Review of Howling III

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.