A strange race of human-like marsupials appear suddenly in Australia, and a sociologist (Barry Otto) who studies these creatures falls in love with a female one (Dagmar Bláhová). Meanwhile one of the creatures Jerboa (Imogen Annesley) escapes her pack, and abusive leader Thylo (Max Fairchild), and runs off to the city were she falls for a film producer Donny (Leigh Biolos), are both a dangerous combination? Once again directed by Phillipe Mora, this time however being shot in his native Australia instead of Eastern Europe. Howling III i must say is a step better then its predecessor, apparently Mora wasn't happy with the end result of "Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf", and disliked both the story and the fact that producers added the famous extra shots of Sybil Dannings breasts. So Mora and co-producer Charles Waterstreet came up with there own money and Howling III: The Marsupials was born, and I must say this film tries to be everything you can imagine it wants to be a psychological thriller, a horror romance, a satire of horror movies, and a werewolf picture all in one and fails to deliver on these aspects two fold, it also doesn't help that even tho this is branded a horror film, ill be damned if I see anything scary or horror oriented here, and obviously it doesn't help that the film is PG-13 rated and really needed a R rating to discuss a lot of its overtones. Apparently Mora was trying tell a story and give you values and morals, but, it just doesn't come off right and it winds up just being the campy flick that it is, and that's what makes me come on to this movie its entertaining and I never was bored the whole ninety six minutes I was viewing it. Unlike, the later Howling films, Mora has know problem in giving you werewolf action, while there not jumping out all over the place like in the second film, but, he manages to out do everything he did on Howling II and that's good. The special effects here are better then in the second film, there's a werewolf transformation witch is good and well directed, and also a funny as hell spoof of a werewolf film inside a werewolf film witch is great, as for violence there's not really anything there then a small werewolf human hybrid hoping out of someones stomach which is decently gory, and a werewolf which massacres a group of hunters, and nothing is really shown there, as for nudity its comes close a couple of times, but, doesn't ever get there. The cast also does a nice job, nothing award worthy, but, still its nothing that will make you cringe, and its a lot better then in the second film. I also like the soundtrack here, there's a cover of Creedance Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising" by The Reels, and a great song by Vitamin Z called "Wipe Your Tears Away" that plays during the end credits. All in all, I liked Howling III: The Marsupials its definitely one of the better Howling sequels, tho not my favorite that one will be coming up soon, but, Mora manages to make a way better film then his second installment, and that's what makes Howling III enjoyable, its camp entertainment at its best.

Howling III (1987) * 1/2 (out of 4) The third film in the series has no connection to the first two so this here works best as a standalone episode or at least a different werewolf film that has the "HOWLING" tied in for commercial reasons. There are two stories going on here with the first being a scientist trying to figure out if the werewolf footage his grandfather shot in 1905 is actually a real wolf. The second story deals with a young woman breaking away from her family but this isn't your typical woman, she's actually a werewolf. Soon the two stories come together and the end result just isn't very good. HOWLING III has a pretty poor reputation and a lot of this seems to be from fans who simply don't like the fact that this film has no real connection to the first two movies. I can see how that might be disappointing to people but the real issue is the story itself, which is just silly and never really makes too much sense. This entire thing is more Oxploitation than anything else as we get some pretty silly sequences that pop up out of nowhere and don't go anywhere. I think the highlights of the film has to be the pregnant woman giving birth to a werewolf baby and of course since we're talking Australia you have to have her carry the baby around in her pouch just like a kangaroo. These scenes are just so outrageous that you can't help but smile at them and wish the entire film was about these patches. There's no question that the film goes for many laughs and I think this is part of the problem. It seems to try and be more like the first film in the series but there's simply nothing clever going on here. The performances aren't too bad but these aren't what people come to see. For a horror film there's really no scares and for a horror film of the 80s there's not any gore either.

