Rish Outfield's reviews
Though the monster effects weren't as impressive (by today's standards) as the same year's American Werewolf in London, make-up master Rick Baker focused on a more wolf-MAN rather than "American' Werewolf"'s WOLF-man. This isn't a bad film, though there's some lesser-quality special effects, a couple of dumb fake scares, and annoying 70's music (even the lighting was evocative of that decade). The great things here are appearances by Dick Miller, Slim Pickens, Roger Corman, and Forrest Ackerman. Also, Dee Wallace holds a special place in my heart. And there's a lovely naked wolf-chick. Unfortunately, the creature at the end looked like what would happen if Chewbacca mated with an Ewok. What was up with that?
Best Scare: Actually, the titular sound. It was really chilling.
I'd Recommend It To: All lycanthrope fans.

The tyranist's thoughts
Interestingly enough this was release the same year as An American Werewolf in London and also features make-up/creature effects by Rick Baker. Unfortunately it is very apparent that his best work went into London and not much was left for The Howling. Still the movie has a very good story and an interesting ending. I found it easy to care about the characters and their imminent demise. It isn't a terribly frightening movie, but they did a good job on making that howl a little creepier than normal.