"The Howling" was a horror movie that had horror in it, Howling II is a horror movie that's hilarious!! It almost makes fun of itself!! Christopher Lee was so funny, he should of won an Oscar! And as for the rest of the cast, they make "Airplane" look like a drama. You'd think they picked these guys off the streets. And as for "Stirba- the Werewolf Whatever", her character was SOOOOOOOOO funny, she made the film a comedy!! I mean, "Stirba". Every time they mentioned her name I had to stop the tape and run into the next room, crying with laughter. Yes, I own this film. Of course, I bought it because I'm a collector and to pass the time by! Usually, you wouldn't find the content of this film funny, as my father found out the hard way, but it's presented in such style that... well, it's very hard to explain. Howling II is so bad, it's funny!! And that's all there is to it!!
134 Reviews
A real mess with some eye candy.
TOMASBBloodhound5 August 2007
From the moment Christopher Lee puts on a pair of punk sunglasses and tries to sneak into a punk rock club, you know you've got a stinker on your hands! This film had potential. Beneath all of the sludge there are the remnants of what could have been crafted into a decent film, if not an interesting one. The final product is a real mess, however. Aside from the gratuitous nudity and some very attractive women, Howling II winds up being a laughable excuse for a horror film. Christopher Lee gives it a nugget of credibility, but even he cannot raise it above the level of crap.
Having never seen any of the other films in this series, this critic will be forced to accept on face value that this is a genuine continuation of the events in part one. We start off at a funeral for one of the characters from the original, and within the first ten minutes we find ourselves in Transylvania with a small group of heroes ready to battle a coven of werewolves. The film is paced fairly well, and there are not too many dead spots. The action is there; it just isn't filmed well. One bright spot is the music of a punk band called Babel. Though their song is played quite often, it is rather catchy.
The problems with this film are great in number. First off, the acting is worse than pitiful. Christopher Lee is good enough, but that's where it ends. The two leads Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe are lacking in just about everything you'd want for such characters. The writing is wretched, the editing redundant, and the direction amateurish. There are a couple nice special effect gimmicks, but the cheesy ones far out weigh them in number. Sybil Danning is nice to look at, but her acting performance is less than satisfactory. Judd Omen looks the part he plays, but his voice and acting are unconvincing to say the least. Much of the dialog is in an unintelligible language that may or may not be Latin.
I liked the general idea for the story. I always enjoy stories of true believers out to battle seemingly invincible forces of evil. One scene where a small group of good guys are trekking through a dark forest and shooting down a bunch of werewolves is even kind of exciting. Kind of. Maybe a bigger budget or a better director could have made the rest of the film a bit more compelling. 3 of 10 stars.
The Hound.
Side note: As of this writing, the censors at youtube.com have still not taken down the ending credits with Sybil Danning ripping off her top several times while the Babel song is playing! Catch it while you can!
Having never seen any of the other films in this series, this critic will be forced to accept on face value that this is a genuine continuation of the events in part one. We start off at a funeral for one of the characters from the original, and within the first ten minutes we find ourselves in Transylvania with a small group of heroes ready to battle a coven of werewolves. The film is paced fairly well, and there are not too many dead spots. The action is there; it just isn't filmed well. One bright spot is the music of a punk band called Babel. Though their song is played quite often, it is rather catchy.
The problems with this film are great in number. First off, the acting is worse than pitiful. Christopher Lee is good enough, but that's where it ends. The two leads Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe are lacking in just about everything you'd want for such characters. The writing is wretched, the editing redundant, and the direction amateurish. There are a couple nice special effect gimmicks, but the cheesy ones far out weigh them in number. Sybil Danning is nice to look at, but her acting performance is less than satisfactory. Judd Omen looks the part he plays, but his voice and acting are unconvincing to say the least. Much of the dialog is in an unintelligible language that may or may not be Latin.
I liked the general idea for the story. I always enjoy stories of true believers out to battle seemingly invincible forces of evil. One scene where a small group of good guys are trekking through a dark forest and shooting down a bunch of werewolves is even kind of exciting. Kind of. Maybe a bigger budget or a better director could have made the rest of the film a bit more compelling. 3 of 10 stars.
The Hound.
Side note: As of this writing, the censors at youtube.com have still not taken down the ending credits with Sybil Danning ripping off her top several times while the Babel song is playing! Catch it while you can!
Cheesy fun.
bigpappa1--225 May 2000
A man investigating the death of his sister, discovers she is a werewolf and part of a werewolf cult in Transylvanina. The make-up, effects, plot, acting, direction, etc. are either pretty much non-existent or down right silly, but the film is entertaining in a cheesy way and Danning rips off her clothes (again). Bonus at the end credits, that scene with Danning is repeated over and over again. 5 out of 10.
Not a sequel, a send-up!
uds32 July 2002
I think perhaps the most apt comment should go to Christopher Lee himself who has often described HOWLING II as his own "personal embarrassment!" Since we have the film in our own library (in BETA format of course) we are probably the only family world-wide has seen it upwards of 20 times over the last 17 years....never fails to give us a laugh...I would almost "miss" it now! We all just watched it again tonight!
El cheapo film-making any which way you want to look at it...script, acting, direction, editing, production values, fx...love the early shot of the "werewolf" where they have only given the poor guy a "furry arm" the rest is normal! But hey...this is a fun movie....how many other films do you get to see a girl rip her bra off seventeen times during the closing credits. Sybil Danning should have received a "special Oscar" for this alone!
Tries to link itself to the original with the most pathetic re-shot footage of Dee Wallace Stone's demise in the original that looks absolutely nothing like her, not to mention the "body" in the coffin. Still ya gotta love the theme "In the pale pale night of the moon above"....
Hell, give it a break!
El cheapo film-making any which way you want to look at it...script, acting, direction, editing, production values, fx...love the early shot of the "werewolf" where they have only given the poor guy a "furry arm" the rest is normal! But hey...this is a fun movie....how many other films do you get to see a girl rip her bra off seventeen times during the closing credits. Sybil Danning should have received a "special Oscar" for this alone!
