When Joe Dante made The Howling in 1981, it may have been overshadowed by John Landis’ An American Werewolf In London, but it done enough business to be a success, and gained enough of a following that a sequel to it was deemed marketable. It wasn’t until 1985 that the sequel finally saw release, by which time Dante was working on Explorers, not that he would have been invited to the party anyway, despite his wonderful work with the first movie. You see, Gary Brandner, author of the novel on which the movie was based, was apparently very unhappy with Dante’s ‘disrespectful’ treatment of the subject matter. The sequel is also apparently based on Brandner’s work, however having never read any of his books I can’t comment on how faithful it is. Apparently enough that he let director Philippe Mora return for the outrageously diabolical The Howling III:The Marsupials 2 years later.

The film goes by many titles, well 3 to be exact. It’s usually just referred to as The Howling II, however it does have 2 subtitles, the first is the one I originally seen it under, and the one it’s listed under here, Your Sister Is A Werewolf, as well as the title my VHS copy refers to it as: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch. I think I have to refer to it as the latter on principle if nothing else.

To it’s credit, Stirba is the only sequel in the series which actually attempts to link itself to Dante’s picture, as it starts shortly after the events of the first film, where the death of news reporter Karen White has been covered up to look like a normal murder as opposed to the mercy killing it was, and her intentions of ousting the werewolf community apparently failed as the show was never broadcast (despite the fact I’m sure it was being shown live in the first movie). At her funeral, her brother Ben (Reb Brown - Space Mutiny) and colleague Jenny (Annie McEnroe - Battletruck) are approached by the mysterious Stefan Crosscoe - Horror Hotel) who informs them of the truth, that Karen was a werewolf at the time of her death, and due to the silver bullets that killed her being removed during autopsy, she will soon rise from the grave as a creature of the night.

Naturally they dismiss him, even after he shows them (Reshot) footage of what took place at the climax of the first movie, though he reveals his intention to go and drive a metal blade through Karen’s corpse that night, which Ben is adamantly against. It’s when Ben tries to stop him that night that he witnesses Karen come back to life as the 3 are set upon by a group of werewolves, barely surviving.

It’s then that the pair start to pry Stefan for more information, and he reveals that the Queen of the Werewolves, Stirba (Sybil Danning - The Phantom Empire) is about to rise, and that he intends to travel to Transylvania to stop her. Furious at the fact his sister was turned into a monster, Ben demands to join Stefan, and Jenny even tags along searching for a story.

When they reach Transylvania, they discover the village they stay in is almost totally populated by werewolves, and only a select group of humans, also sworn to defeating the monsters, can be trusted. However, it turns out that Stirba is expecting Stefan and company, and she and her nemesis have a link beyond mutual hatred tying them together…

Sound like fairly standard horror movie fare? Well I suppose it is, but then I never did manage to wind a way to link in the bizarre New Wave Concert, Werewolf orgy, and scene in which both seem to take place in the same room (although that could just be wonky editing) Not to mention the attack dwarf, the monster bat, exploding eyes or the absolutely majestic repetition of Danning ripping off her shirt to expose her breasts no less than 18(!) times during the ending credits. Words don’t quite do justice to how thoroughly bizarre Stirba actually is. While the first film is a fairly straightforward horror with some black comedy thrown in to lighten the tone, Stirba is just so thoroughly absurd it’s hard to take it seriously, but also not to love it for how tragic it is. I mean you can take into account the fact that Mora seems to have got vampires and werewolves mixed up, citing stakes through the heart as a means of disposing of werewolves and giving it a Transylvanian setting, the fact these ‘Romanian’ locals speak fluent Czech, and live in a distinctly Czech looking village also raises a few eyebrows, but many of the film’s plot elements themselves are just ridiculous, such as Stirba’s big secret about Stefan, that, given their respective ages, must be chronologically impossible.

The attempted links to the first film are also rather hilarious, as the reshot footage and ‘Karen’ will be absolutely hilarious to anyone who has seen the first movie, given that the actress doesn’t seem to resemble Dee Wallace in the least (she doesn’t even have the right colour of hair!) and the werewolf in the video looks nothing like the one from the climax of that movie.

With that said, the movie keeps up a constant pace, and I can’t say I was ever bored…granted that’s because I was having a great laugh as the film constantly outdid itself with one outrageously strange development after another, making it practically impossible to take my eyes away from the screen, even as 3 semi-transformed werewolves had a threesome before my eyes.

Acting in the film is really quite hard to call, as even though some of the player, most notably the legendary Christopher Lee, who famously apologised to Joe Dante on the set of Gremlins 2 for making this film, can undoubtedly act, it’s hard to make anything out of such an off-the-wall plot with hilarious dialog. I never, ever, thought I’d laugh at a Lee line delivered in earnest as I did his “your sister is a werewolf”. Danning’s main contribution is the aforementioned breast flash, hilariously repeated 18 times at the film’s climax, with the rest of the players inoffensive if unspectacular, or acting through an accent so heavy it’s hard to make out a word they are saying.

The film’s soundtrack is provided almost entirely by the aforementioned New Wave track, provided by the band Babel. At first it’s kind of annoying, but by the end, like everything else, as soon as you hear any of the 4 lines of lyrics it seems to consist of, it’s hard not to chuckle, especially seeing as the music tends to herald the arrival of another ridiculous scene.

Rounding things off for the ‘So bad it’s ace’ category are the special effects. Oh yes, special they are. We never actually see a transformation, funny since the first movie’s is it’s highlight, but instead people in what appear to be gorilla suits, or with fake fangs. The scene where the dwarf’s eyes explode is so hilariously silly looking it’s almost worth admission alone. That’s not even touching on the ‘laser’ effects that Stirba uses…absolutely priceless. I’m sure the average music video in 1985 had better production values than this.

As a serious picture, Stirba is an absolute failure. It’s inept in almost every sense. Yet at the same time, it’s easily one of the most entertaining pictures I’ve ever seen, and despite technically being the worst, it’s also the best of all the sequels, on the ground that it at least takes bad to levels of entertainment. I’d gladly recommend this movie, on merit of it’s stupidities as opposed to despite them. If you can appreciate the humour in a bad movie, this is the perfect film for you, littered with scenes begging to be laughed at.

Review also posted on Dooyoo.co.uk

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups