Howl, directed by Paul Hyett, is a movie where werewolves
attack a train stuck in the woods. That's the whole story. Whole plot described in a
single sentence. If they had just
named the movie "Wolves on a Train", I would not even need to do a plot
summary. Howl is a very simple, modestly-budgeted British horror movie about a
train at night, humans on the train, and werewolves outside. Much like the movie Dagon I covered two weeks ago, it's a pretty obscure find, but a lovable one.
With that lycanthropic locomotive premise, one could imagine Howl playing up the irony. Let us not forget Snakes on the Plane (and the lesser-known mockbuster, Snakes on a Train) a movie that winked so much at its audience that it appeared to be stricken with a kind of palsy. A lot of modern horror, and lower-budget indie horror, is a bit too self-aware. Or they're way too self-aware of the joke, such as movies like Sharkapus vs Whalewolf or 3-Headed Shark Attack or I Was a Teenaged Sharkenstein, all movies that also came out in 2015. (And I only made-up one of them, can you guess which one?) Howl plays it entirely straight, this is an old-school creature feature.
Despite being a monster movie, Howl’s structure is similar to old disaster movies from the Seventies. If The Poseidon Adventure had
some werewolves and was on a train, we’d roughly have this. There are a dozen or so people from diverse backgrounds and economic classes shoved together
into a tight space. They either work together to survive the night, or break
apart into petty squabbles. The train conductor is one of the first people
eaten, leaving the fair-collectors and stewardesses in charge without a clue. They must valiantly get the train moving again, or everybody dies. Unlike 70s disaster movies, there's less high-adventure in Howl and more passengers getting ripped out of the cars to be eaten alive.
Howl has a decent cast. Our hero is a fair
collector guard, Joe (Ed Speleers), unhappily forced into a midnight shift. He’s
got a one-sided crush on the stewardess, Ellen (Holly Weston). Sean Pertwee is the conductor,
and as mentioned gets eaten very quickly. A shame since Sean Pertwee is a plus to any movie. The most difficult character is an upper-class
sexist twit, Adrian (Adrian), who wants to leave the women and elderly behind
as bait and run away. If Adrian is not yet the biggest problem in any situation, he will make himself the problem, he's that kind of asshole. Another issue is the nice older lady, Jenny (Ania Marson)
who has had the bad luck of getting bitten. Following zombie movie character
stupidity, they don’t throw Jenny overboard, but leave her to transform.
Most of Howl is not kills, but the intersocial drama. The
entire film takes place on the train, so we have an intense claustrophobia that makes everything a bit worse. Adrian, of course, always has to be an issue. But even when characters are good to each other, things can go poorly. I quite enjoy how often
Howl pulls off a touching scene of characters forming a connection, only to
punctuate it by a werewolf ripping one of them out into the woods to be
devoured alive. The kills are infrequent enough, but nobody is safe.
Howl’s budget was well under a million dollars, yet it is impressive how much of a movie they managed to make for that money. The pre-production of the entire film was wrapped in five weeks. It isn't easy to do an effects movie that quickly, especially when the effects are largely practical. They managed to build physical prosthetics and suits for the werewolves, which largely look great. The gore looks great too, poor Jenny's bite wound festers in a disgustingly effective way. This is a low-budget movie, but not a cheap movie.
Director Paul Hyett's background is in effects. His resume includes
working on the effects in various British films such as The Descent, Doomsday,
and Attack the Block. I will not lie and say the monster effects in Howl look
as great as those movies, but the scares always land. These
werewolves are less lupine in the face than large mutant people. They have dog-like legs, but they walk upright. You can clearly recognize
the humans they once were before they transformed. Howl is a werewolf movie, so as a rule, must have a transformation scene. We do not quite get a full evolution on camera,
but gross things do happen to poor Jenny’s body as she loses her humanity.
Howl isn't a masterpiece. The production value is maybe only a few rungs above a really good Doctor Who episode. One could imagine a version of this story where The Doctor falls through the car ceiling and pushes their sonic screwdriver in some werewolf faces, saving the day. That is not the case this time. There is no help coming. So even with modest means, Paul Hyett accomplished quite a great deal in Howl. It's the kind of horror movie you watch on a whim and are pleasantly surprised by its quality.
Next time we travel to 2016, the year of everybody saying "this is the worst year ever" only to be proven wrong by the next annum, My Hero Academia teaching us all Charles V's slogan "plus ultra", and our next... -well, next time we're not actually doing a movie. We're changing it up and covering a short video game from 2016, We Know the Devil.
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