The Howling II

 For today's countdown to Halloween reading suggestion, The Howling II. By Gary Grandner. Not the novelization to the sequel to the first film, but the sequel to the original novel that inspired the rather uneven and lacklustre film franchise. The Howling II might have well been titled Karyn Can't Get a Break. Because the heroine/damsel in distress of the first novel, after surviving the horrors of Draco, a village full of werewolves, after being through the trauma of witnessing her then husband turn into a werewolf AND cheat on her has, well, to survive more ordeals. She's now remarried to a widower, she's a stepmother and she's undergoing therapy. Because, you know, the events of the previous book. But it turns out some lycanthropes survived the fire that destroyed Draco. Her (ex)husband Roy, for one, and his new partner, Marcia, who has been wounded by a silver bullet in the head, but not killed, for some reason (Brandner tend to retcon things). Marcia, now turning into a she-wolf/human hybrid every night, is pretty unhappy about it, and she's planning revenge on Karyn. So yeah, it's not very good. The Howling was a flawed, but enjoyable horror story, with plenty of atmosphere and a great setting. Its sequel is more flawed and less enjoyable. Gone is the claustrophobia, the remote environment, all the little details that made the first book work in spite of its flaws. But this one nevertheless has its moments, and remains better than the sequels of the movie franchise. In any case, this is a reading suggestion, not a reading reocmmendation. And we always need some werewoves for Halloween, right?

About Werewolves

For today's countdown to Halloween post, let's talk about a critter that might need a bit more love: the werewolf. Well, maybe it's just me, but I feel like it hasn't been as popular as other horror creatures and maybe has not always been used to its full potential. A few years ago, I read The Howling by Gary Brandner. The rather uneven (but enjoyable) movie adaptation is now far more famous, but I preferred the original novel, although I found it flawed. My full review and recommendation in this post from 2017. Be that as it may, while I recognised novel's shortcomings, I liked it enough to buy its sequel, simply (and rather dumbly) called The Howling II. It had even more shortcomings, but I must confess, I still enjoyed it. There is just something about these bloodthirsty beasts and their relationship to men and civilisation that I find endearing. I find it sad that The Howling's film franchise went stupidly down the drain after each installment and that the original novels are all but forgotten. Brandner I thought had managed to bring the werewolf into a modern setting and give it a certain relevance, but keeping its menace. There is so much to do with werewolves depending on how you develop them: is their condition a curse or do they embrace it, what causes it, how do they deal with mankind, and so on. Werewolves deserve their own series of novels, something Brandner had started, but never quite finished. Anyway, I am rambling, but what do you think about werewolves? Are there any stories featuring them you would recommend? And how would you make them original?

The Howling

For tonight's countdown to Halloween post I have another reading suggestion: The Howling by Gary Brandner. Flawed novel that is the source material of an equally flawed movie, at least the book does not go into self-parody. Not voluntarily anyway. Sure it's often predictable and contrived but it has good old fashioned malevolent werewolves. And they enjoy their beastly nature. The story is simple: Karyn and her husband Roy leave Los Angeles (after she'd been raped) to the remote village of Drago, which turned out inhabited by werewolves. While Karyn makes for a rather annoying heroine of the damsel in distress kind, surrounded by stereotypical characters, it still has lots of atmosphere, eerie moments, a decent amount of violence and a good deal of suspense. There's also a rather neat prologue that sets up nicely the origins of Drago and its evil nature. Brandner is no Lovecraft, but he can write a decent yarn. And it's a quick and easy read too: you can finish it in a day. With all its flaws I preferred it to the movie.

Eerie reads

As I mentioned on this post, I am getting in the mood for Halloween. There is an eerie feeling in the air since yesterday, something that came with the rain. I know summertime will come back again for at least one last blast, but it feels autumnal enough, so I am officially starting to read horror stories. I finished yesterday my last summertime book, and as I struggled to sleep last night I read a few pages of The Howling. I had seen the movie years ago and wanted to read the original. The movie I thought was quite a good chiller. As for the good, so far, so good. It is not great literature and I have seen better prose, in fact the style is a bit flat, but it is nevertheless an efficient 70s chiller. It has been (re)published by Books of the Dead Press. A few years ago I tried to find it on Amazon, and all I could find were old copies at prohibitive prices, so I am grateful for this publisher to make it available again at such a good price. The cover is also very nice.

I guess what got me curious about it, apart from the memory of the film, is that it is about werewolves. I am more into vampires (the old gothic kind) and I usually read a good deal of ghost stories when I read horror stories. Werewolves stories I very rarely read, last time I did was because I stumbled upon one. I wonder if werewolves stories are less common than vampire stories. In any case, I want to extend my knowledge of this horror archetype.