The Howling

Though it works well enough as a werewolf thriller (not, admittedly, a genre packed with masterpieces), Dante's film - which has TV reporter Wallace seeking therapy with bizarre consciousness-raising group 'The Colony' after a traumatic incident involving a serial killer - succeeds best as a witty, knowing commentary on the genre itself. References to lycanthropic lore, literature and cinema abound; gags are plentiful; and the whole thing casts a pleasingly sceptical glance at various social fashions and fads of the times. Hardly surprising, given Dante's irreverent sense of humour and the fact that the film was co-written by John Sayles.