Ranking The Howling Movies Worst To Best
6. The Marsupials: The Howling III (1987)
The Marsupials tells quite the convoluted tale of a colony of werewolf hybrids living in the Australian outback. When discovered and targeted for capture, human allies rally round the wolf colony and attempt to protect their way of life.
The Howling III was director Philippe Mora's answer to the studio meddling he encountered whilst directing the 1985 sequel. Here he chose to take the reigns, writing, directing and producing this film himself after MGM surrendered the property. In hindsight, perhaps it would've been best had he walked away.
The Marsupials is a truly bizarre stand-alone film that opts to try and depict werewolves as sympathetic creatures just trying to survive. This could be quite the interesting story element, but for the jarring tonal shift mid-way through the film. Initially beginning as a body-horror werewolf tale, The Howling III takes a bizarre turn into family drama in its second half.
Here we witness The Marsupials go about their everyday lives, schooling their furry children, preparing meals and we even see a lady birth a litter of pups. It's all just... bizarre and seems to come from nowhere. Suddenly characters initially interested in capturing the creatures are waging war against the army to protect them.
The Howling III is more competently made than its predecessor, but still has no idea what kind of film it wants to be.