''The Howling'' is a 1977 horror novel by Gary Brandner. It was the inspiration for the movie ''

The Howling ''The Howling'' is a 1977 horror novel by Gary Brandner. It was the inspiration for the movie ''The Howling'' (1981), although the plot of the movie was only vaguely similar to that of the book. Brandner published two sequels to the novel, '' T ...

'' (1981), although the plot of the movie was only vaguely similar to that of the book. Brandner published two sequels to the novel, '' The Howling II'' in 1979 (later republished as ''Return of the Howling'') and '' The Howling III: Echoes'' in 1985. Neither sequel was used as the basis for any of the subsequent Howling films. However, minor elements from '' The Howling III: Echoes'' novel appear in the film '' Howling VI: The Freaks''. The fourth film of the series, '' Howling IV: The Original Nightmare'' (1988), is the closest adaptation of Brandner's original 1977 novel, though even it differs in parts.

Plot

When middle-class wife Karyn Beatty is attacked and raped in her

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

home, she suffers a

miscarriage Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...

and a nervous breakdown. She and her husband, Roy, leave the city and go to stay in the secluded

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

mountain village of Drago while Karyn recuperates. Although the town offers Karyn a quiet lifestyle and the locals are friendly, Karyn is disturbed when she continues to hear a strange howling sound at night coming from the woods outside of their new home. This further disrupts her marriage, as Roy believes she is becoming more and more unstable, but Karyn is adamant that there is something in the woods. As tension between the couple increases, Roy begins an affair with one of the local women, a shopkeeper named Marcia Lura. However, on his way home, Roy is attacked in the woods by a large black

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

. Though the wolf only bites him, Roy becomes sick for several days. He was bitten by a

werewolf In folklore, a werewolf (), or occasionally lycanthrope (; ; uk, Вовкулака, Vovkulaka), is an individual that can shapeshift into a wolf (or, especially in modern film, a therianthropic hybrid wolf-like creature), either purposely or ...

, and has now become one himself. Karyn eventually discovers that the town's entire population are all actually werewolves and becomes trapped in Drago. She contacts her husband's best friend, Chris Halloran, who comes up from Los Angeles to rescue her. Chris arrives with some

silver bullet In folklore, a bullet cast from silver is often one of the few weapons that are effective against a werewolf or witch. The term ''silver bullet'' is also a metaphor for a simple, seemingly magical, solution to a difficult problem: for example, pe ...

s which he had made at her insistence. That night, the two of them fend off a group of werewolves (one of which is Karyn's husband, Roy) and Karyn is forced to shoot the black werewolf (revealed to be Marcia Lura) in the head. In the commotion, a fire breaks out at Karyn's woodland house which sweeps through the woods and the entire town of Drago is engulfed in flames as Karyn and Chris escape from its cursed inhabitants. As they flee, they can still hear the howling in the distance.

References

Werewolf novels American horror novels 1977 American novels American novels adapted into films Novels set in California Novels about rape The Howling novels {{1970s-horror-novel-stub