Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Sam Cohen
Review Date: Nov 13, 2024
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Philippe Mora

Release Date(s)

1985 (October 29, 2024)

Studio(s)

Hemdale Film Corporation (Vinegar Syndrome)

Film/Program Grade: C+
Video Grade: A-
Audio Grade: A
Extras Grade: B+

Review

After Joe Dante’s 1981 horror classic The Howling released to much acclaim and box office success, you’d figure a sequel would be on the fast track to production. But it wasn’t until four years later that Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf came out and confounded critics and audiences with its very specific brand of whacked-out, pop-punk filmmaking. Since some rights issues prevented producer Stephen Lane from developing a direct sequel to the original, he worked with Hemdale Film Corporation to develop a sequel by name but not by content. The author of the original novel even came back to provide the script and was forced to rewrite it multiple times during production because Hemdale Film Corporation lied about their financial standing and forced director Philippe Mora to think fast and cheap. The result is, as you can expect, fast and cheap.

Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf barely resembles Dante’s original, and that’s both due to Mora’s approach and budgetary constraints. Mora himself has admitted that there were so many different production mishaps because of Hemdale Film Corporation that they constantly had to think on the fly, even going as far to develop dialogue on the spot for myriad reasons. The plot is simple enough: Ben White (Reb Brown, Sssssss) is mourning the death of his sister, journalist Karen White, who died in the first film. At Karen’s funeral, Ben meets Karen’s co-worker Jenny Templeton (Annie McEnroe, Beetlejuice) and Stefan Crosscoe (Christopher Lee, Dracula), a mysterious werewolf hunter who carries a message of warning. Crosscoe convinces Ben and Jenny to accompany him to Transylvania, where they must stop an immortal werewolf queen named Stirba (Sybil Danning, Julie Darling). Werewolf hijinks ensue...

Gone is the clearly and clearly hilarious political subtext of the original. In its place is a haphazard, jazz-like production that’s never boring. The story serves as a catalyst for a grab bag of gross-out gags, punk rock concert sequences and unabashed eroticism. Roger Ebert once declared that the reveal of Sybil Danning’s bare breasts, a gag that’s repeated twice in the credits sequence provided “...the movie with its second and third interesting moments.” While the out of context pull-quote can be taken as Ebert dismissing the film entirely, it highlights Mora’s very specific mode of filmmaking. I’d liken his eye to that of music video filmmaker, in that he revels in the staccato editing rhythms, assaultive camera movements and sex appeal more than an actual story. That’s why in Howling II we bear witness to hilarious sequences of blood orgies, gargoyle hunting and monkey suits being covered up to look more like werewolves. Think of it as a full-length album made by a band that cares about new age punk rock and sex set firmly within a fantasy world of dark desires and darker monsters.

Whether you like Howling II or not completely depends on your acceptance of its mundane insanity. The film flits between genres, action and music so rapidly that the assault of images becomes part of its appeal. When we finally arrive to Mora’s vision of transgression—half-morphed werewolves getting their freak on in the lewdest way possible—you’ve already borne witness to so many genre profundities that you’re almost lulled into a trance of badness. Mora always had the knack of making his movies look and feel completely out of step of his peers, complete with often-gorgeous compositions of location shooting cut against moments of wild shock. It’s just that Howling II dares to exist at all with all the behind-the-scenes kerfuffles. But hey, where else will you see Christopher Lee donning sunglasses and walking around a punk rock show like the coolest werewolf hunter of the 1980s?

And upon her forehead was written: “Behold I am the great mother of harlots and all abominations of the Earth.” Christopher Lee is our guide on the ride that is Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf, now available on 4K Ultra HD from Vinegar Syndrome. Although I wasn’t able to find which cameras and lenses were used on this production, it was shot on 35mm and spherically, then finished at the 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Since it was shot spherically and without any optical filtering, you can expect the look of the film to be clean, clear and lifelike. That’s why I’m pleased to report that Vinegar Syndrome’s 2160p transfer aided by Dolby Vision HDR is exactly as clean, clear and lifelike as you’d want from such a release. This new presentation is sourced from a 4K restoration of the original 35mm camera negative, encoded in the HEVC codec and offering very healthy bitrates that fall between 85-95Mbps for most of the presentation.

