From its opening frames, The Howling stiffens, stretches tightly, and even occasionally loosens the nerves, all without losing entirely its firm grip on your emotions. Director Joe Dante has a great love for movie lore, which informs the canvas on which he paints and makes repeat viewings essential, while never wavering in his drive to tell the story as quickly and efficiently as possible. That makes the running time fly by; it's only later that you realize how deep an impression the film carves into your subconscious.

Released in May 1981, The Howling was first out of the gate of the unofficial, unrelated "wolf meets man" trilogy that year, beating both Wolfen and An American Werewolf in London into theaters. Working with a budget reportedly ten times smaller than American Werewolf, The Howling made a killing at the box office in relation to its budget. It's fascinating to compare the films, but beyond the vague subject matter of "werewolves," they have little in common. Dante was a proud graduate of the Roger Corman school of low budget filmmaking. As a result, The Howling is a lean, mean tension machine that's much better than its straightforward approach might suggest.

Disembodied voices whisper under abstract video images as the credits roll and stringed instruments saw away in the background. The images resolve into a televised interview with Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee) spouting a soothing brand of psycho-babble. Behind the scenes, the station's general manager (Kevin McCarthy) directs traffic as co-anchor Karen White (Dee Wallace) trawls through Hollywood, preparing to meet with Eddie (Robert Picardo), a suspect in a string of vicious murders.

Director Dante Tomaselli, whose most recent project was Satan's Playground, a low-budget horror film about some people who come across the 'Jersey Devil' in the Pine Barrens, is now prepping The Ocean, a film about a mysterious riptide that causes difficulties for a coastal community. Set to star in the film are The Sopranos' Vincent Pastore, Judith O'Dea, and now horror veteran Dee Wallace. Tomaselli dropped the news exclusively to Bloody-disgusting.com, saying "Dee Wallace is set to star in The Ocean. I'm so pleased, she'll bring so much emotional depth to the part. Dee's an outstanding actress whose worked with the best directors and starred in many classic movies. Some of my favorites are The Howling, Cujo, and The Hills Have Eyes. Dee comes from 'old-school' horror, which I love." Wallace is also set to appear in Rob Zombie's Halloween this fall, as well as The I Scream Man, which Tom Sizemore recently got canned from.

In The Ocean, Wallace will play a "troubled medium, haunted by visions of eternal damnation." Tomaselli also gave other details about the production, revealing that he has locked 1.8 million in financing and will begin shooting in August in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico, where there are "lots of atmospheric caves, beaches, an amusement park, a gothic lighthouse on jagged cliffs overlooking the crashing surf ..." He also described the movie as a "zombie splatter movie, an apocalyptic chiller, in some ways it has the feel of Lucio Fulci's The Beyond and maybe John Carpenter's The Fog, although it's very different."