Tries to link itself to the original with the most pathetic re-shot footage of Dee Wallace Stone's demise in the original that looks absolutely nothing like her, not to mention the "body" in the coffin. Still ya gotta love the theme "In the pale pale night of the moon above"....
Hell, give it a break!
The werewolves looked as if they are bigfoot in monkey costumes.
Fella_shibby2 June 2021
I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs.
Revisited it recently as i am on a Howling marathon.
This film doesnt have any scare, there is absolutely no tension or suspense.
This one has one of the best eyeball horror scene.
And that same scene is attached to another one where Sybil repeatedly shows off her boobs. It perfectly fits there as if the man's eyes are squirting blood due to Sybil's nudity.
Do check out the end credit scene where they repeatedly (17 times) show Sybil showing off her boobs and the various characters' facial n eye reactions are a big lol.
This is a direct sequel to the 1981 film The Howling and has the brother of the deceased Karen, who along with a werewolf hunter, try to defeat a werewolf queen Stirba and stop a werewolf group's plans to conquer the world.
The film is notorious for the atrocious acting of Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe.
Danning wearing sunglasses indoors n her outfits, specially the metallic armoured outfit will definitely make today's audiences lol.
The werewolves in this movie looked more like bigfoot, monkeys n men in monkey costumes.
Revisited it recently as i am on a Howling marathon.
This film doesnt have any scare, there is absolutely no tension or suspense.
This one has one of the best eyeball horror scene.
And that same scene is attached to another one where Sybil repeatedly shows off her boobs. It perfectly fits there as if the man's eyes are squirting blood due to Sybil's nudity.
Do check out the end credit scene where they repeatedly (17 times) show Sybil showing off her boobs and the various characters' facial n eye reactions are a big lol.
This is a direct sequel to the 1981 film The Howling and has the brother of the deceased Karen, who along with a werewolf hunter, try to defeat a werewolf queen Stirba and stop a werewolf group's plans to conquer the world.
The film is notorious for the atrocious acting of Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe.
Danning wearing sunglasses indoors n her outfits, specially the metallic armoured outfit will definitely make today's audiences lol.
The werewolves in this movie looked more like bigfoot, monkeys n men in monkey costumes.
Why in God's Name Did Christopher Lee Do This Piece of Trash?
domino100319 October 2003
Warning: Spoilers
After watching this, I had lost a little respect for Christopher Lee (This has passed over time). This film was utter garbage. First, they tried to recreate the ending from the first "Howling," with incredibly bad make-up. Then they try to turn it into a sad excuse of a werewolf porn film! The plot sucks and the whole film is just AWFUL!!!! A brother of a werewolf victim from the first film (From the look of it, it was SUPPOSED to be Dee Wallace Stone)teams up with Lee and another woman to destroy the group of werewolves, lead by Sybil Danning, who seems to be naked all the time.
This is not even worth renting (Unless you want to waste your time and money watching the nudity.). Try to catch it on cable instead. It would be so chopped up, it may actually make sense.
This is not even worth renting (Unless you want to waste your time and money watching the nudity.). Try to catch it on cable instead. It would be so chopped up, it may actually make sense.
Possibly the only film ever made to feature a Transylvanian dwarf whose eyes explode.
poolandrews23 January 2005
Warning: Spoilers
The Howling II starts as it means to go on with a bizarre and surreal opening narration by Christopher Lee whose image is imposed over a moving star field, oh and a skeleton appears as well for some reason. He says "for it's written the inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with her blood. And I saw her sip upon a hairy beast and she held forth a golden challis full of the filthiest fornication's and upon her forehead was written, behold I am the great Mother of #an inaudible word I couldn't make out no matter how many times I rewound the tape and tried to, sorry# and all abominations of the Earth". This opening narration means nothing at all and is just downright bizarre. After the opening credits which are set over shots of Transylvanian architecture we get an on screen caption that informs us we're in 'Los Angeles, California U.S.A. City of the Angels'. I knew I was in for a long 86 minutes. It's probably not too long after the events of the original Howling (1981) and it's Karen White's funeral. After the ceremony Karen's brother Ben (Reb Brown) is spoken to by an 'occult investigator' called Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee) who says that Karen is a Werewolf and that she will come back to life. Ben dismisses such nonsense. But together with one of Karen's friends and colleagues Jenny (Annie McEnroe) he visits Stefan at his home. There Stefan tells them about Werewolves and how they can be killed, he mentions Stirba (Sybil Danning) who is the queen of Werewolves. Stefan also shows them a photograph taken at Karen's funeral of a woman named Mariana (Marsha A. Hunt) and that she is an extremely vicious and dangerous Werewolf who wants Karen. Stefan says he will stake any Werewoves through the heart with titanium. Ben figures out that Stefan means he will stake Karen as well so together with Jenny he travels to the graveyard where his sister's crypt is to stop Stefan. However lots of Werewolves turn up and attack Stefan, Ben and Jenny. They survive the attack and manage to find out that Stirba is to be found in Transylvania. They all decide to travel to Transylvania and stop Stirba and her Werewolves from taking over the Earth by fulfilling a centuries old curse. Once there they travel to a small town called Vlkava which means 'where wolves live' and meet up with the local priest, Father Florin (Ladislav Krecmer) and his small but loyal group of Werewolf hunters, hey what else can I call them? Oh, and a dwarf named Florica (Ludmila Safarova) helps too. They follow Mariana who they hope will lead them to Stirba. But Stirba knows of Stefan's arrival and has plans for him Ben and Jenny. Will Stefan be able to put an end to Stirba's plans for world domination? Will this film get any more bizarre or surreal? Watch it and find out. Directed by Philippe Mora this is one strange mess of a film. It's poorly edited as certain sequences just jump around incoherently. The single biggest problem is the script by Robert Sano and Gary Brandner based on his novel which is all over the place and doesn't make any sort of sense or introduces us to any proper characters that we like. Luckily it moves along like a rocket and is never dull or boring, unlike the original. Something strange or bizarre is always happening to keep the viewer entertained. Most people will