When Gary Brandner finally cast the monster from his mind, and then onto paper, he gave it a familiar form. By that time, werewolves weren’t uncommon to see in Brandner’s industry, however, the late fiction author wanted to break the monotony. So rather than having a single werewolf pop up in a small town, 1977’s The Howling featured a whole community of werewolves. This small twist on the growing genre helped make Brandner’s first horror novel a success as well as attract the attention of Hollywood. Now, sure enough, creative license is part of the deal in these page-to-screen adaptations, yet Joe Dante’s ‘81 rendering is so distinct from its basis that it’s practically a different beast.

The Howling is a far cry from 1933’s The Werewolf of Paris, the Guy Endore-penned novel that many consider to be the Dracula of werewolf literature. Brandner’s...