Last summer, ‘It’ director Andy Muschietti expressed an interest in directing a new version of Joe Dante’s 1981 werewolf thriller ‘The Howling’. Well, someone at Netflix was listening and took him up on the suggestion. Muschietti moderated a panel with the cast of the upcoming horror movie ‘Underwater’ following a screening of the movie in Hollywood, and he reportedly confirmed that this project is moving forward to That Hashtag Show.
Muschietti will dive into ‘The Howling’ after he completes Warner Brothers’ ‘The Flash’ starring Ezra Miller.
The Joe Dante film was based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, however, the movie, penned by John Sayles and Terence H. Winkless only used the book as inspiration, as it deviated greatly. In the novel, Karyn Beatty is raped by a man named Max Quist, in Los Angeles, so she and her husband, Roy, move to a strange and secluded mountain village called Drago. It turns out that the people of Drago are all werewolves and Roy is converted by a local shopkeeper he has an affair with. His best friend, Chris, drives up from LA and rescues Karyn. As they make their escape, the town of Drago burns, presumably killing all of the werewolves.
In the movie, Karen (with an “e”) White is a newswoman who is traumatized after a serial killer, Eddie Quist, makes her watch a video of a woman being raped, and is then shot dead in front of her. She develops amnesia, and her doctor recommends she and her husband, Bill Neill head to a secluded resort called “The Colony.” Like in the book, it turns out the residents are all werewolves, and Bill becomes infected, but this time it is after rebuffing the advances of one of the patients staying there, Marsha Quist. Eventually, it turns out that Eddie Quist is also a werewolf and was therefore not killed by the police as everyone thought. He kills Karen’s best friend Terri and confronts Karen. Later, after Chris– in this version, the boyfriend of Terri– helps Karen escape, she goes back to her old job as a newscaster and on live TV, she attempts to warn the population about the existence of werewolves by transforming into a werewolf herself. Chris who is standing nearby with a gun loaded with silver bullets kills Karen live on the air. Unfortunately, the populace thinks this news story was a prank using special effects. It is also revealed that Marsha Quist is still alive, planting the seeds for a sequel, although the sequel that did arrive didn’t feature Marsha as the villain, but rather Karen, who wasn’t killed by Chris’ silver bullet after all. In total, there were seven ‘Howling’ sequels.
At this time, it is unclear whether Muschietti wants to adapt Brandner’s novel in a more faithful manner or if he plans to update Dante’s movie.
What do you think of Muschietti taking on ‘The Howling’?
