Last week, in my tribute to Spanish artist Macario Gómez Quibus, I featured one of his most startling designs: the face of a screaming woman set inside the mouth of a snarling beast, all beneath the quavering title ¡¡Aullidos!!. The film was Joe Dante’s 1981 lycanthrope horror The Howling,= and since BAMcinématek is currently honoring the cinephile auteur with a month-long retrospective, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to highlight some more of the wonderful international posters for that film.
The American one sheet is a horror classic, with its ripped canvas offering only an airbrushed glimpse of a clawed beast and its red-lipped victim. But I especially love both the German poster, above, and the French grande below, both of which forgo the very 80s horror title treatment for bold block letters over unabashedly terrifying images. The way the werewolf’s head in the German poster (titled “The Animal”) breaks the border and overlays the type, while also fading into the darkness, is wonderful.
The French poster by Michel Landi:
The Spanish poster by “Mac,” probably based on Landi’s design but with its own twist:
Two Japanese posters:
The retro-looking Italian poster:
The Thai poster, which incorporates the American design but adds so much more:
And of course The Howling, as a beloved 80s cult film, is a perfect candidate for fan posterdom. My favorite is this hirsute masterpiece by “Ghoulish Gary” Pullin in which you have to look twice for the title:
A design by Maxime Crouzet:
A poster by Francesco Francavilla:
A design by David Moscati:
New Yorkers can see The Howling at BAM this Saturday night, in a double bill with Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil.