AKA Howling 2 : Stirba the Werewolf Bitch, Howling 2 : Your Sister's a Werewolf.

Undoubtedly the biggest stinker of a sequel since "Exorcist 2", this poor follow up to the original "Howling" shows the brother of the late Karen White (Dee Wallace's character from the first film), and his girlfriend hooking up with horror veteran Christopher Lee to battle a werewolf sect in Transylvania.

That is essentially the film in a nutshell, but as I've got a page to fill here I'll continue. The fun starts off after Karen's funeral when her brother Ben (Reb Brown) finds out the truth behind Karen's death from a werewolf hunter named Stefan Croscoe (Christopher Lee in his worst ever role).

Of course, at first Ben doesn't believe his story about Karen being a werewolf. But after an interesting battle in the cemetery that night involving silver bullets and titanium stakes, they realise that Stefan WAS indeed telling the truth. So with that, Ben and girlfriend Jenny (Annie McEnroe) decide to accompany Stefan on a little excursion to Transylvania, in search of a female werewolf named Stirba (Sybil Danning), who has a penchant for tight leatherwear and punk rock music.

Upon arrival they soon come across Stirba's castle, which they find full of leather clad punk rocker werewolves indulging in a mass orgy. Trouble is that the only thing that can kill this particular group of werewolves is Titanium, as they have become immune to silver. Fortunately, Stefan just happens to have an ample supply, and so they soon get stuck in.

One of the duffest werewolf films I have ever had the misfortune of viewing. Whilst Christopher Lee delivers a respectable performance (as always) and the shots of Sybil Danning stalking around in her leatherwear and getting her kit off were very nice to watch, the film on the whole is just plain awful, and matters aren't helped by the shameless ripping off of special effects from "American Werewolf in London" (yes I DID notice) or the annoying punk rock song that plays virtually non-stop throughout.

I think the writers also got a bit confused and thought they were doing a vampire feature, what with the setting being in Transylvania, killing the wolves by a stake through the heart and having Lee cast as a "Van-Helsing" type of character. All I can say is Christopher Lee must have been strapped for cash when he made this one. One last thought, what was British TV actor Jimmy Nail doing in this????

Overall Marks : 3/10.

Other Information.

• Christopher Lee was apparently less than happy about the way the film turned out, he was even quoted as saying "The less said about my role on that film the better".

• There are numerous cut releases in the US, under the title "Howling 2 : Your Sister is a Werewolf". The version released as "Howling 2 : Stirba the werewolf Bitch" is uncut.

• The UK release is the uncut version with the sub-title "Stirba the Werewolf Bitch" on the film intro credits.

• Director Philip Mora went onto direct the 1989 sci-fi thriller "Communion".

• The scenes in Transylvania were actually filmed in Czechoslovakia.

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