To say "Howling II:...You're Sister's a Werewolf" did bad would be an understatement. Critics savaged it, horror fans were mad, everyone else was confused as to what kind of movie they had seen, and the movie tanked in the box office. So, did director Philippe Mora own up to the movie being a disaster? Of course he didn't.Like many directors whose movie was poorly received, Mora said it wasn't his fault. Nope, it was the studio and the producer's faults, as they compromised his vision. Well what luck for him-the studio wanted nothing to do with the series after "Howling II", so Mora could now make a second sequel, and this time, he could do it in his vision. He could show those studio execs what's what, and he could show the world that the failure of the previous movie wasn't his fault.It didn't work out that way.Oh sure, like "Howling II", it was a bigger hit on video than it was in theaters, and it's gained a cult following, but also like that movie, it was poorly received by horror fans, critics and the general audience alike, and did poor box-office, only this time it killed any chances of another "Howling" sequel getting a theatrical release. So, is it bad like everyone says it is? In a word: yes.Having nothing to do with the prior movies, "Howling III" revolves around a strange Australian race of werewolves that are part man, part wolf and part marsupial. You can't say there isn't any originality in this movie. Anyways, Jerboa (Imogen Annesley) is trying to escape her tribe after her stepfather attempts to rape her. Traveling to the city, she meets Donny (Leigh Biolos), whose the assistant director for a horror movies called "Shape Shifters 8." Donny offers her a role, and they soon fall in love. However, it soon becomes apparent that something other than her lycanthropic tendencies is acting up, and to make matters worse, Professors Beckmeyer (Barry Otto) and Sharp (Ralph Cotterill) are after them. Then there's that Russian Ballerina Olga (Dagmar Bláhová).Like "Howling II", much of the humor here falls flat-the only times I laughed are when Olga kills her ballet partner and the poster for Mora's "The Beast Within" hanging on Donny's wall. In fact, the humor here is even worse than the prior effort's. Say what you will, but at least "Howling II" tried to come off as a horror movie. Here, Mora goes for a full on satire of horror movies, but none of his jabs at the genre (such as a fat, Alfred Hitchcock looking director played by Frank Thring, and a few parody movies and a tribute/spoof of the original's conclusion) hit the mark. As it's been said a billion times, balancing horror and comedy is a tricky thing, and there's nothing wrong with opting more for laughs. However, when most of the jokes are bad, why should you care? When Dame Edna and a town called Flow (ha ha) are all you got, and even werewolves disguised as nuns can't be interesting, your movie has problems.It also doesn't help that only Annesley stands out as far as acting is concerned. Everyone else here ranges from mediocre (Biolos makes for a bland love interest) to terrible (Thring is really annoying and all around bad as main director Jack Citron), and they don't really do anything to warrant a reason to care about them. To make things worse, Mora's direction is even worse this time. Watching this, it was hard to believe that this came from the same director of "Mad Dog Morgan" and "Communion", as he shows none of the skill those movies offered.Needless to say, the four sequels that followed it went straight to video, and it somehow manages to be slightly worse than "Howling II." At least that movie had moments of inspiration. This movie will mostly just inspire fits of boredom.

What comes to mind when you think of director Philippe Mora. Who's that I might hear… but Philippe Mora is truly a one-of-a-kind filmmaker that cult fans would know in some shape (Mad Dog Morgan comes to light). For good or bad… his ideas are unique (if crazy) but the end product is usually an unhinged mess. A baffling mess. How did it come to this mess? Its head scratching, although entertaining at that. I thought Mora's "Howling 2" was strangely bad… however he tops it with the Australian based "The Marsupials: The Howling III". Well more so in the bewildering weirdness, although it felt purposely campy despite some mock serious contributions. Not as incompetent, but hypnotically tacky with its beaming personality. Mora takes one audaciously original idea (a twist on folklore to relate to specific culture and sense of place; marsupial werewolves!) and clumsily patches it together into an Aussie werewolf soap opera filled with shocks and laughs. Like no other could do. He's a man of pure vision who's never heard of the word cohesion. Maybe he doesn't know the definition. Please could you put in to a sentence. The direction of the material simply lacks cohesion. You could say that it might just benefit from that, as everything is so outrageous so why confine it in a sensible manner. Mora's surrealist direction is just as random and erratic, like the busy plot and choppy editing. There's no denying how ambitious the concept is, as it's quite different from the norm. Where else can you get werewolf nuns, a Soviet werewolf ballerina, aboriginals that don't look like aboriginals, a determined but love struck Barry Otto (a sincerely good turn), an eye-opening birth scene that sees a baby marsupial werewolf in a pouch (while the father doesn't seemed to be too fazed by making love with a she-wolf and having a werewolf baby… "It's beautiful") and for the locals the never ageing Bill Collins, Frank Thring portraying b-grade horror director and Barry Humphries' Dame Edna getting close and personal to a snarling werewolf (which could be seen as a homage to Dante's original's ending). There are references aplenty from home grown to feature films (like the amusing quip in the cinema --- gotta love the facials of the audience, it's priceless), but being a Sydney resident it was nice to see some familiar scenery on screen. When the action leaves the city (which looks like it's during a heatwave) and heads out bush to the town of "Flow" is when I found it to fall away. Really the werewolves are not the threat, but the humans that don't understand and fear them turn out to be. Specialists are called in to deal with this threat. These so called military specialists (two of them) are anything but… and I don't think it's purposely done either. The local hick hunting party seem better equipped and last much longer then those nervous wrecks. The performances of the leads (Imogen Annesely, Lee Biolos, Max Fairchild, Dasha Blahova and Ralph Cotterhill) are fittingly good. The make-up FX of the werewolves was quite uneven, cheap and rubbery although with some colourful shots. It's laid-back air and offbeat charm is simply hard to resist.