The Howling

Released months before An American Werewolf in London and beaten to the punch on the transformation by a matter of weeks, which has unfairly overshadowed it ever since.

Rob Bottin was twenty-one. His approach is the opposite of Baker's: faster, wetter, more theatrical, with the snout pushing out in a long slow bulge that is more disturbing than it is anatomical. He worked so hard on it he was hospitalised.

The film around it is a satire, which people forget. The werewolves have retreated to a Californian self-help retreat run on encounter groups and personal growth, and Joe Dante plays that for exactly the laughs it deserves.

There are seven sequels. There is no reason to watch any of them.