The optically finished title cards have a bit of a lower bitrate, as to be expected, but this presentation really does look terrific overall. All that gorgeous location shooting in Czechoslovakia is rendered beautifully with a delicate contrast that prevents any of the beautiful highlights from being clipped by HDR. The main ritual sequences also look terrific and show off the cheap sets wonderfully. The upgrade In visual fidelity does Mora’s direction a great service, as you can see a talented filmmaker cutting around budgetary constraints really well here. The source looks to be in terrific condition as well with not much of any damage to report. The opening title cards look a bit chunkier in grain because of the optical process, but the rest of the footage is sharp and has a nice medium layer of film grain.

The original mono soundtrack is presented here in the DTS-HD Master Audio codec and is similarly in terrific condition. While the lack of LFE prevents the track from really letting all those punk rock tunes loose on your home theater system, clarity in both dialogue and music is great here. Even when the film gets to those interior scenes with tons of overlapping character dialogue, everything is rendered clearly and naturally. The foley work is mixed in great as well.

Presented as a two-disc release with a BD-66 disc for the 4K feature and a BD-50 disc for the standard feature and supplements, this release comes housed in a standard black Amaray case with reversible artwork showcasing the original key art and newly produced art for this release. Inside the case is a 20-page booklet with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes Polaroids by director Philippe Mora and an essay by Matt Serafini. And if you purchase this release directly from Vinegar Syndrome, the Amaray case is offered with a Limited Edition embossed slipcover. Special features in HD include:

DISC ONE (UHD)

Audio Commentary with Philippe Mora and Kelly Goodwin
Archival Audio Commentary with Philippe Mora and Michael Felsher
Archival Audio Commentary with Steve Parsons, Charles Bornstein, and Michael Felsher

DISC TWO (BD)

Audio Commentary with Philippe Mora and Kelly Goodwin
Archival Audio Commentary with Philippe Mora and Michael Felsher
Archival Audio Commentary with Steve Parsons, Charles Bornstein, and Michael Felsher
Lights, Camera, Werewolves? (35:16)
A Romp Through Czechoslovakia (15:30)
Thrown to the Wolves (11:09)
A Life Collaboration with Philippe Mora (11:20)
Freaky, Sexy, Mad (15:47)
Lord of the Stricken Field (25:21)
Queen of the Werewolves with Sybill Danning (16:45)
Leading Man with Reb Brown (13:40)
A Monkey Phase with Steven Johnson and Scott Wheeler (15:09)
Theatrical Trailer (1:06)
Gag Reel (4:00)
Still Gallery (2:48)

Vinegar Syndrome has provided three different commentaries to choose from here. Two of them are archival and one is newly produced. For the sake of this review, I want to focus on the newly produced commentary featuring Philippe Mora and author/screenwriter Kelly Goodner. The duo is a great match for each other, with Goodner guiding the conversation, keeping it relevant to what’s on screen and getting plenty of fun production stories out of Mora. Hearing Mora recount all the ways in which he had to make changes while filming could give any filmmaker a heavy dose of anxiety.

As for other special features, Vinegar Syndrome has done a wonderful job at compiling archival features and producing new supplements for fans to enjoy. In particular, there’s a wonderful talk between Mora and filmmaker Michael Mohan (Immaculate) where the duo reflects on how they approach their own brands of shock art. Mora has always been a great filmmaker to hear stories from, but it’s truly something else to hear how his career is built upon his ability to make the classically weird into modern shock and vice versa. There’s a great interview with special effects artist Steve Johnson as well, where Johnson describes how his effects were crucial in adding production value to Howling II and how many of those effects were produced in Los Angeles after shooting had already completed.

Besides the alternate versions of the film, a few things are missing from previous releases. Scream Factory’s Blu-ray contained a behind-the-scenes featurette, as well as an alternate opening and ending. The Arrow and Koch Media Region B Blu-ray releases also contained Man, Monkey, Wolf!, an additional interview with Philippe Mora.

The queen of the werewolves is back and she’s mad, horny and ready to rip some throats in Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf, available now on 4K UHD from Vinegar Syndrome. This new release offers a stellar presentation of a new restoration, plus there’s a huge list of archival and newly-produced supplements to sick your canine teeth into. Even though this sequel is far from the original, it’s still a blast and deserves your attention. Props to Vinegar Syndrome for another stellar 4K release of a genre work.

- Sam Cohen

(You can follow Sam on social media at these links: Facebook, Instagram, and Letterboxd.)