Howling III (1987) User Reviews

Howling down under

[TheLittleSongbird · 3/10 · 3 February 2019]

Found myself really enjoying the first film, an atmospheric and witty film with amazing effects, and of 'The Howling' franchise it is by far the best. Didn't find myself enjoying the sequels as much, when watching them all for franchise completest sake and as someone who appreciates horror hugely, far less as a matter of fact, while not finding them completely disposable. Werewolf films have been done well on film, 'The Howling' is a good example of that but that cannot be said for its sequels.

'Howling III' is not unwatchable and there are far worse films around. It does though have most of the same problems that the second film did to every bit as bad effect, and has problems of its own. Like 'The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf', the sly wit and well-timed eeriness of the first film are completely gone in 'Howling III' and replaced by over-the-top camp and bizarreness, neither of which really done well and there's little charm with either too. It was like watching a completely different franchise.

The scenery is quite nice and there are some atmospheric shots.

Dasha Blahova is suitably formidable and the occasional sly dig at the horror genre was reasonably fun.

Other than Blahova however the acting is dire, with a mix of the actors not looking comfortable in their roles, having little personality or over-compensating. Dame Edna Everage's appearance felt like it was thrown in with no regard as to whether it fitted or not. The all over the place "accents" are best not mentioned but they are only a small part of the problem, it was the character writing and the lack of screen presence that made the acting as bad as it was. The characters are neither interesting or have anything to make one feel anything for them other than frustration and annoyance, some are pointless or make random appearances. The writing is very cheesy with no natural flow, the campness gets really over the top and the stupidity stops being novelty value endearing and becomes intelligence-insulting.

Pacing is erratic, mostly dull as a result of padding out a flimsy story very choppily structured. The direction not only does not make the flaws of the second film but makes them worse. As just said, the story is a mess. There is no tension or suspense here, while it also suffers from being confusing, over-stretched and really tedious from all the dragged out stretches that felt like padding. The production values are poor this time too, the effects and make-up now woefully under-budgeted and often used gratuitously. The soundtrack is very intrusive and doesn't fit the film at all, also sounding cheap, while the ending feels incredibly rushed.

Overall, poorly done but at least it didn't leave me angry. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Wrong. They are marsupials.

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 25 August 2020]

This is the last Howling movie to play in U.S. theaters. Gary Brandner, author of the Howling novels, approved director Philippe Mora's purchase of the rights to his novels. The credits even claim that this is based on his book The Howling III: Echoes. But in truth, it has a different setting and really only has werewolves as sympathetic characters.

Professor Harry Beckmeyer is an Australian anthropologist who has found footage of aborigines sacrificing a wolf creature in 1905. After hearing that a werewolf has killed a man in Siberia, he tries - and fails - to warn the President of the U.S. about the potential of lycan assaults.

Meanwhile, an abused girl who just might so happen to be a werewolf is running away from home. Her name is Jerboa and after meeting a young American named Donny Martin, she gets a role in the horror film, Shape Shifters Part 8. She gets into horror movies and after watching a werewolf film with Donny, she reveals that transformations don't happen that way. He asks her how she knows, she goes full furry beast and he responds as we all would, by engaging her in some interspecies aardvarking.

As the movie wraps, strobe lights cause Jerboa to transform. She runs into the night and is hit by a car. When the doctors try to save her, they notice that she is with child and has a marsupial-like pouch on her belly. Holy cow, this movie! I can't believe that I watched that, much less typed it out for you to read.

There's also a Russian ballerina that happens to be a werewolf, because I guess if you bark at the moon you have really wonderful artistic abilities as a bonus secondary mutation.

Suffice to say that you should stick with this movie, if only to see Dame Edna out of drag as Barry Humphries and a pack of werewolves go wild at the cheapest looking Academy Awards outside of The Lonely Lady.

Phillipe Mora has made some out there movies, like The Beast Within, The Howling II, The Return of Captain Invincible, Pterodactyl Woman from Beverly Hills and many more. His films aren't always great, but they're never boring.

Weirdly enjoyable

[whitetailedwolf · 4/10 · 4 September 2007]

I'm a hardcore werewolf movie fan and I love watching them more then anything(next to romance movies.) So I took it upon myself to start buying all of the howling movies that were made after the original. Most don't even have anything whatsoever to do with the original, and they are all extrememely B-rate.