probably hate it, but for those of us who enjoy 'bad' films this is right up there with the best of them. There are Werewolf orgies which are just freaky to watch. We get some cool Werewolf killing weaponry. The sets and locations just seem so out of place and I don't know if this was actually shot in Transylvania but it doesn't look like what I thought mid 80's Transylvania would. Stirba's castle is part dungeon, part Gothic castle and part modern luxury house. Stirba and her servant's costumes are very over-the-top, Stirba wears an outfit that looks like it belongs in a S/M video and to be fair to her she looks pretty sexy, and her minions wear skimpy leather clothing too. The special make-up effects range from good to poor, a dwarf's eyes explode, someone has their hand ripped off and a priest has some creature emerge from his mouth but this isn't a film loaded with gore, although there are plenty of effect sequences with Werewolf transformations and attacks. There is plenty of nudity as well as Stirba and her minions are a real randy bunch of Werewolves! I should also mention the music, the soundtrack is dominated by awful rock music that I hated and I ended up turning the volume down. Acting is weak all round and what on Earth was Christopher Lee thinking about when he accepted this film?! I wonder what he thinks of it. Basically the whole thing is a real mess, but I found it a fairly entertaining mess all the same. Impossible to recommend but it kept me watching through to the end. Speaking of which the end credits run over what appears to be deleted scenes and cut footage, it also features the same shot of Sybil Danning taking her dress off and exposing her breasts probably in excess of 20 times! If that's your thing.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
AlabamaWorley19714 April 1999
Gee, my first 1 rating on IMDB! Deeply idiotic movie that does a great disservice to the original (which I LOVE). Badly made, awful quality (it looks like sh*t on both video and cable), unsexy, crappy music and totally embarrassing for all involved. Christopher Lee comes out all right, but that was never hard for the Master. This must be for him what my brother and I call a "mortgage film": The mortgage was due, so he took it. Faugh. Go back and get the original.
It's sooooo bad.
lost-in-limbo19 October 2004
Ben a out-of-town cop is convinced his sister was brutally killed and wants to bring her killer to justice, but he's approached by Stefan who believes his sister was a victim of a werewolf cult. So Ben, his sister's best friend and Stefan travel to Transylvania to put a end to this evil.
This is incredibly awful B-grade stuff and I wondered how it even got released. It makes the original 'Howling' look like a masterpiece. What was Christopher Lee thinking, as this has to be his worst performance I've seen.
There was a lot wrong with this real cheap-ass film, ranging from the really hammy and wooden performances from Annie McEnroe, Reb Brown, Marsha A. Hunt and Sybil Danning (not to forgot Lee), cheesy fashion (those sunnies), cheap and lame special effects, bad use of lighting, the humour... if there was any, trashy 80s music (with some of the film just focusing on some unknown band playing), werewolf's having orgies which is a sight to see and a tiresome story with flat and annoying dialogue. I thought if it was that bad it would be awfully funny, but I was wrong.
The positives were the location and settings of the film looked great, but that's about it... actually I'll add Sybil Danning short stripping scene too.
During the end credits the band plays their crap-house song during a weird montage of scenes from the film, which I beckon the question why?
An awful piece of mess, however at least it isn't boring.
1/5
This is incredibly awful B-grade stuff and I wondered how it even got released. It makes the original 'Howling' look like a masterpiece. What was Christopher Lee thinking, as this has to be his worst performance I've seen.
There was a lot wrong with this real cheap-ass film, ranging from the really hammy and wooden performances from Annie McEnroe, Reb Brown, Marsha A. Hunt and Sybil Danning (not to forgot Lee), cheesy fashion (those sunnies), cheap and lame special effects, bad use of lighting, the humour... if there was any, trashy 80s music (with some of the film just focusing on some unknown band playing), werewolf's having orgies which is a sight to see and a tiresome story with flat and annoying dialogue. I thought if it was that bad it would be awfully funny, but I was wrong.
The positives were the location and settings of the film looked great, but that's about it... actually I'll add Sybil Danning short stripping scene too.
During the end credits the band plays their crap-house song during a weird montage of scenes from the film, which I beckon the question why?
An awful piece of mess, however at least it isn't boring.
1/5
Total junk. Totally awesome.
BandSAboutMovies5 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Even though Gary Brandner, author of The Howling novels, co-wrote the screenplay to this movie, it has nothing to do with his 1979 novel The Howling II, much less the original The Howling. It tries, but this movie is just too weird to fully close the loop.
There's never been another werewolf movie like this one. Whether that is positive or negative all depends on how much you like werewolves having sex.
Ben White (Reb Brown, who is in a little movie called Yor Hunter from the Future that I could tell you about for many days) is dealing with the death of his sister Karen White, who just so happens to be the heroine of the first of these movies. He joins up with Jenny (Annie McEnroe, who was in Snowbeast and Battletruck) and the mysterious Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee, who apologized to Joe Dante for making this movie) to battle werewolves.
This brings them on a journey to Transylvania and a battle against Stirba (Sybil Danning!), the queen of the werewolves, who is joined by Mariana (Marsha Hunt, who the song "Brown Sugar" is about) and Erle (Ferdy Mayne, who is in another film I can discuss for days and days, Night Train to Terror).
What follows is complete lunacy: werewolf witchcraft, lycan orgies, Sybil Danning repeatedly ripping off her top (the same shot repeated again and again to no complaint), dwarves, priests being killed and punk rock from the band Babel.
Director Philippe Mora actually made some pretty good films, like Mad Dog Morgan, The Beast Within and The Return of Captain Invincible. I'm insane and love this movie, so I will include it in my list of his good ones.
Finally, let's talk about another subject I can hold court on: Christopher Lee. Mora didn't know that Sir Lee was a war hero in Czechoslovakia, where this was filmed. Actually, no one did, because he wasn't allowed to talk about his intelligence work during World War II. When he showed up for filming, he was greeted with a hero's welcome, as he had killed a top Nazi official named Reinhard Heydrich. In fact, before he became an actor, Lee remained a Nazi hunter for several years.
