Howl (19??)

Okay, you know how the last movie was kind of like The Seventh Seal? This one is kind of like Cujo.

As you can see, the poster on the cover of the VHS tape looks much more modern than the others. Nonetheless, the actual film looks like it was shot in the seventies. Let's go:

Our main character is, as usual, a young man named Carraway. Carraway is a college student, living a normal life. But, as we soon learn, he has a secret. What is his secret? I don't know. It's never revealed. Which I think is kind of neat, actually - a secret that's actually a secret from the audience as well.

I mean, we got some flashbacks to his childhood and to his abusive mother, but it doesn't really give much away. When killings on campus start, I was thinking that perhaps Carraway was the killer, considering how much hinting the movie had done, but no. Just a red herring.

In typical Horma fashion, the killer is actually a dog. A huge, black dog. That, for some reason, kills those with secrets. So Carraway is next on the agenda.

Carraway, instead of getting the heck out of dodge, instead decides to research into this hound from hell, so he goes to the library. At the library, he encounters a young woman called only "Learner." And Learner, apparently, works for the dog (how that works, I don't know), pointing and choosing those that the dog goes after.

Carraway, of course, tries to convince her to call the dog off, but she can't. The dog already has his scent and it will kill him...unless he reveals his big secret. So he tells her - we can't hear what it is, we just see him talking, as drums beat on the soundtrack. Finally, she thanks him and writes the secret in her book. Then Carraway leaves and runs smack into the dog. And, true to Learner's word, it doesn't kill him. It just looks at him. And then it turns away and Carraway follows it.

Another ambiguous ending (I get the feeling that Horma loves those), but this one I liked more. There was more of a build up, it didn't feel abrupt. And it left us with lots of questions - did Carraway become like Learner, pointing out potential victims to the dog?

In any case, time to move onto the next film.