Other then the fact that the way they filmed this movie sucked, the storyline and some of the acting was pretty appealing. It was actually better acting than most b-rates and you could sum it up in the phrase "The best of the worst." I watch this movie whenever I'm bored mostly, but it's fun to watch and I may be a girl, but that Jeboah sure is a hotty.

Some things didn't make much sense to me, though. For one thing, the constant change in the way the werewolves looked was rather confusing. Another, Donnie had sex with Jeboah even though she had a hairy stomach and a weird pouch. He didn't seem to notice it much before until she was asleep and he had nothing better to do but stare. Weird.

Well anyway, this one is better then most b-rates so give it a chance and enjoy it for what it is...good crap.

Camp or campy?

[uds3 · 25 September 2002]

Misunderstood and ultimately quirky little entry in the HOWLING series. Absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the original film, being simply an antipodean tale of lycanthropic maladjustment!

Way better now than upon its release, the full low-budgetry inanity of Mora's little pet works quite well if you can get on its wavelength, that is, down to a primordial level. Beautiful redhead, Miss Annesley (shame she can't speak as well as she looks) is the aptly named Jerboa, a girl with a rare secret. Biologically er, different, she has the cutest little pouch just above her more "R" rated parts, which following a night of passion, soon gains the tiniest of new inhabitants in a scene one can only describe as "different!"

A subject of extreme interest to the medical profession, trivia buffs may notice none other than film historian and TV presenter Bill Collins making his rather pedestrian debut here as a hospital doctor, somewhat enamoured with Jerboa's never-seen-before physiology.

Played strictly for laughs and non-conformist fun, the budget constraints were such that at the point of anyone actually being attacked by a werewolf, all the viewer ever gets to see is a back-pedalling actor with varying expressions of laugh-out-loud fright. In hindsight I think this adds to the quirkiness rather than detracts!

Ever reliable Barry Otto (first up on anyone's list with a fully left-field flick in the offing) is Professor Harry Beckmeyer who takes it upon himself ultimately to protect Jerboa from those who would harm her. Michael Pate and son Christopher make a suitably stilted (as in "What the hell am I doing in a film like this?) contribution and Australia's grandest thespian Frank Thring, camps it up shamefully as a Z-Grade horror-movie director. Pontius Pilate (In Ben Hur) to THIS???? Hmmm, its a worry!

IN the wash-up, what we have here a one-off film experience, one anyone can miss and be none the worse off for! If you ARE unavoidably entrapped one night, well at least you can say, "Yeah I've seen HOWLING III, my life is now fulfilled!"

You'd need a lot of beer to wash this one down.

[smash7268 · 2/10 · 14 November 2009]

The box says 'just when you thought it was safe to go down under.' That's got to be a reference to the pouch, right? That's no accident. No one slips on bananas.

This movie was difficult to watch. Confusing and directionless plot, strange characters that appear without warning or purpose no logical connection between scenes...its a mess.

I find it difficult to believe that this film ever saw the big screen. The effects were laughably bad. As far as acting...I caught a little schadenfreude off the quiet desperation of some bit players, particularly the announcer from the final scene. I guess Hollywood has its share of heartbreak.

This film was a disaster, just a disaster. That sad magic mix of bad and boring. I sat down tonight with a whole pile of Howling sequels. This was my first and it fills me with trepidation.

A Different Take On Lycanthropes

[Rainey-Dawn · 5/10 · 6 October 2017]

This one does not really follow in suit with The Howling 1 & Part 2 - even they were very different from one another. Howling 3 takes us on a government chase trying to find these lycanthropes. This clan can have sex with humans, they have pups that they carry in their pouches similar to a kangaroo - and why not they are an Australian clan and they have ties with a Russian clan.

The film gets scattered with it's story telling, as if they just filmed some ideas then threw them together to complete the movie. But it is a rather fun movie to watch - unintentionally funny at times.

If you are into werewolves it's worth a watch - but really for only those that are really into lycanthropes.

5/10

Is this the most catastrophically awful movie ever made?

