Howling 3: The Marsupials (1986/Umbrella Entertainment PAL Region Zero DVD)
Picture:
D Sound: C- Extras: D Film: C-
PLEASE NOTE: This DVD can only be operated on
machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region Zero/0 PAL format software,
and can be ordered from our friends at Umbrella Entertainment at the website address provided at
the end of the review.
Let’s
play a game. I’m going to throw out a
few words and phrases, and you put the word “werewolf” in front of each. Okay? Here
we go: “Marsupial” “Nuns” “Birth Scene”
“Ballerina” and “Happy Ending.” If
that doesn’t peak your interest then you’re obviously looking at the wrong
movie.
The third
installment of the eight-part Howling
series started by Joe Dante, Howling 3
moves the action to Australia where marsupial werewolves live in small towns in
the outback. But one werewolf, the
lovely-but-hairy Jerboa Jerboa, dreams of life in the big city where she finds
love and work on the set of a werewolf movie.
The plot
takes a back seat, in this film, to the more refined pleasures of watching
werewolves shaking their heads violently as they transform, nuns eating people,
and a baby werewolf crawling his way from the birth canal to his mother’s
pouch. And really, there’s nothing wrong
with that, especially since I’m not sure the plot makes any sense anyway. Apparently, by the end of the movie the
werewolves are the good guys and Jerboa is a supermodel.
The
picture, in 1.77:1 widescreen, has that distinct look of a film made in the
1980s that has begun to degrade over the past 20 years. The audio, in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, is
similarly a bit soft. The only extras are a stills gallery, trailer, TV spot,
and an audio commentary from writer/director Philippe Mora.
While Howling 3 is a far cry from the
original Howling, if you’ll excuse
the pun, the third installment is an entirely different beast from the
original. The first Howling is a
decently respected film and held to be one of the classic examples of werewolf
movies. This film is more about the
inherent pleasures of werewolf movies in general as it gently lampoons the
genre. So revisit that list at the
beginning of this review, and if you’re a filmgoer with simple tastes that
enjoys simple pleasures like werewolf ballerinas, then I’d say you’ve come to
the right place.
As noted
above, you can order these imports exclusively from Umbrella at:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
- Matthew Carrick
