31 Songs of Halloween, 2017, Day 11

1981's "The Howling" was a smart werewolf movie. Showing how a secret cabal of shape changers could exist in the 80s, it was well cast and populated with characters we liked or could at least understand. By all accounts the movie even managed to improve on its source material, the 1977 Gary Brandner novel of the same name. Not to mention that, for my money, it may have the best werewolf effects seen on screen to this day.

Then 4 years later came "Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf" or as it was known in some places "Howling II: Stirba – Werewolf Bitch". This one was... not so smart.

Seemingly a sloppily rewritten vampire film, it featured cardboard characters in an ill-thought out and unrecognizable world from the first. The effects are also mostly amateurish and cheap looking. However, a few things save the movie and make it probably the best Howling sequel. One is sheer absurdity, another is the performances of Christopher Lee & Sybil Danning and a third is the song we're looking at today. A little new wave ode to werewolves by the band Babel. They play this several times throughout the movie, I guess it was cheaper than paying for more pieces? Still, it's catchy, cheesy fun. Much like the movie it was made for can be if you're in the right mood. Happy Werewolf Wednesday!

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