[ExpendableMan · 1/10 · 18 February 2007]

The original Howling was a fun little Werewolf flick. Nothing too serious, just a simple but original premise, some well-handled tension, cool makeup effects and a nice healthy dose of gore and violence to round things off. Compared to its most immediate rival, An American Werewolf in London though it comes up second place, so why in the name of heaven it spawned so many follow ups is something of a mystery. The series is up to its seventh entry thus far and if the diminishing laws of sequels is anything to go on, they must be unspeakably terrible because Howling 3 (the only one I've been bored/curious/stupid enough to sit through) is so bad I'd have to say it's one of the worst films I've ever seen.

The principle reason for this is the premise, as director Philippe Mora decides to do away with the original's everyday people versus rampaging monsters approach and instead, provides us with what must be the only Marsupial Werewolf Romance Epic in movie history. The script is massively overambitious, the acting so bad the cast might as well have been made of cardboard and any promise of bloodthirsty violence a la the original goes forever unsatisfied. You might get a few laughs out of it, but ultimately it's just a very poor film.

The overambitious storyline considers an anthropologist, Dr Beckmeyer (Inspector Clouseau lookalike Barry Otto) and his studies of a race of marsupial werewolf people discovered in Australia. Mixed up in all this is a Russian ballet dancer who is secretly a non-marsupial werewolf herself come to breed with the Australians, a B-movie actress from the countryside who is also a werewolf and an idiot movie talent spotter who's fallen in love with her. So blindly in love with her in fact that he doesn't bat an eyelid when he first notices how hairy she is. Dr Beckmeyer is determined to prove that the werewolves are not to be frightened of and that studying them is the best approach, the Government is not so certain and wants to destroy them and eventually, after a painfully long set up, he joins up with the lycanthropes in an attempt to lead them to safety in the outback.

You might think a film with 'Marsupial Werewolves' in might be entertaining. It isn't. The delivery is slow and tedious, with characters and subplots being introduced with no concern for cohesion and what should have been a campy, violent and fun film instead is dull, pretentious twaddle. Indeed, the only attraction to come from this is Imogen Annesley, a very attractive young woman whose career has failed to take off since the high point of stripping naked in a barn, giving birth to a rodent thing and having it crawl up her belly and into a kangaroo pouch on her abdomen. She might be gorgeous in a "I wish you weren't a hideous mutant freak monster" kind of way but she's more or less the only noteworthy thing deserving praise in the entire sorry enterprise. Oh and Dame Edna pops up at the end.

So there you have it, a werewolf movie with a humanitarian message. Great, that's just what we needed. If you're a film student looking for a lesson in how not to make a movie you might just be capable of scraping some little residue of a hint out of this, but if not, I'd advise avoiding this movie like the bubonic plague.

Revenge of the 80's: The sequels.

[Captain_Couth · 5/10 · 22 June 2004]

Howling III (1987) was a big improvement over the last film, part two. But by all means it's not a great one either. Philippe Mora directs once again but this time with better results. The film takes place in Australia and the werewolves this time are marsupial in origin. Filled with a not of in jokes and tongue in cheek humor, this film is not that bad but the problem is that the film get's a little to glad handy and it collapses upon itself. Oh well, Mr. Mora should know better next time because he almost got it right. A plethora of aussie film stars have supporting roles as well, A big step over part two but nowhere as brilliant as part one.

Maybe next time!

Slightly recommended.

C

For some reason, the director went Mad Max and made part three P.G.-13. He should have stuck to his guns and made it an R rated flick. What happens when you take a film of this genre and try to conform it for the major market? You'll lose money and produce a mediocre film.

xxx

Could have been a classic... if only...

[devinecomic · 3/10 · 7 July 2005]

Howling 3 is yet another horror effort, where excellent ideas and even the mood and atmosphere of a horror classic are not cultivated or nurtured throughout the film.

I was brought up in the era of "The American Werewolf in London", definitely the classic, archetypal werewolf flick. Tough competition by anyone's standards. Yet Howling 3 has just as many good ideas, just as much depth, just as much potential... but just doesn't make it.

