A couple of years ago I did a trivia quiz on 1981's werewolf classic, "An American Werewolf in London." Well, now let's do one on the other 1981 werewolf classic, "The Howling." "The Howling" is great--legitimately scary, a fun, witty script, better than average acting, and some fantastic special effects, including the transformation scenes. Although only moderately successful at the box office, it still spawned a bunch of sequels, most or all of which were dreck. But let's get into it--usual format, questions followed by the answers, many SPOILERS ahead.
Questions:
1) What number television station does Karen White work for?
2) What is killer Eddie's signature symbol? (He posts it several times.)
3) During the sting attempt that opens the movie, what is Karen's radio code sign?
4) Near what street intersection is the porn store where Karen meets up with Eddie?
5) What 4 letters are the call sign for the television which employs Karen?
6) What are the names of the two police officers that are at the station during the sting?
7) Where did Karen's husband Bill Neill attend college? (One of the cops recognizes him.)
8) What famous director/producer/studio exec cameos as a guy who uses the telephone booth right after Karen?
9) What number viewing booth in the porn shop does Karen enter to meet with Eddie?
10) What is the name of Dr. George Waggner's new book?
11) What apartment number did Eddie live in?
12) What city does this movie open in?
13) Who are the other members of Karen's news team, including the sports and weather reporters?
14) What is the name of the television station's general manager?
15) What is the name of Karen's replacement newswoman?
16) The first person who introduces himself to Karen and Bill at The Colony is Jerry Warren. What does he do for a living?
17) And what does Bill Neill do for a living?
18) What is the name of Jerry's wife, who becomes Karen's closest friend at The Colony?
19) Who is the local cattle rancher, who provides the meat for the opening cookout?
20) Who is the old man, played by genre vet John Carradine, who attempts suicide at the cookout?
21) What is the name of The Colony's local sheriff?
22) According to Karen's friend (Question #18, Jerry's wife), what five types of assertiveness training did she try before joining The Colony?
23) Who serves as the human tracker when The Colony guys hunt for the wolf that killed the cows?
24) What is the name of the bookstore/occult shop where Terry and Chris get much of the werewolf information they obtain?
25) According to the owner, Walter Paisley, (played by genre vet Dick Miller), what groups frequent his store?
26) What book title does Terry read from at the store, and later buy?
27) What famous publisher/writer is seen in the bookstore, pawing some tarot cards?
28) According to Walter Paisley, what are the only ways to actually permanently kill a werewolf?
29) Aside from the silver bullets that Chris later buys, what occult objects does Paisley mention he sells?
30) For what caliber gun are the silver bullets?
31) What three types of credit card does Paisley say he accepts?
32) What book is Bill reading when Karen is feeling amorous?
33) Where on his body is Bill bitten by a werewolf?
34) What werewolf does Terry manage to seriously wound, via chopping off its right forearm?
35) What theme appropriate book is seen on Dr. Waggner's office desk?
36) What character in this movie plays the exact same character in another famous movie?
37) What characters take Karen captive after she wounds Eddie with the acid, and escapes Waggner's office?
38) Because Karen is famous, The Colony has to make her death look like an accident. What is their plan to accomplish this?
39) Chris kills several werewolves directly, by shooting them with silver bullets. Name them.
40) How many werewolves, if any, does Karen directly kill, via the silver bullets?
41) How many werewolves, at least, survive Chris and Karen's shootings and the fire at the Ritual Center?
42) Right after Karen transforms and is killed, the television station cuts to a commercial. For what?
43) We see a beer sign in the bar at the end, when we learned that Marsha survived. For what beer?
44) What does Marsha's admirer order at the end?
45) And what does Marsha want to eat?
46) Is Eddie related to any of The Colony werewolves?
47) What is Eddie's serial killer nickname?
48) Bill shoots and kills some animals during the wolf hunt, leading to his awkward meeting with Marsha. What kind of animals does he kill?
49) What is the overall goal of Dr. Waggner's Colony?
50) What famous werewolf movie do we see Chris and Terry briefly watching? (Scenes from it also play after the credits.)
51) What county in California is The Colony in?
52) What are the exact physical limitations of the werewolves in this movie? (Conjectural)
Answers:
1) Channel 6.
2) A yellow Smiley Face sticker.
3) Fox 1. Get used to hearing a LOT more wolf/dog/canine references in this movie!
