After a traumatic encounter with a serial killer, L.A. newswoman Karen White (Dee Wallace) is sent on the advice of her doctor to a secluded country resort for rest and recuperation. She soon discovers that the resort houses a colony of werewolves who can shapeshift at will, without the aid of a full moon, and things quickly get hairy as the beasts hunt down Karen and her friends. Roger Corman alum Joe Dante took a step closer to the mainstream with this relatively big-budgeted horror flick, which features an amusingly tongue-in-cheek script by Dante's Piranha screenwriter John Sayles and outstanding effects work from Rob Bottin. Giving the werewolf mythos a healthy dose of sex appeal (courtesy Elisabeth Brooks' frequently nude, nymphomaniac lycanthrope) and a sense of humour, The Howling was followed by numerous sequels that had progressively less to do with the outstanding original.