I also love that this movie was sent the wrong costumes by 20th Century Fox. Instead of wolf suits, they were sent the monkey suits from Planet of the Apes. Lee tried to help fix this by ad-libbing, "The process of evolution is reversed."
There's never been another werewolf movie like this one. Whether that is positive or negative all depends on how much you like werewolves having sex.
Ben White (Reb Brown, who is in a little movie called Yor Hunter from the Future that I could tell you about for many days) is dealing with the death of his sister Karen White, who just so happens to be the heroine of the first of these movies. He joins up with Jenny (Annie McEnroe, who was in Snowbeast and Battletruck) and the mysterious Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee, who apologized to Joe Dante for making this movie) to battle werewolves.
This brings them on a journey to Transylvania and a battle against Stirba (Sybil Danning!), the queen of the werewolves, who is joined by Mariana (Marsha Hunt, who the song "Brown Sugar" is about) and Erle (Ferdy Mayne, who is in another film I can discuss for days and days, Night Train to Terror).
What follows is complete lunacy: werewolf witchcraft, lycan orgies, Sybil Danning repeatedly ripping off her top (the same shot repeated again and again to no complaint), dwarves, priests being killed and punk rock from the band Babel.
Director Philippe Mora actually made some pretty good films, like Mad Dog Morgan, The Beast Within and The Return of Captain Invincible. I'm insane and love this movie, so I will include it in my list of his good ones.
Finally, let's talk about another subject I can hold court on: Christopher Lee. Mora didn't know that Sir Lee was a war hero in Czechoslovakia, where this was filmed. Actually, no one did, because he wasn't allowed to talk about his intelligence work during World War II. When he showed up for filming, he was greeted with a hero's welcome, as he had killed a top Nazi official named Reinhard Heydrich. In fact, before he became an actor, Lee remained a Nazi hunter for several years.
I also love that this movie was sent the wrong costumes by 20th Century Fox. Instead of wolf suits, they were sent the monkey suits from Planet of the Apes. Lee tried to help fix this by ad-libbing, "The process of evolution is reversed."
Christopher Lee's Skeleton in a Very Distinguished Closet
BaronBl00d7 September 2009
Lee hosted the 100 Years of Horror for Ted Newsom and was talking about filmic werewolves. He said something to the effect that his only brush with lycanthropy was The Howling II, then he quipped, "The less said about that the better." Indeed he was right as this film may very well be the worst in his entire catalog of screen performances. The first Howling by Joe Dante was a groundbreaking werewolf film with its incredible special effects and its campy sense of style and subject matter. It was a film to be taken seriously. Like other good original films, filmmakers for some strange reason thought that even more campy sequels were needed rather than what worked the first time(See CHUD then CHUD II to illustrate this point). This film is miles and miles away from the first on every front. There is absolutely nothing scary about it. It looks cheap and is pitch black through most of the major scenes. Lee is the only actor in the film worth mentioning(okay, I'll cede Ferdy Mayne too). Lee looks embarrassed as he says inane dialog and does ridiculous things(check out that ending with him and Stirba). Lee looks incredibly tired and knows what dreck this is which is a tad more insightful than the two leads who leave America to go to Romania. The story isn't really worth examining here, and you can bet there is very little story worth mentioning when you have to have Stephen Parsons and his band Babel play through much of the film in the beginning and the ending with that dreadful noise. Sybil Danning is here and, yes, she disrobes once and then we get that scene showed again and again and again - one reviewer said 17 times(I counted ten - but might have been so bored out of my mind by that point). I gave the film three stars, but it really deserves a zero - the three I gave it are 1 for Lee and two for Ms. Danning's contributions. Yuck!
A thought-provoking, cinematic tour-de-force...
simon94710 June 2003
..."Howling II" is not. It is, however, a comically bad and therefore highly enjoyable film.
The plot (if you can call it that) goes something like this: Some Flock of Seagulls-looking bloke loses his sister to a werewolf attack (yet another peril of living in Los Angeles). He and this reporter chick meet up with a werewolf hunter (a deadpan Christopher Lee) at the dead girl's funeral. For reasons unclear, the trio voyage to Transylvania, where they do battle with the queen of the undead, Stirba (the frequently nude Sybil Danning). From there on, things get confusing.
There's some sort of arts fair going on in Transylvania, which I thought was vampire country but apparently has a burgeoning lycanthrope population. The Flock of Seagulls dude nails the reporter chick with his pants still on. Three partially transformed (read: hairy) werewolves enjoy a spirited, if somewhat testy, menage a trois. A dwarf's eye explodes. Much fun is had by all.
"Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf" (its alternate title, "Stirba the Werewolf Bitch" had me laughing for days) is, indeed, a terrible movie. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, and after watching it on cable the other night I can't believe how bad it was. But I'm giving it a high rating and a sincere recommendation because they just don't make horror flicks like this anymore.
The werewolf transformations are just awful. The filmmakers were definitely going for "An American Werewolf in London" (which won an Oscar for its special effects), but, ahem, "fell prey" to their own kitschiness, which permeates the entire film. There are some incredibly cheesy transitions between scenes; swipes, swirls, and spirals abound. And the script? I've seen more substance on a roll of Charmin. But it's great; how often do you get to hear lines such as, "That dwarf is staring at us"?
Compared to today's era of Macintosh-generated "special effects" (which look incredibly dated now, and will look even worse in ten years), a film like "Howling II" is a gem, a last hurrah of the last great era of horror films. You'll never see pools of blood or cheesy puppets or laughable laser rays done like this again. Get some beer, pop it in, and laugh yourself stupid. By the film's conclusion (in which Sybil Danning rips her clothes off seventeen times, all in time with a Cramps-sounding 80s band called Babel), you'll be glad you did.
"By the pale, pale light/pale, pale light of the moonglow..."
The plot (if you can call it that) goes something like this: Some Flock of Seagulls-looking bloke loses his sister to a werewolf attack (yet another peril of living in Los Angeles). He and this reporter chick meet up with a werewolf hunter (a deadpan Christopher Lee) at the dead girl's funeral. For reasons unclear, the trio voyage to Transylvania, where they do battle with the queen of the undead, Stirba (the frequently nude Sybil Danning). From there on, things get confusing.
There's some sort of arts fair going on in Transylvania, which I thought was vampire country but apparently has a burgeoning lycanthrope population. The Flock of Seagulls dude nails the reporter chick with his pants still on. Three partially transformed (read: hairy) werewolves enjoy a spirited, if somewhat testy, menage a trois. A dwarf's eye explodes. Much fun is had by all.
"Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf" (its alternate title, "Stirba the Werewolf Bitch" had me laughing for days) is, indeed, a terrible movie. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, and after watching it on cable the other night I can't believe how bad it was. But I'm giving it a high rating and a sincere recommendation because they just don't make horror flicks like this anymore.
The werewolf transformations are just awful. The filmmakers were definitely going for "An American Werewolf in London" (which won an Oscar for its special effects), but, ahem, "fell prey" to their own kitschiness, which permeates the entire film. There are some incredibly cheesy transitions between scenes; swipes, swirls, and spirals abound. And the script? I've seen more substance on a roll of Charmin. But it's great; how often do you get to hear lines such as, "That dwarf is staring at us"?
Compared to today's era of Macintosh-generated "special effects" (which look incredibly dated now, and will look even worse in ten years), a film like "Howling II" is a gem, a last hurrah of the last great era of horror films. You'll never see pools of blood or cheesy puppets or laughable laser rays done like this again. Get some beer, pop it in, and laugh yourself stupid. By the film's conclusion (in which Sybil Danning rips her clothes off seventeen times, all in time with a Cramps-sounding 80s band called Babel), you'll be glad you did.
"By the pale, pale light/pale, pale light of the moonglow..."
In the pale, pale light, the pale, pale light of the moonglow...
Hey_Sweden25 July 2015
Incredibly idiotic, senseless, and utterly sleazy sequel to the popular 1981 werewolf film "The Howling" stars Sir Christopher Lee as Stefan Crosscoe, an occult expert determined to wipe out lycanthropes, in particular those who associate with the fiendish queen werewolf bitch Stirba (Sybil Danning). He makes a point of telling Ben White (Reb Brown), the brother of the Dee Wallace character from the first film, the specifics of her "death". When Ben is unable to deny the evidence, he heads off, with reporter Jenny Templeton (Annie McEnroe) in tow, for Transylania, to help Stefan in his werewolf killing mission.
The story is absurd, the dialogue hilariously awful; poor Sir Christopher and Sybil have to utter some pretty dumb lines. The makeup effects are crude to the nth degree, but are delicious in their egregious lack of quality. The scene with the eyeballs exploding is pretty cool. In some ways, "Stirba - Werewolf Bitch" goes back to Gothic basics in a way by exploiting flavourful European Old World atmosphere. But it adds a lot of spice to the deal by being so damn trashy. The sexy ladies present dress quite provocatively, and Sybil is willing to disrobe and show off her ample assets. The New Wave pop soundtrack is a total hoot; we're made to listen to that priceless title theme song a number of times. Original "Howling" author Gary Brandner co-scripted, from his novel "Howling II: The Return", and maintains a very tongue in cheek approach. With the level of both cheese and trash on display, it's clear that this was never meant to be taken seriously.
Sir Christopher looks pretty serious here, though; the movie does benefit from his professionalism. Sybil is a mildly amusing antagonist. Brown and McEnroe are just sort of there as hero and heroine. Marsha A. Hunt, Judd Omen, Ferdy Mayne (who has the same character name as John Carradine in "Howling" No. 1), Patrick Field, Jimmy Nail, and Jiri Krytinar co-star.
Directed by Philippe Mora, who has the distinction of being director on two "Howling" sequels, the other being "The Marsupials: The Howling III".
The end credits are actually a highlight.
Seven out of 10.
The story is absurd, the dialogue hilariously awful; poor Sir Christopher and Sybil have to utter some pretty dumb lines. The makeup effects are crude to the nth degree, but are delicious in their egregious lack of quality. The scene with the eyeballs exploding is pretty cool. In some ways, "Stirba - Werewolf Bitch" goes back to Gothic basics in a way by exploiting flavourful European Old World atmosphere. But it adds a lot of spice to the deal by being so damn trashy. The sexy ladies present dress quite provocatively, and Sybil is willing to disrobe and show off her ample assets. The New Wave pop soundtrack is a total hoot; we're made to listen to that priceless title theme song a number of times. Original "Howling" author Gary Brandner co-scripted, from his novel "Howling II: The Return", and maintains a very tongue in cheek approach. With the level of both cheese and trash on display, it's clear that this was never meant to be taken seriously.
Sir Christopher looks pretty serious here, though; the movie does benefit from his professionalism. Sybil is a mildly amusing antagonist. Brown and McEnroe are just sort of there as hero and heroine. Marsha A. Hunt, Judd Omen, Ferdy Mayne (who has the same character name as John Carradine in "Howling" No. 1), Patrick Field, Jimmy Nail, and Jiri Krytinar co-star.
Directed by Philippe Mora, who has the distinction of being director on two "Howling" sequels, the other being "The Marsupials: The Howling III".
The end credits are actually a highlight.
Seven out of 10.
The horror is this trash was ever made.
NEIL-21325 August 2003
This film is really bad,so bad that even Christopher Lee cannot save it.A poor story an even poorer script and just plain bad direction makes this a truly outstanding horror film,the outstanding part being that it is the only horror film that i can honestly say i would never ever watch again.This garbage make Plan nine from outerspace look like oscar material.
"Your sister is a werewolf."