4) Western and DeLongre.
5) KDHB.
6) Lieutenant Shantz, and Detective Kline.
7) Stanford. Since he's recognized by the cops, he probably played football for this university.
8) Roger Corman. They even gently mock his cheapness, by having him check the telephone coin slot.
9) 13.
10) "The Gift."
11) 27.
12) Los Angeles, California.
13) Her cohost is Lew Landers, Gene Codler is the sports guy, and John Rob is the weather reporter.
14) Fred W. Francis.
15) The general manager can't remember exactly--he guesses Fujiama or Fujimoto.
16) Software.
17) He owns several health clubs, or "hardware," as he awkwardly jokes to Jerry.
18) Donna.
19) Charlie Barton.
20) Erle.
21) Sam Newfield.
22) EST, TM, Scientology, Iridology, and Primal Screamers.
23) T.C. Quist.
24) The Other Side.
25) Sun worshippers, moon worshippers, Satanists, and even some members of the Manson Family.
26) "Warlocks, Werewolves, and Demons."
27) Forrest J. Ackerman, owner/publisher of the magazine "Famous Monsters of Filmland."
28) Silver bullets, and fire.
29) Chicken blood, dog embryos, black candles, and wolfsbane.
30) .30-06.
31) Bank Americard, American Express, and Visa.
32) "You Can't Go Home Again," by, wait for it, Thomas WOLFE. Yup, another wolf reference.
33) On his upper right arm.
34) T.C. Quist. We see him in human form later, missing this body part.
35) "Howl," the 1956 collection of poems by Allen Ginsberg. Reference again.
36) Television reporter Lew Landers, also played newscaster Lew Landers in 1984's "Gremlins," also directed by Joe Dante. And played by the same actor, James MacKrell.
37) Jerry Warren and Charlie Barton.
38) They plan to put her and Terry in one of their cars, pour gasoline on them, set them on fire, and push them off the Coast Road.
39) Eddie, T.C., Jerry Warren, Dr. Waggner, an unidentified werewolf on his car, Sam Newfield, and finally, Karen White.
40) Only one, her husband Bill, after he attacks her in the car at the end.
41) We see three still alive in the road as Karen and Chris drive away.
42) Dog food.
43) Oly, or short for Olympia Beer, which was closed down in 2003.
44) A pepper steak.
45) A hamburger, cooked "rare," naturally.
46) Yes, his surname is the same as T.C. and Marsha, or Quist. T.C. and Marsha are definitely siblings, and Eddie seems similar in age, so probably a sibling, or maybe a cousin.
47) Eddie the Mangler.
48) Rabbits.
49) It was designed to as a place for werewolves to live safely, and secretly. Instead of attacking, killing and eating people, they subsisted on cattle. Frequent counseling sessions kept the werewolves psychologically sound, and prevented them from leaving and murdering people. Keeping the beast in check, so to speak. Obviously, many of the werewolves, had problems with this, like Erle, or were against the idea totally, like Marsha. More blatantly, Eddie left the colony and started killing people in Los Angeles.
50) "The Wolf Man," (1941).
51) Llanwelly, which is a reference to "The Wolf Man," as that's the same name as Lawrence Talbot's village in that film.
52) As far as we can tell, bookstore owner Walter Paisley seems to be accurate. Only silver bullets and fire seem to kill werewolves permanently. Eddie, for example, appears to be dead after being shot several times with regular bullets, including in the head, but he revives and escapes after a few days. We see that T.C. is able to be wounded with a regular hatchet/axe, but his cut off limb already appears to be repairing itself. But this leads to the question, if you shot a werewolf say, in the hand, with a silver bullet, would that kill it, or is it only gunshot wounds that would kill a person otherwise, like in the heart, lungs, liver, brain, or other vital organs, or wounds that resulted in copious bleeding? And if you stabbed a werewolf in a vital spot with a silver knife, or beat their brains in with a silver-tipped cane (like in "The Wolf Man" (1941)) would that kill them? I would think so. Or, alternately, if you chopped their head off with a regular steel blade, would that kill them? Or are their healing capabilities like the comic book character Wolverine? Or similarly, how bad a burn does it have to be to destroy them forever? A type of serious burn that would kill a normal human, or something more? For the record, I think any silver wound to a vital organ will kill them, and any serious burn will too. And maybe a decapitation with a normal steel blade,