Horror Movie Review: Howling III: The Marsupials (1987)

Written and directed by Philippe Mora, based onThe Howling III: Echoes by Gary Brandner, and starring Barry Otto, Imogen Annesley, Leigh Biolos, Dagmar Bláhová, Ralph Cotterill, and Barry Humphries. Howling III: The Marsupials aka The Marsupials: The Howling III aka Howling III is the maddest one yet. Which is saying something when you consider the insanity of the second film, Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf.

Cheaper, campier, and crazier, Howling III: The Marsupials misses the mark as far as entertainment value goes, proving to be a very testing watch. The nonsensical story surrounds the main characters of Jerboa, a young werewolf who has fled her tribe in the Australian outback town of Flow and gone to the big city of Sydney. There, she meets young filmmaker Donny, and they fall in love.

She just wants to live a normal life, but those in charge of Flow aren’t going to let her just get away and compromise their hidden town. So, three werewolf nuns are sent to find her. This is not a joke. Likewise, nor is the fact that Jerboa ends up pregnant, giving birth to a furry little thing which nestles in a pouch that she has. I told you this film was mad.

Jerboa, Donny, and their ‘kid’ have to go on the run to avoid the hunters from Flow, but there are bigger problems too as the government has got wind of the werewolf’s existence and set out to destroy them all.

This is my summation of Howling III: The Marsupials, but I promise you, it’s far less coherent than this. In fact, it’s frustrating nonsense all the way through, with zero engaging features least of all a cast who are as awkward as the story and their dialogue is. It feels like the goal here was to be as off-putting as possible, while trying to find new ways to insult the audience in an attempt to be different.

It does succeed though. It’s incredibly off-putting from a story, sound, and visual perspective. The sight of the hairy pup crawling into Jerboa’s pouch will stay with you, even if the over-riding thought is one around wasted time. It does insult its audience because it’s so far removed from the original film, and it is different, but not in any way that can be called good.

Compared to this, the second film looks like a work of art. Howling III: The Marsupials is the worst one so far, but when you consider the low bar, that’s not saying a lot.