The basis of the film resides upon some old Cine8 footage of a werewolf's capture by some natives. Grainy, snowy, short lived images, set the scene well, and could be perceived as scary. The idea of the werewolf being a type of marsupial species, a separate development of human life is interesting, and could be scary in that they have always lived amongst us. Separate werewolf societies, driven to the bleakest habitable places on the planet, but in contact with each other spiritually and genetically... yes, yes, this is definitely going somewhere.

And then three of said werewolves dress up as Nuns, and travel to the big city to retrieve their runaway teen-wolfette, and gain entry to a fancy dress party having changed into actual habit-wearing wolf people... oh perleeease!

A serious film, even a horror, can carry some comedy, but in Howling 3 the comedy is inappropriate, badly timed, and too farcical for words. The more serious horror aspects of the film being ruined by these interruptions. I remained unconvinced by any of the man-to-wolf changes, in fact, they were equally farcical, with their obvious "fur means fear" reliance.

So, a film with potential, which obviously had serious horror intent, became a farce, even a spoof, by it's own making. A real shame and a real sham all in one. Stick to "American Werewolf in London" or even "Dog Soldiers" for that fur-fear-fix!! I rated a "3"

Imbecilic in-name-only sequel

[gridoon · 4/10 · 29 March 2005]

After the complete failure of a sequel that "Howling II" was, Philippe Mora returned for yet another installment, trying a different (more spoofy) approach this time....but it didn't work out much better. Most of the blame must go not to the direction, but to the awful, disconnected script, which makes the film feel thrown-together almost at random. The werewolf effects are mostly pathetic, though those involving Imogen Annesley's newborn "baby" somehow manage to be good (and disgusting). Obviously this film was also intended to be a spoof, but it could have used more subtlety: we know that that director is meant to be an Alfred Hitchcock - lookalike, we don't need to hear him talk about Janet Leigh and the shower scene in "Psycho", we know that "flow" is "wolf" spelled backwards, we don't need to see it reflected on a mirror, etc. Perhaps the only two good things about "Howling III" are two of its actors: Annesley (definitely the cutest werewolf I've ever seen) and Barry Otto, who gives an honest performance as the compassionate scientist. (*1/2)

"We are turning into a little monster. Aren't we?"

[lost-in-limbo · 5/10 · 13 November 2010]

What comes to mind when you think of director Philippe Mora. Who's that I might hear… but Philippe Mora is truly a one-of-a-kind filmmaker that cult fans would know in some shape (Mad Dog Morgan comes to light). For good or bad… his ideas are unique (if crazy) but the end product is usually an unhinged mess. A baffling mess. How did it come to this mess? Its head scratching, although entertaining at that. I thought Mora's "Howling 2" was strangely bad… however he tops it with the Australian based "The Marsupials: The Howling III". Well more so in the bewildering weirdness, although it felt purposely campy despite some mock serious contributions. Not as incompetent, but hypnotically tacky with its beaming personality. Mora takes one audaciously original idea (a twist on folklore to relate to specific culture and sense of place; marsupial werewolves!) and clumsily patches it together into an Aussie werewolf soap opera filled with shocks and laughs. Like no other could do. He's a man of pure vision who's never heard of the word cohesion. Maybe he doesn't know the definition. Please could you put in to a sentence. The direction of the material simply lacks cohesion. You could say that it might just benefit from that, as everything is so outrageous so why confine it in a sensible manner. Mora's surrealist direction is just as random and erratic, like the busy plot and choppy editing. There's no denying how ambitious the concept is, as it's quite different from the norm. Where else can you get werewolf nuns, a Soviet werewolf ballerina, aboriginals that don't look like aboriginals, a determined but love struck Barry Otto (a sincerely good turn), an eye-opening birth scene that sees a baby marsupial werewolf in a pouch (while the father doesn't seemed to be too fazed by making love with a she-wolf and having a werewolf baby… "It's beautiful") and for the locals the never ageing Bill Collins, Frank Thring portraying b-grade horror director and Barry Humphries' Dame Edna getting close and personal to a snarling werewolf (which could be seen as a homage to Dante's original's ending). There are references aplenty from home grown to feature films (like the amusing quip in the cinema --- gotta love the facials of the audience, it's priceless), but being a Sydney resident it was nice to see some familiar scenery on screen. When the action leaves the city (which looks like it's during a heatwave) and heads out bush to the town of "Flow" is when I found it to fall away. Really the werewolves are not the threat, but the humans that don't understand and fear them turn out to be. Specialists are called in to deal with this threat. These so called military specialists (two of them) are anything but… and I don't think it's purposely done either. The local hick hunting party seem better equipped and last much longer then those nervous wrecks. The performances of the leads (Imogen Annesely, Lee Biolos, Max Fairchild, Dasha Blahova and Ralph Cotterhill) are fittingly good. The make-up FX of the werewolves was quite uneven, cheap and rubbery although with some colourful shots. It's laid-back air and offbeat charm is simply hard to resist.

