Howling III: The Marsupials (1987)

Wonderful character development!

It is a performances centric movie

disgusting, overrated, pointless

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This one does not really follow in suit with The Howling 1 & Part 2 - even they were very different from one another. Howling 3 takes us on a government chase trying to find these lycanthropes. This clan can have sex with humans, they have pups that they carry in their pouches similar to a kangaroo - and why not they are an Australian clan and they have ties with a Russian clan.The film gets scattered with it's story telling, as if they just filmed some ideas then threw them together to complete the movie. But it is a rather fun movie to watch - unintentionally funny at times.If you are into werewolves it's worth a watch - but really for only those that are really into lycanthropes.5/10

I am shocked this movie is not a stoner/camp classic. It is at times meta and knowingly funny, and at times painfully earnest. The effects are laughable, the horror minimal. I don't know quite what this movie was trying to be. Take the title: "The Marsupials." That term does not invoke any sort of horror; it invokes cuteness. And indeed the lead female werewolf/marsupial gives birth to a Gizmo looking thing who grows into a tow headed child actor then a slightly studly monosyllabic brunet. Plot-wise, at first you think you're watching an origin story, with evidence of werewolves in early 20th century Australia. Then you get a comedic "modern" story where one werewolf woman escapes a Deliverance like town and is cast in a movie with a pervy director, and another werewolf woman tries to join a ballet co. but is thwarted when she accidentally turns during a performance. Then a horror action plot where some soldiers and medical types attempt to ID, study and eliminate the were-whatevers, and then the plot comes to a halt with both werewomen giving birth and a 20 minute, filmed like a dryer sheet commercial, montage in favor of bestiality, otherkin/human relations, furry-ism, nudism or some thing or another. I think if these filmmakers had had Tumblr, this movie would never have been necessary. The movie ends on a laugh line and a Dame Edna cameo. Had it been 20 minutes shorter, I might have totally recommended it.

Phillipe Mora, the director of Howling 2 was asked to make part 3 but he was certain of his abilities, this was going to be better than part 2 because this time it was going to be a spoof. Once the end credits start rolling I asked myself, were was the spoof, this was terrible.This is in fact a flick on his own, this has nothing to do with the first two entries. This story is simple, suddenly in Australia human-like marsupials appear. This fact on his own has nothing to do with werewolves. In fact, the only real werewolves you see is on the set of a horror flick that they are shooting. And even they look like 50's werewolves.Not funny and only laughable werewolves to see. The only thing that looked great was the effects used to make the baby from Jerboa. The only thing worth seeing. And we all know that the following entries into The Howling franchise were even worse.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 1/5 Comedy 0/5

OK.OK.OK. It is surely VERY,Very easy to put this film down. It has for intent and purpose absolutely nothing to do with the two previous Howling movies - much like Halloween III - but, unlike that film, there is no doubt in my mind that this is miles and leaps better than Howling II. Set in Australia a professor of strange phenomena goes, after interceptions of Russian transmissions, to Australia to find the werewolf. He does. No surprise there. Holed away in the Australian bush is a group of barbaric lycanthropes. One wants to go to the great opera house, leaves, falls in love, has sex, is captured, and then rescued by three werewolves dressed as nuns. The film definitely has campy elements, much like Howling II. The story here is pretty absurd for the most part, and the ending about a new race surviving and coexisting...ahhhh...let me put that yawn down! There are such scenes of ineptitude that you cannot do anything but laugh. Such as: the special effects sometimes are pretty good, but other times appear shamelessly hokey(like the faces of the three nuns). How about that scene in the hospital when the bald dude goes berserk? Or when an old werewolf named Kendi takes a group of hunters on and not one of them, even though all are armed and hunting for lycanthrope, ever thinks to shoot the werewolf but rather watches each in the group get killed one by one? How about the story of the marsupial werewolf and the werewolf baby that instinctively climbs to his mother's pouch? Or, for my money the most bizarre and ludicrous, the ballerina-turning-to-werewolf scene? Despite all this - the baby werewolf special effects were rather good, to me, and surprisingly tender. The acting is not bad either. All the leads can act. The director can direct. They all went on to do quite a bit more. Barry Otto in particular does a very honest and workmanlike job as the professor out to find out more about this "lost" race. Unlike the camp effects in Howling II, some of them actually work here AND this film, even if misplaced, has heart. It looks like effort was attempted. I laughed at quite a few things that were intentionally funny. How about the movie It Came from Uranus. Funny. The bit at the end with Barry Humphries - aka Dame Edna Everage. FUNNY! And Frank Thring - the stoic Pontius Pilate from Ben-Hur - giving an over-the-top portrayal of a horror director. He is literally and figuratively larger-than-life. A real hoot too. CUT! Anyway, I liked this a lot more than my 4 might suggest yet know it is dreck and drivel, BUT compared to that piece of cinematic waste called Howling II...this is a minor masterpiece. Take Christopher Lee and Sybil Danning's chest out...you have absolutely NOTHING.