Howling II: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch (1985)

Director:

Philippe Mora

Writers:

Gary Brandner (novel)
Robert Sarno (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

January 1986 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Twice the terror! Twice the torment!

Plot:

A young girl whose sister was murdered by werewolves helps an investigator track down a gang of the beasts through the U.S. and Europe.

Plot Keywords:

Werewolf | Transylvania | Queen | Stabbed In The Chest | Severed Hand

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Christopher Lee	...	Stefan Crosscoe
Annie McEnroe	...	Jenny Templeton
Reb Brown	...	Ben White
Marsha A. Hunt	...	Mariana
Sybil Danning	...	Stirba
Judd Omen	...	Vlad
Ferdy Mayne	...	Erle (as Ferdinand Mayne)
Patrick Field	...	Deacon
Jimmy Nail	...	Dom
Steven Bronowski	...	Moon Devil
James Crawford	...	American Priest (as James M. Crawford)
Jirí Krytinár	...	Vasile (as Jiri Krytinar)
Ladislav Krecmer	...	Father Florin
Jan Kraus	...	Tondo
Petr Skarke	...	Konstantin

Also Known As:

Howling II (Philippines: English title)
Howling II: ... Your Sister Is a Werewolf (USA)
Howling II: It's Not Over Yet (USA) (poster title)
The Howling II: Bark at the Moon (USA) (working title)
The Howling II: She-Wolf (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1986) | Singapore:PG (cut) | Australia:R | France:-12 | Norway:18 (video premiere) | Sweden:(Banned) | UK:18 | USA:R (certificate #27714) | West Germany:18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Company:

Hemdale Film

Trivia:

Christopher Lee stated in an interview at the time of the film's US release, that his reason for accepting the part was because he had never before appeared in a werewolf movie.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: Transylvania is in Romania, not Czechoslovakia.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Stefan Crosscoe: For it is written: the inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with her blood. And I saw her sent upon a hairy beast and she held forth a golden chalice full of the filthiness of fornications. And upon her forehead was written: "Behold I am the great mother of harlots and all abominations of the Earth."

Movie Connections:

Featured in Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003)

A real mess with some eye candy.

From the moment Christopher Lee puts on a pair of punk sunglasses and tries to sneak into a punk rock club, you know you've got a stinker on your hands! This film had potential. Beneath all of the sludge there are the remnants of what could have been crafted into a decent film, if not an interesting one. The final product is a real mess, however. Aside from the gratuitous nudity and some very attractive women, Howling II winds up being a laughable excuse for a horror film. Christopher Lee gives it a nugget of credibility, but even he cannot raise it above the level of crap.

Having never seen any of the other films in this series, this critic will be forced to accept on face value that this is a genuine continuation of the events in part one. We start off at a funeral for one of the characters from the original, and within the first ten minutes we find ourselves in Transylvania with a small group of heroes ready to battle a coven of werewolves. The film is paced fairly well, and there are not too many dead spots. The action is there; it just isn't filmed well. One bright spot is the music of a punk band called Babel. Though their song is played quite often, it is rather catchy.

The problems with this film are great in number. First off, the acting is worse than pitiful. Christopher Lee is good enough, but that's where it ends. The two leads Reb Brown and Annie McEnroe are lacking in just about everything you'd want for such characters. The writing is wretched, the editing redundant, and the direction amateurish. There are a couple nice special effect gimmicks, but the cheesy ones far out weigh them in number. Sybil Danning is nice to look at, but her acting performance is less than satisfactory. Judd Omen looks the part he plays, but his voice and acting are unconvincing to say the least. Much of the dialog is in an unintelligible language that may or may not be Latin.

I liked the general idea for the story. I always enjoy stories of true believers out to battle seemingly invincible forces of evil. One scene where a small group of good guys are trekking through a dark forest and shooting down a bunch of werewolves is even kind of exciting. Kind of. Maybe a bigger budget or a better director could have made the rest of the film a bit more compelling. 3 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

Side note: As of this writing, the censors at youtube.com have still not taken down the ending credits with Sybil Danning ripping off her top several times while the Babel song is playing! Catch it while you can!