Joe Dante's The Howling coming to 4K UHD Blu-ray October 25th

Happy 40th Birthday The Howling! Coming to 4K UHD Blu-ray 

One of the greatest werewolf movies of the 80s - Joe Dante's classic The Howling celebrates its 40th Anniversary by coming to 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 25th From Studio Canal in the UK. 

As of right now, there's no news of a domestic release on the horizon - but given how many movies are hitting 4K in the next two months there's plenty of time for a boutique label or studio to announce their domestic release of this classic werewolf flick. 

Studio Canal is offering up their big three-disc deluxe box set and a slick classy SteelBook from Zavvi 

We don't have full tech specs on hand but we've reached out to our Studio Canal reps for more information about transfer, HDR, and audio.

Bonus features are slated to include:

• Inside the Career of Joe Dante
• Brand new featurette that celebrates the incredible career of Joe Dante
• Welcome to Werewolfland A lookback into the special effects of The Howling
• Deleted Scenes
• Outtakes - These outtakes will leave you howling!

The Howling 40th Anniversary 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

The Howling 40th Anniversary - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Zavvi SteelBook
 

Again, as soon as we have full specs we'll update this article and our listings. ALSO - we'll be on the lookout for domestic retailer options as well. For right now, this looks to be another great UK import for those of us living in the states and Canada. 

Once again - thank you for your preorders. They really do go a long way towards keeping our little operation going. 

Here's the full press release from Studio Canal:

STUDIOCANAL Announces 4K Restoration of

Joe Dante’s Horror Classic

THE HOWLING

ON 4K UHD COLLECTORS EDITION, STEELBOOK, BLU-RAY, DVD AND DIGITAL 25 OCTOBER 2021

London – 19 August 2021 - To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Joe Dante’s horror classic THE HOWLING,

STUDIOCANAL is thrilled to announce a brand new 4K restoration of the 1981 contemporary tale of

timeless horror. Available on 4K Ultra HDTM, Blu-Ray, DVD and Steelbook editions from the 25th October

2021. Starring Dee Wallace (E.T), Patrick MacNee (THE AVENGERS) and Dennis Duggan

(PARENTHOOD), Dante’s classic satiric werewolf horror is an absolute must-see! Pre-order the Collectors

Edition here.

With THE HOWLING, director Joe Dante (GREMLINS, INNERSPACE) and screenwriter John Sayles (LONE

STAR, PASSION FISH) created a unique horror shocker loosely based on part one of author Gary

Brandner's trilogy of novels. The film took the genre of werewolf horror to a whole new level, with its dark

atmosphere, pointed irony and elaborately modelled special effects and make-up by Rob Bottin

(ROBOCOP, TOTAL RECALL). The film received a Saturn Award for Best Horror Film in 1980.

Commenting on the restoration, director Joe Dante said: “I can honestly say this 4K restoration is the best

The Howling has looked since it came out of the lab in 1980 - maybe better. I'm happy to have it back in

circulation at last.”

SYNOPSIS:

Karen West narrowly escapes death at a rendez-vous she has deliberately accepted with a murderer whose

name is Eddie. He is shot by the police. After this, the young woman begins to have nightmares and goes

to a therapy centre with her husband Roy. But instead of getting better, she gets worse and her relationship

with her husband deteriorates. When Roy is attacked by an unidentified animal, his personality and

behaviour begin to change...

ABOUT THE RELEASE

The 4K UHD Limited SteelBook Edition and the 4K UHD Collector’s Edition are released with exclusive new

artworks, offering bonus material including a new featurette about Joe Dante’s extensive career in

Hollywood and the documentary “Welcome to Werewolfland” including interviews and commentaries with

cast and crew.

Special Features include:

• NEW Featurette: Inside the Career of Joe Dante

• Documentary: Welcome to Werewolfland

• Deleted Scenes

• Outtakes

ABOUT THE RESTORATION

THE HOWLING was restored in 2021 by STUDIOCANAL with the VDM lab, under the supervision of Joe Dante.

This restoration project was conducted from start to finish in 4K with a 16-bit color depth bringing all the details

from the original negative to life.

The 4K 16-bit scan was made from the original 35mm negative. The image from the 1.20 negative was then

cropped to 1.85 in order to respect the original format of the film projection.

The film was calibrated in the P3-D65-ST2084 color space, with a 1000 nits screen. The calibration was based

on the reference of 35mm positive copies of the period as well as, for the video part, on the basis of existing

reference masters.

The restoration took a few hundred hours of meticulously filtering in order to correct the defects related to the

age of the film and to the wear of time.

STUDIOCANAL is proud to present THE HOWLING in DCP 4K, and a DOLBY VISION UHD HDR & SDR video

master, through a brand-new Prestige 4K edition.

THE HOWLING IS AVAILABLE ON 4K UHD COLLECTORS EDITION, STEELBOOK, BLU-RAY,

DVD AND DIGITAL 25 OCTOBER 2021

4K UHD COLLECTOR’S EDITION – 3 discs, Poster, Booklet & art cards

4K UHD STEELBOOK – 1 4K UHD disc & 1 Blu-ray disc

BLU-RAY EDITION – 1 Blu-ray disc

DVD EDITION – 1 DVD disc