StudioCanal, out 9 October

Anchorwoman Karen White (ET’s Dee Wallace)  tries to recover from an encounter with a serial  killer by retreating to ‘The Colony’, unaware that this is actually a home for hungry werewolves.

Joe Dante’s masterful werewolf pic is for me the best werewolf movie of the 1980s, John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London being a close second. I watched it when it was first released, amazed by the ground-breaking lycanthrope transformations which still stand up to scrutiny 35 years later. Rob (The Thing) Bottin gives us giant bear-wolves that bubble and puff from out of their human guises into towering beasts on two legs.

But this movie is more than the effects – Dee Wallace and Christopher Stone are very good as the leads, and there are pleasing turns from genre stalwarts Patrick Macnee and John Carradine, not forgetting an early turn from Voyager’s Robert Picardo. John Sayles’ witty script also crams in numerous in-jokes and references for the horror connoisseur.

This is the first UK Blu-ray release of the movie, and it’s a handsome transfer, offering 2.0 Stereo or 5.1 DTS-HD audio and a commentary track from original book author Gary Brander. The extras are fun, though there’s no sign of director Dante either on commentary or interview.

Howlings Eternal is a fun 18-minute piece with series producer Steven A Lane, who looks back on the conception of this movie as well as the string of increasingly god-awful sequels. He’s self-deprecating, knowing that he’s not making high art here. Cut to Shreds with Mark Goldblatt follows the veteran editor’s experience with the movie and there’s also an interview with co-writer Terence H Winkless. The Horror’s Hallowed Grounds segment for The Howling is also included, following host Sean Clark as he seeks out the locations used in the movie. Finally, stop-motion animator David Allen discusses the work that he created for the movie with werewolf miniatures but was not included in the final cut.

Verdict: A superior transfer of a superior film, though you can’t help think there’s some better extras that will fill out a definite release one day. 8/10

Nick Joy

Click here to order from Amazon.co.uk