The Howling

The Howling (1981)

30 mistakes - chronological order

(4 votes)

Continuity mistake: When werewolf Eddie takes the file from Terry's hand, while she's on the phone, the phone drops from her ear, to the floor, twice between shots. (01:00:45)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When werewolf Eddie takes the file out of Terry's hand, he holds it at the top. In the next shot he is holding it at the side. (01:00:50)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When the werewolf attacks Terry, it pushes things at her; note the pedestal which flies into her - the white sheet falls off of it. In the very next shot the sheet is back on the pedestal again. (01:01:00)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When Karen enters Dr. Waggners office, the phone on the desk is right by the edge, closer to the door. After Karen finda Terry's corpse, the phone is now on the other edge of the desk. (01:03:00)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When Karen enters Dr. Waggner's office, she leaves the door halfway open. After finding Terry's corpse, the door is now almost shut. (01:03:00)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When Karen finds Terry's corpse, there is nothing visible on her, and half her body is shown. In the next shot a white blanket is suddenly on her body, all the way up to her neck. (01:03:15)

Hamster

Continuity mistake: When Eddie is transforming into a wolf in front of Karen his left hand turns grey and grows hair down to the knuckles. Then in the shot of his arm muscles expanding, his left hand has a normal skin color and hair only down to his wrist. Apparently, while editing no one checked to see how his hand was already established. (02:09:55)

Other mistake: At the end after the barn fire, Marcia is at a tavern, ordering a rare steak. While it is believable that she escaped the barn fire, it is unbelievable that she is in the tavern wearing the same dress and necklace she wore prior to her transformation in the barn. All of her attire would have been rended in the transformation and lost in the fire. Unless her wardrobe consists of duplicates of the same clothing.

Revealing mistake: The final shot of the sex-scene between Bill and Marsha is very obviously a piece of (rather cheap-looking) 2D cell animation. The actors look like cartoons, the fire is simply the same few frames repeated over and over and the background looks obviously painted.

Boy watching TV: Wow.
Mother's voice (offscreen): What are you kids watching?
Girl watching TV: The newslady's turned into a werewolf.

More quotes from The Howling

Trivia: While giving a lecture at the Hollywood Scriptwriting Institute, director Joe Dante trash talked the novel "The Howling" on which the movie is based. One person in the audience raised his hand and asked, "So, you don't like the book, huh?" with Joe stating, "No, not really." The man responded that he was the one who wrote the novel. To Joe's surprise, the man in the audience was Gray Brandner, the author of "The Howling."

More trivia for The Howling

Question: This question applies to both this movie and Howling 4. Was there some kind of hypnosis involved that made the husbands of the protagonist want to stay in the communities after they were bitten by a werewolf?

Answer: Whether it be dog or wolf, the primal instincts take over. Every creature, in nature, has an urge to seek out their own kind. When the husbands were bitten, they are consumed with the desire to hunt, kill and mate.

More questions & answers from The Howling

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