Horror-comedy with a heart

[bazza-4 · 8/10 · 3 January 1999]

Despite this being one of many sequels to an acclaimed original, don't let this fact put you off from watching this under-acknowledged film. "Howling III - The Marsupials" is a surprisingly good werewolf spoof with a twist; set in Australia (and let's face it, an Aussie horror movie is a rarity - only "Body Melt" and "Razorback" spring to mind), it deals with the plight of a dwindling pack of marsupial werewolves who are in danger of becoming extinct.

The movie focuses its attention more on character development and emotion rather than the usual random slashings that prevail in such similar movies. The premise is novel and therefore makes for some interesting watching and genuine involvement. Horror fans need not dismay, as there is also a fair share of scares and realistic (if a little corny) human-to-wolf metamorphosis sequences. Some nice welcome comic touches are present, including a Hitchcockian horror movie director played by Frank Thring, relishing every moment of the role. Barry Otto is likeable as the anthropologist who joins the werewolf clan to help save them. And let's not forget the exquisite Imogen Annesley as Jerboa, who shines as a beautiful young human marsupial, escaping from her abusive stepfather and running off to the big city (Sydney) where she finds fame and romance (no, she's not Joan Collins).

The movie comes off quite well on the whole, and has a very moralistic and humane message, dealing with the preservation of dying species.

Imaginative, unique... and absolutely does not deserve all this hate.

[capkronos · 7/10 · 31 August 2014]

Having no relation whatsoever to THE HOWLING (1981) or HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF (1985), this is pretty much a standalone film... and what a strange film it is! Director Philippe Mora had previously made the critically-abhorred second entry and wasn't completely happy with the finished results himself. Since he'd purchased the rights to the "Howling" brand name from the original author, he decided to take a second stab at making a comic werewolf flick. Though the opening credits claims it's based on Brandner's third book in the series, it in fact has nothing at all to do with the book and is based on an original idea by the director himself. Aside from the abysmal HOWLING: NEW MOON RISING (1995), this is the lowest-rated "Howling" title here on IMDb, which I find utterly perplexing. This is extremely bizarre and sometimes off-putting in its weirdness, but it's also frequently hilarious, often very clever and filled with interesting ideas. Instead of being the 2nd lowest rated film in this series on here, I actually think it deserves to be the 2nd HIGHEST rated.

Silent film footage from 1905 depicting Australian natives tying a werewolf to a tree and killing it as well as current reports of werewolf killings in the village of Leovich in Siberia send anthropology professor Dr. Harry Beckmeyer (Barry Otto) - later joined by colleague Professor Sharp (Ralph Cotterill) - on a quest to prove the creatures actually exist. Meanwhile, in the small village of Flow, Jerboa (beautiful Imogen Annesley) is getting fed up dealing with her abusive stepfather Thylo (Max Fairchild) and flees her tribe. After a bus ride, she ends up in Sydney and is immediately discovered by Donny Martin (Lee Biolos), assistant director on a horror movie called "Shape Shifters Part 8." He takes her to meet director Jack Citron (Frank Thring, doing his best Hitchcock impersonation), who immediately casts her in his film. Well, if she doesn't mind "being gang-raped by four monsters." And she doesn't. After he takes her to the theater to see "It Came from Uranus," Donny and Jerboa end up falling in love, but what he doesn't realize is that she's actually a werewolf... and a marsupial one at that! Things really take off into the realm of strange once the scientists get hold of a pregnant Jerboa and her tribe sends three female tribeswomen decked out as nuns to get her back.