Backlash00722 September 2002
I watched two Christopher Lee movies this weekend, Horror Hotel (Lee at his best) and Howling II (Lee at his worst). This is definitely the low point of the man's career. You can tell he did not want to be here and I feel so sorry for him. The "film" is pretty bad...but it's funny at the same time. I almost peed in my pants when Reb Brown (Captain America himself) ran into the room and screamed "BOO!!" The man is a comic genius and it's laugh out loud funny. Equally funny are the exploding dwarf, the drunken werewolf orgy, and the use of the eighties swipe (that device used to cut from scene to scene). We get some of the corniest swipes ever; a fan, diamond, swirl, and just the classic swipe are all used. Perhaps the funniest thing comes in the credits. The scene where Sybil Danning strips her clothes off is shown 10, count em, 10 times again over the credits. This does not compensate for the crappiness of the movie though. The most unbearable quality about the flick is the lighting. You can't see anything. If there is any werewolf action going on here, you can't see it! It's so dark and sometimes very painful to watch. Howling II is worth watching only if you're a Reb Brown fan or if you want to see Christopher Lee wearing some ridiculously cool eighties sunglasses, or maybe to see some Frankie Goes To Hollywood-lookin' band sing a song about "the pale, pale light of the moonglow."
This is horrible
DaJames8110 December 2002
DEAR LORD WHY DID I STOP TO WATCH THIS MOVIE!? This is one of the worst pieces of crap I have see in a long time. Horrible acting, cheesy visual effects, stupid plot. Was this suppose to be scary or just a waste of money? Wait, did it cost any money? Why am I even wasting my time commenting on it? What is the point of the stupid wolf sex scenes? How was the main couple having sex with their pants on? Why did I waste my time watching this in the first place? Why did I type so many questions?
Geographically incorrect and one of the worst sequels ever ...
Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki13 November 2003
I haven't read all of the user comments here - just scanned through the first 20 or so - but from what I've read no one else here noticed this huge, gaping hole in the story:
this movie was filmed on location in (what was at the time) Czechoslovakia and the story takes place in Czechoslovakia, which the story claims is (or at least used to be) Transylvania. Transylvania is a couple hundred miles away, in what is now Romania, not Czechoslovakia. That isn't some obscure little piece of trivia, it's clearly marked on most maps, even back in the 1980's when this movie was made.
Christopher Lee has one of his worst roles here, when werewolf hunters go to "Transylvania" to hunt down the last of some ancient werewolf cult, lead by the frequently nude Sybil Danning. It starts out fairly interesting, but then quickly goes downhill after about the first 15 minutes, taking itself way too seriously when the first movie was so much fun. Christopher Lee looks about as bored as he could be, and we get to hear the same god awful new wave band play the same horrible song over and over, four or five times throughout this movie, we even get an extended performance by them during the end credits- I think this movie was made primarily as a showcase for this crappy band! And while I have no problem with look at Sybil Danning topless, is it really necessary to show the same scene of her ripping off her top over and over about 15 times throughout this movie?
The effect of on location filming is the only good part of this movie, no matter how geographically incorrect it may be, but it's ruined by grimy, underexposed photography- I've just gone back and watched the Republic/Lumiere version of this, and they have corrected, to an extent, the overly dark photography, so at least you can enjoy the on location photography when you get bored to tears with the story ...
1/2 a star out of ****
this movie was filmed on location in (what was at the time) Czechoslovakia and the story takes place in Czechoslovakia, which the story claims is (or at least used to be) Transylvania. Transylvania is a couple hundred miles away, in what is now Romania, not Czechoslovakia. That isn't some obscure little piece of trivia, it's clearly marked on most maps, even back in the 1980's when this movie was made.
Christopher Lee has one of his worst roles here, when werewolf hunters go to "Transylvania" to hunt down the last of some ancient werewolf cult, lead by the frequently nude Sybil Danning. It starts out fairly interesting, but then quickly goes downhill after about the first 15 minutes, taking itself way too seriously when the first movie was so much fun. Christopher Lee looks about as bored as he could be, and we get to hear the same god awful new wave band play the same horrible song over and over, four or five times throughout this movie, we even get an extended performance by them during the end credits- I think this movie was made primarily as a showcase for this crappy band! And while I have no problem with look at Sybil Danning topless, is it really necessary to show the same scene of her ripping off her top over and over about 15 times throughout this movie?
The effect of on location filming is the only good part of this movie, no matter how geographically incorrect it may be, but it's ruined by grimy, underexposed photography- I've just gone back and watched the Republic/Lumiere version of this, and they have corrected, to an extent, the overly dark photography, so at least you can enjoy the on location photography when you get bored to tears with the story ...
1/2 a star out of ****
How to fight werewolves - erm, vampires - er, whatever
roger_for_nntp23 March 2003
Warning: Spoilers
OK, as everyone has pointed out, this film is a complete dog. To some degree this is because it was a gory sexploitation film that had a lot of material excised (or darkened down to near invisibility) to escape the censor's X-rating; but the film has many other flaws as well.
To begin with, the scriptwriter seems to have got his werewolves and vampires mixed up. The baddies in this film are furry and don't like silver but in every other respect they behave like vampires. Now you just can't do that with a crappy genre flick, you've got to stick to the rules of the genre or the fans get all confused and annoyed by suspending disbelief in the wrong thing. In fact the whole (confusing and poorly presented) plot is something that has already been done for vampires, but doesn't make any sense in a werewolf movie.
Secondly, the werewolf costumes are the lamest you have ever seen. Anybody in the werewolf movie business ought to know that the werewolf costumes and transformations are something the fans assess critically, yet some of these werewolves are just plain goofy.
There are a couple of slightly good bits. I actually quite liked the score. Others have mentioned Sybil Danning's tits. And...
(***SPOILER***, if such a thing can exist)
I also quite liked the plan for attacking the werewolves' stronghold. There are so many horror movies that rely on characters behaving stupidly, but in this case they first acquire a very sensible and effective anti-werewolf arsenal and go slaughter the monsters. I mean, you can kill werewolves with silver bullets, and we have some pretty powerful firearms these days. Shouldn't be too hard to put two and two together, hmm? But in typical style this movie goes over the top and adds some other very zany and amusing anti-lycanthrope weapons.
To begin with, the scriptwriter seems to have got his werewolves and vampires mixed up. The baddies in this film are furry and don't like silver but in every other respect they behave like vampires. Now you just can't do that with a crappy genre flick, you've got to stick to the rules of the genre or the fans get all confused and annoyed by suspending disbelief in the wrong thing. In fact the whole (confusing and poorly presented) plot is something that has already been done for vampires, but doesn't make any sense in a werewolf movie.
