THE MARSUPIALS: THE HOWLING 3
Australia, 1987, 93 minutes, Colour.
Barry Otto, Imogen Annesley, Max Fairchild, Michael Pate, Frank Thring, Barry Humphries,
Directed by Philippe Mora.
The Marsupials: The Howling 3 is an oddball movie. Written and directed by Philippe Mora, it is a spoof as well as touching on serious themes of horror movies. The initial Howling, directed by Joe Dante, was a success as a horror film as well as a spoof, especially of the media. The Howling 2, directed by Mora, was a more straightforward horror movie.
This time the scene is shifted to Australia. In Australia (and the Soviet Union) a strange race, blend of wolves and humans, has been discovered. Barry Otto and Ralph Cotterill are scientists researching this. Imogen Annersley (Playing Beatty Bow) is an attractive werewolf who leaves her settlement and arrives in Sydney, only to be caught up in the making of a horror movie (offering plenty of scope for spoof, satire, and Frank Thring as a pompous director). There is also a subplot with a Russian ballet dancer who is also a werewolf.
A lot of notable names in the Australian film industry appear in the film, including Michael Pate as the American president. Film critic Bill Collins is a doctor. And Dame Edna Everage even appears at the finale for presenting an Oscar.
There are also aboriginal themes - with some aborigines being members of this mutant race. And there are also variations on aboriginal mythologies, spirits and Dreaming.
All in all, an oddball mixture.
1.Popularity of horror films? This movie as a straightforward horror film? The send-up of the horror genre? The parodies within the film? The blend of the serious and the spoof?
2.Australian settings, the use of Sydney, the bush sequences? The special effects for the transformations into werewolves? The parody of the special effects for horror movies? Musical score? Songs?
3.The title, the focus? The blend of werewolves and humans as marsupial types?
4.Professor Beckmeyer and his movie from 1905, his grandfather at Cape York Peninsula, the aborigines and their corroboree, the werewolf in the movie? His lectures, his investigations? Discovery of the movie set in Sydney? The news from the Soviet Union? Tracking down the ballet dancer? His involvement, research, with Professor Sharp? Observing Geboa, Philo, Olga? His letting them escape, going to the village? The chase in the bush? His settling down with Olga, raising a family? The final amnesty and Professor Sharp finding him? To America and meeting Geboa's son? Barry Otto and his presenting the character seriously?
5.Geboa, her escape from the colony? Travelling on the bus, in the city and scaring people as a wolf? Donny and his finding her, going into the film, the retakes? With the director? The sexual liaison with Donny, her pregnancy? Escaping, giving birth, the marsupial style? Back in the colony, the clashes with Philo, the three women chasing her and capturing her (disguised as nuns)? Her escape from the colony, her friendship with Kindy? Finding Donny again, the escape? Settling down? Going to America, the disguise, becoming a famous actress, her son, Donny as a director? The Oscar presentation with Dame Edna and her transforming into a werewolf (and a parody of the end of the initial Howling movie)?
6.The colony, Philo and his brutality, his explanation of their origin, the Tasmanian Devil, the phantom, the spirit going into the people? The members of the colony? The women disguised as nuns? The capture, the examination in the hospital? The massacre in the hospital? The escape? The doctors and their observations?
7.Olga and her companion, defecting, in Sydney, the ballet rehearsal, transforming into a werewolf, her being captured, the escape, Beckmeyer falling in love with her, her staying in the bush, family?
8.The movie people and the send-up of the director with Frank Thring? Donny taking Geboa to see a horror movie and the parody? The taking of the movie? The end and the satire on Hollywood?
9.Kindy, the aborigines, his being transformed by the phantom, his chasing the hunting party? The contrast with the aboriginal as the tracker, with the posse? His modern style, his language and behaviour?
10.The theme of the Tasmanian Devil and its extinction, the theories about Queen Victoria and President Harrison? Cover-ups? The military wanting to destroy the mutants? The scientists wanting to preserve them? The president of the US? The intervention of the Pope and the Vatican? The final amnesty for the werewolves?
11.The parody and the serious style? A piece of amusing nonsense or silliness?