This movie is literally all over the place with its tone. It begins as a campy horror-comedy with a bizarre sense of humor and then, in the second half, begins aiming more for poignancy. It doesn't always work, but it's a consistently interesting film and one of the most original werewolf films ever conceived. Mora deserves more credit than he has gotten for trying something completely different here. The plot makes room for an odd werewolf birthing scene (it's a cute little thing that lives in the protagonists belly), a posse of hunters sent to eradicate the werewolves with machine guns and bazookas (!) and a Russian werewolf ballerina (Dagmar Bláhová) who flees her homeland to meet up with the Aussie tribe and ends up transforming mid-performance. Hell, even the President of the United States (played by Michael Pate) gets involved at one point!

The werewolves themselves are handled completely differently than in any other film of this type. These are not monsters who kill for pleasure or even food, and they are not cursed humans, they are depicted as a misunderstood separate species who resort to violence only when they have to as a means of survival. The film draws a fascinating parallel between the werewolves and the thylacine, which were striped marsupials commonly called "Tasmanian Tigers" that lived in Australia and Tasmania until the mid-1930s are were driven to extinction by man. Like the werewolves here, the thylacine had patterned stripes along their backs and were misunderstood and feared by humans, who wrongfully blamed them for killing their sheep and livestock when that wasn't actually the case. The few surviving thylacine in zoos were apparently mishandled and poorly treated until they existed no more. The film includes rare film footage of the now-extinct animal taken at a London zoo.

The expected lycanthrope mythology is also refreshingly thrown right out of the window. Full moons and silver bullets don't factor in at all and the transformations of man to wolf can be willed by the werewolves or caused by fear, stress or flashing lights. Mora also includes both nods to his previous films (a poster for THE BEAST WITHIN [1982] hangs above a bed) and some amusing references to the first "Howling" film, including a mock Oscar ceremony with a cameo appearance by Dame Edna (Barry Humphries) directly referencing the the original film's ending.

Pathetic

[thoms_shane-1 · 1/10 · 16 January 2007]

I think this has got to be one of the worst films to ever have been produced in Australia.... Imagine almost every Australian 70's/80's soap star celebrity thrown into one big silly mess of a script that isn't even scary or thrilling....Bad effects, bad acting and an embarrassing anticipation which emanates from the actors that they may perhaps have been starring in a huge blockbuster horror....think again. The soundtrack was bad (just think of those pointless old synth pop 80's flip sides) ....as were the costumes. The wolves looked like paper mache puppets made by pre-school children. Avoid this stinker....its not even funny in a cheesy way...its just a waste of time.

ouch

[chris233 · 1/10 · 21 February 2005]

Yeah so i made two no three mistakes with this one, the first being that i bought it, i actually spent 5 dollars on it, new, two i watched it all i got out of that was a good nap and three i did not burn it after wards please just save yourself the trouble and bypass this movie completely you will save a lot of time this way. While the movie did display an interesting if not slightly insane plot it did have some funny although under budget special effects. Also the acting in was mediocre at best you could never really tell when the actors where being serious or not. So if you decide to watch this movie do it with some friends so you can all laugh about how ridiculously stupid it really is.

Extremely poor quality werewolf horror.

[unakaczynski · 3/10 · 14 November 2005]

Howling III: The Marsupials (Quickie Review) This film revolves around a group of werewolves of some sort that live in Australia and are marsupials with a backdrop where a film crew is making a really awful werewolf film. Almost as bad as this one.

The effects are sub-standard at best and poor when compared to the original, far superior, Howling. Mediocre acting carry along one of the film world's first bastard PG-13 sequels in a previously R-rated franchise. As we all know, the Robocop, Alien, and Predator franchises are just a few following instances of such creative destruction. The writing is fantastically weak and cliché at times with the movie rounding out with an ending that just screams that the writer was just in a hurry to finish up his monstrosity.

Recommended to: Not really anybody, werewolf fans may hate this as much as they tend to have hated Wolf due to it varying wildly from werewolf norms. The Marsupials could've been a good idea, but they went about it all wrong. 3/10 www.ResidentHazard.com

Low budget horror

[Steve-219 · 1/10 · 29 December 1998]

Saw this film on TV the other night for the first and last time. Low budget special effects and production. Saved only by some nice Sydney Harbour and Blue Mountains scenery, and the beautiful Imogen Annesley.