Secondly, the werewolf costumes are the lamest you have ever seen. Anybody in the werewolf movie business ought to know that the werewolf costumes and transformations are something the fans assess critically, yet some of these werewolves are just plain goofy.
There are a couple of slightly good bits. I actually quite liked the score. Others have mentioned Sybil Danning's tits. And...
(***SPOILER***, if such a thing can exist)
I also quite liked the plan for attacking the werewolves' stronghold. There are so many horror movies that rely on characters behaving stupidly, but in this case they first acquire a very sensible and effective anti-werewolf arsenal and go slaughter the monsters. I mean, you can kill werewolves with silver bullets, and we have some pretty powerful firearms these days. Shouldn't be too hard to put two and two together, hmm? But in typical style this movie goes over the top and adds some other very zany and amusing anti-lycanthrope weapons.
Mediocre sequel
FiendishDramaturgy20 January 2004
Warning: Spoilers
This sequel was not as bad as I remembered, but it was not as good as I had hoped.
The plot was replete with holes, and the sequences were slow, slow, slow. The acting quality was a bit better here, as was the production quality and story line, but the finished product left me wondering why they bothered?
This played like a series of random scenes with the same actors, spliced together with no obvious intent, while at other times, it promised you a good story, but lost its way after a few lines.
All in all, it was quite disappointing. What was so disappointing is that it had the potential to be a great movie and a superior sequel.
SPOILERS HERE!!
The premise of a cult of Lycan Magick Users is an awesome idea, which was utilized here, but the execution was slow, and just died somewhere after the first opening scenes. And there were immense blocks of dead film; scene after scene where there was no action, no character development, no continuity of story...nothing.
There was too much T&A here, and it in no way enhanced this endeavor, nor did it help hide the fact that the director had little to no idea what he wanted to do with this script. That was a shame, and it shows with the complete lack of continuity between the scenes. Either that, or the editor needs to be shot. Either way, this movie failed miserably to live up to its potential. A shame. A real shame.
It rates a 5.4/10 from...
the Fiend :.
The plot was replete with holes, and the sequences were slow, slow, slow. The acting quality was a bit better here, as was the production quality and story line, but the finished product left me wondering why they bothered?
This played like a series of random scenes with the same actors, spliced together with no obvious intent, while at other times, it promised you a good story, but lost its way after a few lines.
All in all, it was quite disappointing. What was so disappointing is that it had the potential to be a great movie and a superior sequel.
SPOILERS HERE!!
The premise of a cult of Lycan Magick Users is an awesome idea, which was utilized here, but the execution was slow, and just died somewhere after the first opening scenes. And there were immense blocks of dead film; scene after scene where there was no action, no character development, no continuity of story...nothing.
There was too much T&A here, and it in no way enhanced this endeavor, nor did it help hide the fact that the director had little to no idea what he wanted to do with this script. That was a shame, and it shows with the complete lack of continuity between the scenes. Either that, or the editor needs to be shot. Either way, this movie failed miserably to live up to its potential. A shame. A real shame.
It rates a 5.4/10 from...
the Fiend :.
A great piece of crap!
Le_duc_Bro15 August 2003
This is the worst movie I have seen ever! The first "Howling" was great, but I stopped this horror movies serie with the second episode 'cause it sucked more than anything that had ever sucked before!Christopher Lee should have had some money problems in the 80s to play in such an horrific movie.
Fun 1980´s trash
FrothyDahl22 March 2021
It doesn´t really bear the thought, but no, this isn´t one of the worst films of all time. Yes, it´s full-blown 80´s trash. Christopher Lee looks mortified, Sybil Danning in big puffy hair shoots lasers (?) from her finger tips, werewolves nuzzle air in their in human form (?), there´s messy SFX effects etc etc.
It´s also mercifully free from the mucky digital hell of horror which passes entertainment for nowadays. There´s candlelit churches, graveyards, dangerous forests, Transylvanian (actually Czech) scenery, and the castle of the werewolf queen, which summarizes the film´s visual style. Both tacky and grand in equal measure, Stirba's bedroom has sumptuous velvet drapes and candles, which clash not too subtly together with cheaply garish red sheets and ridiculous (albeit mercifully tame) werewolf orgy. Nothing to do with short novel Howling II by Gary Brandner - another trashy but entertaining effort - and dismissed by pretty much everybody, Brandner included.
It´s also mercifully free from the mucky digital hell of horror which passes entertainment for nowadays. There´s candlelit churches, graveyards, dangerous forests, Transylvanian (actually Czech) scenery, and the castle of the werewolf queen, which summarizes the film´s visual style. Both tacky and grand in equal measure, Stirba's bedroom has sumptuous velvet drapes and candles, which clash not too subtly together with cheaply garish red sheets and ridiculous (albeit mercifully tame) werewolf orgy. Nothing to do with short novel Howling II by Gary Brandner - another trashy but entertaining effort - and dismissed by pretty much everybody, Brandner included.
Horror Classic or Mastebatory material for 13 yr. old boys??
Zombiehuntr-112 December 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Before my rediscovery of this movie at the age 16 I had only remembered small snippets of the film from my childhood. Impressions of the film, based solely on my childhood memories, would leave one to perceive the film as a high paced action/horror film, but that is what would happen if a person was to describe a film based off of assertions that they had made as a child. In actuality this film just barely stays out of the realm of soft core pornography. Yes, this film is one of few that can boast undead orgies and a Werewolf/ Hybrid/semi-human form Menage twa.
Thinking back I can now understand why snippets were all I could remember. Either my parents never let a child of the ripe age of four or five finish watching this movie, or they spent most of the 80 or 90 minutes of run time shielding my virgin eyes of cheesy 80's semi- soft core porn. Not even Christopher Lee, one of the grandmasters of the horror genre, could pull this movie up from the metaphorical street corner that it works.
Terrible acting, an even worse story line and plot inconsistencies leave much of this films redeeming value in it's strong sexual content and nudity, which if you're over the age 18 and can purchase actual adult films, or are capable of picking up a girl and experiencing the real thing, leaves little reason to watch this film.
