- Director: Joe Dante
- Writers: Gary Brandner, John Sayles
- Stars: Dee Wallace, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Link: https://amzn.to/3ebEpTa
Synopsis
Dr. Waggner, a psychiatrist, is being interviewed on TV, and he talks a lot about “animal magnetism.” “We should never try to deny the animal, the beast, within,” he explains.
Karen White, a reporter, is transmitting to the police as she walks the streets, investigating a series of murders. She’s checking out a lead known only as “Eddie,” who called in a tip. Bill Neill is Karen’s husband, and he’s standing by with the police, listening in on the radio. Chris has wired Karen for sound, and Bill isn’t happy that Chris let the radio fail. They have no idea where she is as she goes to meet Eddie.
Karen goes to an adult bookstore and goes into a small video booth, where Eddie awaits. Eddie says he can “light her up.” Karen seems something unusual about Eddie before the cops break in and shoot Eddie dead as she watches. She can’t remember or explain what happened afterwards, but she does have nightmares.
Chris and Terry go to investigate Eddie’s apartment, and Eddie had some pretty weird art in there. Bones, pictures of wolf-faced people, and a drawing of Karen. They take his art to Dr. Waggner for his opinion on Eddie.
The next night on the news, Karen goes live to tell her story. She just can’t do it; she freezes. The station sends her to see Dr. Waggner for help. He recommends that she go to “The Colony,” a place he runs that lets people get away from it all and work on group therapy.
They arrive, and the picnic on the beach is full of 80s B-list celebrities. Marsha, a woman with bones around her neck comes onto Bill, but he’s not interested. Marsha doesn’t care for Waggner, and he says that she’s a “strong woman.” John Carradine is Erle, who isn’t looking too happy to be there and screams that he wants to end it all and die. Waggner leads the old man away from the others. Marsha’s brother, TC, seems to be watching Karen really closely.
Meanwhile, Chris and Terry go to the morgue to check on Eddie and find that his body is missing and the door to the morgue drawer has been torn up. The pair go to an occult bookstore, and the owner tells them all about werewolves. He even sells silver bullets. That night, they watch “The Wolfman” on TV.
Something, probably a wolf, kills a deer that night, and the next morning, the “Colony” folks, including Bill, all go out hunting for whatever killed it. Bill shoots a rabbit, and TC volunteers Marsha to cook it for him. He leaves to avoid Marsha, and on the way back to his cabin he’s jumped by a big animal. He gets away, but he’s hurt and hungry for meat. They call Chris and Terry, who join them at the Colony.
Bill goes out wandering at night and this time, he doesn’t avoid Marsha. They have sex by the campfire, and there’s lots of howling from the surrounding woods as they both show their fangs. They both turn, and now they have werewolf sex.
Terry records the howls that night. Terry notices that one of Eddie’s drawings was done right where she is standing, so maybe there’s a connection between Eddie and The Colony. Marsha continues exploring and ends up at a cabin that appears to be… Eddie’s. The door breaks down and a werewolf attacks her. She hacks its arm off with an ax. The severed arm turns into a human hand as she watches. She gets away and runs back to the main building and calls Chris.
Terry checks Waggner’s files, and finds that Marsha, TC, and Eddie are all related. Then the werewolf finds her and finally kills her.
Karen and Bill fight about Marsha. She goes to Waggner’s office to use the phone and finds Terry’s body as well as Eddie. Eddie says, “I want to give you a piece of my mind,” and pulls out a piece before turning into a werewolf in the big transformation scene. She throws acid in his face and runs away, straight into the arms of Marsha, and all of the other Colony members.
Dr. Waggner comes in, and she thinks he’s going to help, but nope; he’s one of them as well. He wants to change the way they do things to avoid being discovered, but not all the others agree with him. “Ya cain’t tame what’s meant to be wild doc; it ain’t natural,” explains Erle.
Chris drives as fast as he can to get there, but runs into traffic. He finally gets there and finds the files on Marsha and the others. He confronts Eddie, who doesn’t realize Chris bought silver bullets from the bookseller. Chris kills Eddie and then confronts the others. He kills a few but locks the others in the barn and sets it on fire.
They get into the car and drive off, killing the sheriff along the way. Soon, they find themselves surrounded by werewolves… and Karen is bitten. “We have to warn people, Chris. We have to make them believe!” Karen says.
When they get back to the station, Karen cleans up and goes live on the air to tell the story. Just after she gets started, she transforms, right there on the air in front of everyone… until Chris shoots her, also on the air.
We switch scenes to a bar where we see Marsha, ordering a rare hamburger. At least some of the Colony wolves escaped.
Commentary
The cast list on this film is enough to make it a must-see all by itself. It’s got nearly everyone who was anyone in the 80s and even a few extra surprises with cameos. Part of the fun of watching this is figuring out who the werewolf is. We see pretty early that Marsha is one, but is she the only one?
Eddie’s transformation scene is one of the longest and most detailed of all transformation scenes, taking several minutes to complete as Karen watches in shock and horror. The actual werwolf creatures aren’t super impressive, but the transformation is exceptional.
This is easily one of the best werewolf film; arguably the best ever done.