"Marian, will you leave my chains alone!"
Some films boggle the mind. WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON is such a movie. Okay, Dean Stockwell (in a zombie-like performance) is a White House press secretary bitten by a gypsy werewolf in Budapest, which curses him with the mark of the beast. So the film seems to be a political satire but veers into moments of sheer bizarreness that you just have to see it to believe it. Stockwell has these instances where the werewolf begins to emerge, and he must move his teeth, pretending that the transformation is taking over, which is rather corny. The transformations take forever—I mean, we're talking minutes here, folks. The werewolf in a suit routine (hearkening back to RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE) is rather hilarious, as well as, the grey hair which Stockwell sprouts when he turns into a lycanthrope. Lots of exteriors of Washington used to fool us into believing that the characters are actually operating business in the White House. Stockwell's Jack Whittier remains with a mostly frozen expression of aloofness for most of the film until the end when he is allowed to explode into hysterics while chained to a chair. Then there's this out-of-nowhere, what-the-hell scene which has to have derived from some sort of acid trip where Jack the Werewolf prowls into the inner bowels of what I guess is the White House (it looks like the inside of a nuclear building) and comes across a midget mad scientist with a Frankenstein monster—you think that is strange wait until you witness Jack the Werewolf licking the midget's face! Wow, that was unexpected and random! Oh, the midget returns briefly to meet with the President of the United States in the bathroom! I can't make this up people. I guess this is supposed to be a comedy because it has all these absurd scenes such as a representative of Communist China meeting with the President in Air Force One as Jack transforms into his grey-fur werewolf, and this erupts into a full scale attack—now imagine this for a minute, a werewolf in combat with the President of the United States, and there are no secret service agents who charge the beast, nope. Hell, the President even uses his coat as if he was a matador and the werewolf a bull. This is the kind of movie typical of the drive-in schlock one was accustomed to back in the 70s. It certainly is the appropriate sort of cinematic slop that would indeed wind up on a show hosted by Elvira. Fans of rancid cinema might eat this up, but for most WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON will be considered a hunk of excrement .
Some films boggle the mind. WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON is such a movie. Okay, Dean Stockwell (in a zombie-like performance) is a White House press secretary bitten by a gypsy werewolf in Budapest, which curses him with the mark of the beast. So the film seems to be a political satire but veers into moments of sheer bizarreness that you just have to see it to believe it. Stockwell has these instances where the werewolf begins to emerge, and he must move his teeth, pretending that the transformation is taking over, which is rather corny. The transformations take forever—I mean, we're talking minutes here, folks. The werewolf in a suit routine (hearkening back to RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE) is rather hilarious, as well as, the grey hair which Stockwell sprouts when he turns into a lycanthrope. Lots of exteriors of Washington used to fool us into believing that the characters are actually operating business in the White House. Stockwell's Jack Whittier remains with a mostly frozen expression of aloofness for most of the film until the end when he is allowed to explode into hysterics while chained to a chair. Then there's this out-of-nowhere, what-the-hell scene which has to have derived from some sort of acid trip where Jack the Werewolf prowls into the inner bowels of what I guess is the White House (it looks like the inside of a nuclear building) and comes across a midget mad scientist with a Frankenstein monster—you think that is strange wait until you witness Jack the Werewolf licking the midget's face! Wow, that was unexpected and random! Oh, the midget returns briefly to meet with the President of the United States in the bathroom! I can't make this up people. I guess this is supposed to be a comedy because it has all these absurd scenes such as a representative of Communist China meeting with the President in Air Force One as Jack transforms into his grey-fur werewolf, and this erupts into a full scale attack—now imagine this for a minute, a werewolf in combat with the President of the United States, and there are no secret service agents who charge the beast, nope. Hell, the President even uses his coat as if he was a matador and the werewolf a bull. This is the kind of movie typical of the drive-in schlock one was accustomed to back in the 70s. It certainly is the appropriate sort of cinematic slop that would indeed wind up on a show hosted by Elvira. Fans of rancid cinema might eat this up, but for most WEREWOLF OF WASHINGTON will be considered a hunk of excrement .