Thinking back I can now understand why snippets were all I could remember. Either my parents never let a child of the ripe age of four or five finish watching this movie, or they spent most of the 80 or 90 minutes of run time shielding my virgin eyes of cheesy 80's semi- soft core porn. Not even Christopher Lee, one of the grandmasters of the horror genre, could pull this movie up from the metaphorical street corner that it works.
Terrible acting, an even worse story line and plot inconsistencies leave much of this films redeeming value in it's strong sexual content and nudity, which if you're over the age 18 and can purchase actual adult films, or are capable of picking up a girl and experiencing the real thing, leaves little reason to watch this film.
Reasons why this unjustly maligned movie milestone rules
Woodyanders18 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This often fiercely ridiculed and much-derided sequel in name only to the outstanding "The Howling" quite simply doesn't get the respect it really deserves. In an (ill-advised) attempt to persuade you that this film seriously smokes instead of completely chokes I'm going to forgo the standard synopsis and critique approach to writing a comment and in its place list several solid reasons why this movie rules. With that obligatory intro stuff out of the way, let's get to that illustrious list: 1) Sybil Danning rips off her top and exposes her breasts. 2) Christopher Lee goes to a trendy punk club and gets to wear these gnarly sunglasses. Moreover, the ever-amazing Mr. Lee somehow manages to maintain his composure and dignity throughout the flick despite the fact that he's saddled with a ludicrously demeaning crummy role in which he plays a veteran werewolf hunter (oops, I meant to say "occult investigator") who comes across like a third-rate Van Helsing clone. 3) Sybil Danning rips off her top and exposes her breasts. 4) The groovy punk theme song by Babel is totally smoking. 5) Sybil Danning rips off her top and exposes her breasts. 6) Brawny male lead Reb Brown as the jerky joking hero gives a performance that's so atrocious and obnoxious that it will give you a greater appreciation for what a fine, accomplished and multi-faceted thespian Arnold Schwarzenegger truly is. 7) Sybil Danning rips off her top and exposes her breasts. 8) The lighting is so poor and shoddy that it almost hides the fact that the werewolf costumes and make-up are extremely sub-par. 9) Sybil Danning rips off her top and exposes her breasts. 10) Annie McEnroe as the scrawny and insipid heroine thankfully keeps her clothes on. 11) Sybil Danning rips off her top and exposes her breasts. 12) Marsha A. Hunt as a foxy black werewolf thankfully takes her clothes off. 13) Sybil Danning rips off her top and exposes her breasts. 14) A poor hapless dwarf's eyes explode and said dwarf becomes a hideously grotesque eyeless ghoul who tries and fails to kill Christopher Lee. 15) During the inspired ending credits sequence we are entreated to countless repeated shots of Sybil Danning ripping off her top and exposing her breasts. Wait a minute; I think I might have already mentioned that moment elsewhere in this comment. Oh well, it's without a doubt the undeniable highlight of this tremendously special, important and significant cinematic landmark.
Lame but quite good fun
Red-Barracuda6 March 2007
This is a pretty bad movie. But not so bad as it's reputation suggests. The production values aren't too bad and there is the odd effective scene. And it does have an 80's cheezoid veneer that means that it is always kind of fun. Watch out, too, for Jimmy Nail's brief appearance - his attempt at an American accent is so astoundingly rubbish it's fantastic. Fantastic too are Sybil Danning's breasts - they make a brief appearance in the movie but the scene is repeated umpteen times in the end credits in what can only be described as the 12" remix of Sybil Danning's boobs. Has to be seen to be believed. As a horror movie it isn't scary, the effects are silly and Christopher Lee turns up to sleepwalk through his performance. I guess he was buying a new house and needed some cash for the deposit. The two central characters - the man and the woman - were so negligible that I have forgotten almost everything about them and I just watched this movie earlier tonight. The werewolves are noticeably less impressive than in the original movie, in fact, bizarrely, they sometimes look more like badly burned apes. The eastern European setting is quite good and the music provided by the new wave band Babel, while being pretty terrible, does at least give the film some added cheese.
Overall? Good for a laugh. Not good quality but did you seriously expect it to be? And, at the very least, you've always got Sybil's knockers.
Overall? Good for a laugh. Not good quality but did you seriously expect it to be? And, at the very least, you've always got Sybil's knockers.
Bad acting, no script, blokes in monkey suits and Sybil's t*ts
Dandy_Desmond21 May 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I tried to make the headline rhyme and its does a little. Anyway the film.
It is a bad film if you care about such things as script, characters, acting and suspense. I find it hard to find anything good about it really, Sybil Dannings boobs apart.
Yet... I watch it now and again for some reason I find it entertaining enough to dig it out from time to time and bask in its awfulness.
What does make me laugh is Christopher Lee trying his best to keep the sinking ship afloat and the three way werewolf scene that (a) goes on too long (b) is not sexy in the slightest and (c) ... well I stretched myself with c but lets just say the scene is embarrassing and pointless but who cares? Sybil shows us her glorious boobs, Christopher lee throws a midget out of a window, the midgets eyes explode, there are occasionally some creepy moments. Hell I like it!
Its a strange film to review as it is clearly awful there is no defending that. However I find it strangely watchable. Did that make any sense? No me neither....
It is a bad film if you care about such things as script, characters, acting and suspense. I find it hard to find anything good about it really, Sybil Dannings boobs apart.
Yet... I watch it now and again for some reason I find it entertaining enough to dig it out from time to time and bask in its awfulness.
What does make me laugh is Christopher Lee trying his best to keep the sinking ship afloat and the three way werewolf scene that (a) goes on too long (b) is not sexy in the slightest and (c) ... well I stretched myself with c but lets just say the scene is embarrassing and pointless but who cares? Sybil shows us her glorious boobs, Christopher lee throws a midget out of a window, the midgets eyes explode, there are occasionally some creepy moments. Hell I like it!
Its a strange film to review as it is clearly awful there is no defending that. However I find it strangely watchable. Did that make any sense? No me neither....
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