Movie Info
Movie Name: Howling III: The Marsupials
Studio: Screen Media Films
Genre(s): Horror
Release Date(s): November 13, 1987
MPAA Rating: R
A girl named Jerboa (Imogen Annesley) leaves her small community of Flow in Australia where she meets Donny (Lee Biolos). Donny discovers Jerboa isn’t like other girls and is part of a small community of werewolves hiding in the countryside. When Jerboa’s discovered, the hunt is on for the werewolves and Donny, Jerboa, a ballerina named Olga (Dagmar Bláhová), and a scientist named Beckmeyer (Barry Otto) must go into hiding to protect Donny and Jerboa’s hybrid infant.
Directed by Philippe Mora, Howling III: The Marsupials is sometimes referred to The Marsupials: Howling III. The film follows up Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf from 1985 and is unrelated to the 1985 Gary Brandner novel The Howling III: Echoes.
The Howling was a great movie. It was smart, funny, and full of jumps. With the second film, The Howling already jumped the shark. This film is totally unrelated to the previous two entries, and Howling III: The Marsupials is not a good movie…but it is so-bad-it-is-good.
The story for Howling III: The Marsupials is all over the place and just keeps going. The movie starts out about this girl escaping a compound like city, then it turns into a love story, and then ends up being some weird version of Badlands with werewolves and humans hiding in the Outback from hunters. There is no flow and the movie has no direction.
The cast for the film also is pretty poor. There are some cameos by character actors like Frank Thring and Michael Pate. The final sequence also has an appearance by Barry Humphries in his Dame Edna role when Imogen Annesley wins an Oscar for her acting ability…which she probably never has to worry about.
The movie also looks horrible. The first Howling had great visual effects and a perfect transformation. Howling III: The Marsupials has horrible werewolf effects, a bad “baby” werewolf, and an even cheesier and cheaper award ceremony at the end. The movie is supposed to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it mostly is due to being so bad and low budget.
Howling III: The Marsupials is a weak horror film. Plodding along, the movie fails to be horrific or suspenseful. It does become a rather strong comedy in its “badness” and should be sought out by fans of bad horror. Howling III: The Marsupials is followed by Howling IV: The Original Nightmare in 1998.
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