What a joke!

[007535 · 7 October 2005]

my friend and I were bored, walking through my hometown, so we headed into Crazy Clarks to the DVD section. Naturally, the DVDs in question were of no commendable standard, but rifling through the various self-help and unknown films my friend found one which made her laugh out loud, not only at the ridiculous title, but the blurb. We bought it for a laugh, as it was only two dollars. The next hour and a half brought many a squeal, but none in fright or suspense, but in the laughter that the poor acting, effects, and script brought us. By the time the film ended with a tacked on "cut", possibly the worst twist in the history of awful twists, we were in stitches, wondering how on earth this pile of junk ever got to be made.

Yes, it is bad but also has some positives

[Stevieboy666 · 5/10 · 1 February 2018]

Comical Australian entry in the Howling series which has nothing to do with the first two films. In fact this is not your usual werewolf movie. These can change at any time, not just the Full Moon, and is based on a unique Australian variant of this creature. The good points: plenty of quirky Aussie humour, Imogen Annesley looks great as the main werewolf character, nice use of Sydney Harbour & outback locations, decent effects for the baby marsupial & no shortage of werewolf action. And of course an hilarious cameo by Dame Edna! The bad: much bad acting (Australians seem to really struggle doing American accents), silly script, some of the worst looking werewolves to appear on screen & an annoyingly, poor 80's soundtrack that really dates it. I can understand why this movie gets a lot of hate, it certainly is not for everybody. But, if like me, you can laugh at a bad movie then it's not all bad. Rated 18 here in the UK, seems pretty harsh as in terms of sex, language or violence it's pretty tame.

Very odd Australian werewolf movie

[Wuchakk · 4/10 · 16 April 2017]

Released in 1987 and written/directed by Philippe Mora, "Howling III: The Marsupials" chronicles events in Sydney, Australia, when a tribe of werewolves is discovered in the Outback with links to the thylacine (THAHY-la-sahyn), the so-called Tasmanian tiger. A young female (Imogen Annesley) escapes the abuse of the pack and flees to Sidney where she meets a guy (Leigh Biolos) who assists in getting her a part in a horror film that's being shot in the city and directed by a Hitchcock wannabe (Frank Thring). Meanwhile, an anthropologist (Barry Otto) and a professor (Ralph Cotterill) encounter a Russian ballerina (Dasha Blahova) who leads them to Flow in the Outback, where the werewolves live, led by an odd-looking hulk (Max Fairchild). Then a government task force attacks the pack (DUN dun dun).

This is an extremely offbeat movie, even by werewolf flick standards, and even considering Mora's previous eccentric work with the franchise, 1985's "Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf." Mora was disappointed with what the studio did to his previous movie so he took full control with this one. Both of these sequels are unworthy low-budget successors to the excellent "The Howling" (1981); and yet they have their points of amusement & interest and I enjoy viewing them from time to time. "The Howling II" is worthwhile in a so-bad-it's-almost-good way whereas "Howling III" is more of the same, but switches the location from Transylvania to Australia and is more ambitious. Both movies mix goofy camp with seriousness for an odd mix, with "Howling III" in particular trying for more gravity.

While I'm giving this a relatively low rating, there are some endearing elements in addition to its already noted eccentricities: Blahova is formidable as the ballerina with an impressive set of teeth (you'll see what I mean); there's a brief horror movie parody sequence; the footage of the supposedly extinct thylacine is very interesting; there's a love story that's actually kind of touching (and I'm not tawkin' bout Jerboa & Donny); you can't help but start to sympathize with the werewolves by the second half; and the climax nicely ties into the first film. Despite these positives, the movie's too strange and questionably put together to be compelling.

The film runs 98 minutes and was shot in Sydney & New South Wales, Australia.

GRADE: C-

Disappointing

[culwin · 3/10 · 17 September 2000]

This movie is very disappointing, considering that it had real possibilities to be decent. Every time you think it might start to get good, it doesn't. Most of the acting is REALLY bad. The plot wanders aimlessly. The town where the werewolves live is called "Flow" (Wolf backwards. Real creative, guys.) Why are there 3 werewolves dressed up like nuns?? Who knows. Dame Edna (Barry Humphries) has a cameo. Imogen Annesley is the only good part of this movie, for what its worth.

Oh my God.

[nufffairy · 1/10 · 1 December 2001]

Oh my God.

Hey, hey - it's not my fault - the blasphemy, I mean...it's the movie.

I had nothing better to so, so I watched this movie on t.v. - well what I could abide at any rate. And, well, all I can say is if you find yourself in a similar situation - go out of your way to FIND something better to do.

No substance, no believable props, or acting for that matter...this reeked of a low budget (which in some cases works out just fine...just not this time). I just seemed to me like they weren't even trying to make anything really fit to be watched.

Sorry guys, better luck next time...that is if there's a next time. I doubt any sane person would let this happen again.

1/10

"Just when you thought it was safe to go down under"

[Rautus · 8/10 · 4 February 2007]

Howling III is the first sequel that brings us a new plot and new characters, the plot is basically about a group of Marsupial Werewolves living in the outback but one of them named Jaboa hates her tribe and leaves only to be followed by three of them dressed as nuns.

She meets up with Donny Martin who is working on a film meanwhile Prof. Harry Beckmire and his friend Prof. Sharp are trying to uncover the Werewolf myth, Harry believes Werewolves are not evil creatures but a evolution.

Soon a Russian ballerina exposes her Werewolf form on stage and is taken foe Harry to study only for her to break out and kill the Detective who caught her.

Donny meets with Jaboa in the outback and soon joins with Harry, Olga and Thilo who are trying to avoid the hunters and Omega Team.

Howling III is different from most Werewolf films since they are the good guys in this film unlike the supernatural appeal they had in Howling II. Basically Stirba's powers make Werewolves seem supernatural.

One of the most memorable lines is the tracker telling the hunters about the Werewolf spirit Eh Moonan. "He has long teeth, imagine if he put one tooth in you it would come out of your arsehole" A decent Werewolf film. 8/10

There are more things in Heaven and Earth, than you can shake a boomerang at.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 16 May 2019]

The beautiful Imogen Annesley stars as Jerboa, a marsupial werewolf who runs away from her tribe, ending up in the movie business, where she entrances a young man named Donny (Lee Biolos). The trouble begins when the true nature of her anatomy becomes obvious to authorities. Meanwhile, a scientist named Beckmeyer (Barry Otto) and his associate Sharp (Ralph Cotterill) go about proving that others of Jerboas' species exist. This leads to a standard story thread where some in authority see the marsupial werewolf as a threat that must be eliminated; Beckmeyer wants to do everything he can to spare them.

"Based" on Gary Brandners' novel, but re-imagined by director Philippe Mora (who'd also directed the infamous "Howling II"), this is a low budget production that proudly wears its Aussie origins on its sleeve. The words "upbeat" and "eccentric" definitely apply to this original take on the sub genre. Mora goes for a tongue in cheek approach, yet the film is not devoid of an odd, interesting poignancy. This is due to the fact that some of the main characters are rather endearing, and the viewer may very well wish for a happy ending for them. The werewolf effects are pretty damn cheesy, which helps to create a feeling of camp at times.

Annesley is not a great actress, but at least she's pleasing to watch. The eclectic cast includes a couple of Aussie icons in cameo roles: Michael Pate as the President, Frank Thring (who's quite funny) as an Alfred Hitchcock-style director, and Barry Humphries, who turns up at the end as his Dame Edna Everage character. Otto, Max Fairchild as Thylo, and Dagmar Blahova as Olga are all pretty good considering the nutty nature of the film in which they're appearing.

The "Howling" franchise does have a reputation for horrible sequels, but in truth (or at least this viewers' humble opinion), most of them do have entertaining attributes about them. And "Howling III" has a quirky charm that makes it impossible to just dismiss outright.

Six out of 10.

Tedious n terrible.

[Fella_shibby · 1/10 · 3 June 2021]

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

This third part is the only PG-13 rated entry in the Howling film series and a terrible one.

It has annoying flickering lights n screamings.

The werewolves costumes are a big lol.

None of the kills are shown properly n ther is zero gore.

It has lots of shaky cam during the attack scenes n fast cut editing, that one cannot make out what is going on.

Since its a PG-13, there is zero nudity but has bushy hair on boobs n pubic side.