The thing about Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf is that it doesn’t just feel like a sequel—it feels like a dare. A late‑night cable dare, the kind you accepted at 1:47 a.m. in 1989 because the remote was across the room and you were too exhausted, too curious, or too spiritually compromised to change the channel. This is the movie that looks you dead in the eye and says, “You survived the first one? Cute. Now watch Christopher Lee try to class up a werewolf orgy.” It’s the cinematic equivalent of a gas‑station burrito: you know better, but you’re here, and you’re committed, and you’re going to see where this ride takes you.
The plot—if I’m being generous—follows Ben (Reb Brown, patron saint of yelling) and Jenny (Annie McEnroe, patron saint of “I didn’t sign up for this”) as they team up with Lee’s Van Helsing‑adjacent occult scholar to stop Sybil Danning’s Styrba, Queen of the Werewolves. And by “stop,” I mean “wander through Eastern Europe while synths drone and extras in Party City fur vests gyrate like they’re trapped in a cursed MTV video.” Every scene feels like it was shot after someone said, “We have ten minutes, one fog machine, and a dream.” It’s delirious, it’s incoherent, and it’s absolutely irresistible if you grew up on VHS trash and questionable decisions.
Then there’s that moment—the one every depraved night‑owl viewer remembers. Sybil Danning, in full metal‑album‑cover regalia, rips open her top in a slow‑motion loop that the editor repeats so many times it becomes a religious experience. It’s not a scene; it’s a mantra. A hypnotic chant. A promise that this movie will never, ever pretend to be respectable. Gen X kids didn’t just watch this—they absorbed it into their bloodstream. This is the kind of scene that made you whisper, “I should not be watching this,” while also thinking, “I will absolutely be watching this again.”
And now Vinegar Syndrome, those beautiful archivist‑madmen, have given this fever dream a 4K transfer so pristine it feels like a prank. The colors pop, the grain dances, and the Eastern European nightclubs look like they were lit by a sentient neon sign having an existential crisis. You can see every strand of werewolf hair, every bead of sweat on Reb Brown’s perpetually confused face, every glint of Christopher Lee’s “I’m doing this for the paycheck but I’m still Christopher Lee” glare. It’s the kind of restoration that makes you appreciate the craft even when the craft is “we glued fur to a leather jacket and hoped for the best.”
By the time the credits roll—looping that Sybil Danning shot again, because of course they do—you’re either converted or you’re lying to yourself. Howling II isn’t good, but it’s unforgettable, and in the late‑night Gen X canon, unforgettable always wins. Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K release doesn’t just resurrect the movie; it elevates it into a high‑definition shrine to bad decisions, cult‑cinema bravado, and the eternal power of a werewolf queen who knew exactly what kind of movie she was in.
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray Edition
Home Video Distributor: Vinegar Syndrome
Available on Blu-ray - September 9, 2024
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono
Discs: 4K Ultra HD; Blu-ray Disc; Two-disc set
Region Encoding: 4K region-free; blu-ray lokced to Region A
Ben is mourning the recent death of his sister, Karen, whom he believes to have been killed in a savage wolf attack. At her funeral, Ben is approached by the mysterious Stefan, who warns him that a cult of werewolves had attacked Karen and that she, too, will become an undead lycanthrope. Although dismissing his claim as mere superstition, Ben’s girlfriend Jenny convinces him that he should take Stefan’s warning more seriously, and, sure enough, Karen is soon back from the dead, covered in fur and complete with a deadly set of K9s.
After being narrowly saved from a fatal bite by Stefan, Ben is persuaded that he’s telling the truth and volunteers to join him on his mission to destroy the increasing hordes of beastly creatures ravaging Europe. But as their journey takes them to Transylvania, where werewolves from around the world are gathering for their ritual, Ben and Stefan fear that they might be in over their heads, mainly once werewolf queen Stirba receives news of their arrival...
VIDEO
Vinegar Syndrome’s 4K transfer of Howling II is the kind of restoration that feels like someone lovingly polishing a chaos gremlin. The new scan pulls every ounce of texture out of the film’s Eastern European back‑alleys, neon‑soaked nightclubs, and fur‑heavy werewolf couture, giving the movie a clarity it never expected and absolutely does not deserve—but thrives under anyway. Grain is intact and lively, colors finally have definition instead of VHS smear, and the HDR pass turns the film’s perpetual twilight into something almost painterly, especially in the bonkers finale where strobe lights, synths, and lycanthropic mayhem collide.
Even Christopher Lee’s “I can’t believe I’m in this” glare has sharper edges now. It’s a transfer that respects the film’s madness without sanding down its glorious roughness, making this the best the movie has ever looked in any format
AUDIO
Vinegar Syndrome’s audio presentation for Howling II leans into the film’s scrappy, synth‑soaked DNA rather than trying to reinvent it, giving you a track that feels authentically 1985 but with far better clarity than any prior home‑video release. The DTS‑HD MA mono mix keeps everything tight and upfront—dialogue sits cleaner than it ever did on VHS or DVD, the electronic score has a sharper pulse, and the various howls, snarls, and nightclub reverb no longer smear into a single fuzzy wall of noise.
There’s still that charmingly rough, low‑budget texture baked into the source, but the restoration work smooths out the worst distortion without sanding off the grit that makes this movie such a late‑night cult object. If you want, I can also break down how the mix compares to the old MGM disc or talk about the commentary tracks on the VS release.
Supplements:
Commentary:
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The commentary track on Vinegar Syndrome’s Howling II release feels like a mix of film‑school archaeology and late‑night bar storytelling, with director Phillippe Mora and Kelly Goodner trying to make sense of the movie’s glorious chaos. You get a blend of production trivia, rueful laughter, and the kind of “you won’t believe what happened on set” anecdotes that only a mid‑’80s Eastern European shoot could produce. It’s the perfect accompaniment for a film that thrives on delirium, giving fans a guided tour through the madness without ever pretending the movie is anything other than a beautiful disaster.
Special Features:
Vinegar Syndrome packs Howling II with the kind of special‑feature buffet that feels like a love letter to anyone who ever rented this thing from a sketchy video store at 11 p.m. You get multiple commentaries that swing between production archaeology and gleeful disbelief, interviews that peel back the layers of ’80s Euro‑horror chaos, and archival oddities that remind you just how wild this shoot really was. The behind‑the‑scenes pieces dig into everything from Sybil Danning’s iconic wardrobe to Christopher Lee’s stoic professionalism in the face of werewolf debauchery, while the promotional materials—trailers, TV spots, and ephemera—capture the exact flavor of VHS‑era marketing desperation. It’s a stacked, affectionate package that treats this delirious sequel like the cult artifact it is, giving fans a chance to revel in every scrap of madness preserved from the production.
- 2-disc Set: 4K Ultra HD / Region A Blu-ray
- 4K UHD presented in Dolby Vision High-Dynamic-Range
- Newly scanned & restored in 4K from its 35mm original camera negative
- Brand new commentary track with director Philippe Mora and author/screenwriter Kelly Goodner
- Archival commentary track with director Philippe Mora
- Archival commentary track with composer Steve Parsons and editor Charles Bornstein
- "Lights, Camera, Werewolves?" (35 min) - a conversation with director Philippe Mora and filmmaker Michael Mohan"
- A Romp Through Czechoslovakia" (15 min) - an interview with actress Annie Pressman
- "Thrown to the Wolves" (11 min) - an interview with special make-up effects artist Steve Johnson
- "A Life Collaboration with Philippe Mora" (11 min) - an interview with Pamela Krause, Philippe Mora's wife and artist consultant
- "Freaky, Sexy, Mad" (16 min) - an interview with composer Stephen Parsons
- "Lord of the Stricken Field" (25 min) - film historian Jonathan Rigby on Christopher Lee and Howling II"
- Queen of the Werewolves" (17 min) - an archival interview with actress Sybil Danning
- "Leading Man" (14 min) - an archival interview with actor Reb Brown
- "A Monkey Phase" (15 min) - an archival featurette with special make-up effects artists Steve Johnson and Scott Wheeler
- Theatrical trailer
- Still gallery
- Reversible sleeve artwork20-page booklet with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes Polaroids by director Philippe Mora and an essay by Matt Serafini
- English SDH subtitles
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Composite Blu-ray Grade
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MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 91 mins
Director: Phillipe Mora
Writer: Gary Brandner; Robert Sarno
Cast: Christopher Lee; Annie McEnroe; Reb Brown
Genre: Horror | Thriller
Tagline: Twice the terror! Twice the torment!
Memorable Movie Quote: "Breasts! Breasts! That's the fuck! Define: slipper!"
Theatrical Distributor: Hemdale
Official Site:
Release Date: July 4, 1984
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: September 9, 2024.
Synopsis: A man discovers that his sister was a werewolf, and helps an investigator track down a gang of the monsters through the United States and eastern Europe.
