film behind the Iron Curtain, in this case, in Prague. While it was many years earlier, in 1970, in different countries that had very different relationships with the Soviet Union, Kelly's Heroes, the WWII adventure comedy starring Clint Eastwood, Donald Sutherland, Don Rickles, and Telly Savalas, was filmed behind the Iron Curtain in Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia had a large supply of WWII tanks still laying around, which were essential to production. As a result, Kelly's Heroes has some great local color and some real-life tanks that would otherwise have been unobtainable. John Landis tells a great story about smuggling himself into Yugoslavia by hugging the underside of a train in order to serve as a production assistant and extra on this film. The filming was done before the Croatian Spring uprisings in 1971, which resulted in some brutal crackdowns on political dissidents in Yugoslavia, and probably would have made filming there impossible just one or two years later. With all of this in mind, it's even more unfortunate how of little of Prague we get in Howling II. If you're going to go to the trouble of traveling to a location that is difficult to get to (and operate out of), wouldn't you want to take full advantage of it? As pointed out in the podcast, these locations could have been done pretty much on any back lot (or back yard) almost anywhere in the world. Why travel to fucking Czechoslovakia to get nondescript buildings and atmosphere? I'm thankful that later production would use Prague to full effect, as now innumerable movies have shot in that iconic city.

Maybe it's ALIEN VAMPIRES?!?!

OH NOOOOOOO! I was actually referring to wilmpete who posted on the first page. Now I feel terrible! I would never call you a dumb dumb ever! IT IS I WHO IS THE DUMB-DUMB! Grade-F even!

Hey Paul, thank you for coming here and addressing/correcting some of the issues brought up in the boards. We all love HDTGM, we love your guests, and heck, we love you. It's why we're here. We all recognize the amount of work and preparation you put into the (free) podcast, which is part of why I keep coming back here since the days of Season of the Witch and Drive Angry. You treat us with respect and I am extremely grateful for that. On a personal note, when taylor anne photo and Gean brought up the Can't Stop the Music episode, I became somewhat disheartened because I remember being rather disturbed by the troll-response to that episode. I adore both Cameron Esposito and Pete Holmes and I loved them on the episode, so seeing any hate directed their way is the opposite of what I usually expect coming to these boards. The last thing I want is for other board members, people whom I like and respect, feeling that way as well. P.S. Only grade-A dumb-dumbs think guests are paid to be on podcasts. Like, what the heck?

I'd rather them get awards for being Amazing in Even the Shittiest Movies Because They Are Spectacular.

Yeah, it is a bummer for me whenever a guest just flat-out doesn't watch the movie. This is FUN TIMES, guys, so I hope the guest is willing to come and play. It'd be like someone coming on Spontaneanation or CBB and just refusing to refer to the comedians by their character names or even pretend that a skit is happening. I realize these are busy individuals with things to do and comedy to make, but if you're not into watching movies, don't bring the whole show down with you. Don't make me feel dumb for wanting to have fun.

Oh yes, I totally endorse The Hollow Crown. I mean... that cast is pretty immaculate and everyone plays their role exactly as splendidly as one would hope. Nicely done. And... my desktop background?

Patrick Stewart...in a ...loincloth?

On the subject of modernized Shakespeare, I also have a soft spot for the TNT TV movie version of King Lear starring Patrick Stewart, titled King of Texas. I missed it when it first aired, but then I watched it a couple years later in college when I was doing big retwatch of Star Trek: The Next Generation so I was ALL UP IN Patrick Stewart at the time. Sure, I haven't watched it since then and it could very well be garbage, but it's Patrick Stewart + Shakespeare ÷ Old West. How could I not have affection for it?

More Christopher Lee is Awesome Talk: Lee was a cousin of Ian Fleming, and while a lot of what Fleming wrote in his Bond novels was based off of his experiences in WWII as part of British Naval Intelligence, he was largely involved in the planning and strategizing arena of spycraft. He was integral in Operation Goldeney, for example, which monitored the possible alliance between the fascist Francisco Franco in Spain and the Axis during WWII. He was always more of a Bill Tanner* than a James Bond. Christopher Lee though, as has been stated, was the real fucking deal. A spy, a soldier, and a world-class swordsman. It was life everything Fleming wanted to be was poured into James Bond, but all those traits were already in his real-life tall-dark-handsome-and-mysterious, baritone-voiced, heroic cousin Christopher Lee. The psychology is INTRIGUING. I love you, Christopher Lee. *Bill Tanner: M's Chief of Staff, has a front row seat to possible Armageddon as James Bond does his macho spy nonsense, and therefore a master of looking worried:

Ran and Throne of Blood are total classics and I love them. I need to give them a re-watch. Ran does require patience though. No Nathan Lane to cheer you up and get you through that 162 minutes (of blood and despair) running time.

Did anyone else find Timothy Spall absolutely insufferable? I usually love him and I genuinely think he deserved an Oscar nomination for his role in Mr. Turner, but I just could not stand him in this. It was just too much, too cartoonish, and too much speech impediment. I realize it was mocking the way Spanish people speak, but that doesn't make it any funnier.

My horror-loving thread finally forced me to watch this last year after begging to show it to me for forever. I spent the running time with my face in my hands, screaming "WHY!?" The Exorcist is one of my all-time favorite movies and I can watch Richard Burton in almost anything, so this pile of nonsense was particularly painful.

I've never see Howling II and this gives me the perfect opportunity to revisit the original, which I haven't seen in probably 10 years. It definitely suffers from the vicissitudes of fate in that it is one of the best werewolf movies ever made... but was released four months before the greatest werewolf movie ever made, American Werewolf in London, which is one of my all-time favorite horror films, and one I've re-visted probably 6 times since I saw The Howling. I'm excited!

You are in my heart forever for this post. I remember Red Dwarf being on in a syndicated timeslot right before Saturday Night Live when I was growing up. So I would go from Red Dwarf to Adam Sandler doing Opera Man or something. I was too young to know how they were different, but not caring because they both made me laugh. It wouldn't hurt to be less judgmental about such categorization now....

Agreed about the broadness, but that means it is definitely not boring. And John Larroquette is trying so hard to play the disaffected straight man to Pinchot's wackiness that his performance becomes over-the-top as well. Guys, as much of a mess as this movie is... I think I kind of like it! Bonus: it's under 90 minutes!

Yeah, speaking as a former theater geek, that footage is basically a theater geek's Big Dream. Just having everyone so enthusiastic about the material that even people who aren't in the scene are compelled to sing along just by the power of the performance. And then Hugh Jackman holds your hand at the end? Theater Geek Heaven!