The Howling (1981)

Director Joe Dante's second feature film is the franchise-starting cheeky lycanthropic horror flick The Howling (1981). Dee Wallace—who became Dee Wallace-Stone thanks to her romance with her on-screen husband here Christopher Stone—stars as Karen White, a Los Angeles investigative TV reporter who comes close to death when the LAPD uses her as bait to track and capture a serial killer who has been communicating with her. On the recommendation of famous psychiatrist Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee), Karen and her husband Bill (Stone) venture to a remote campground called "The Colony" to relax and drop out of society for a while. Unfortunately for them, all of the strange New Age rituals at this retreat are done in service of summoning werewolves! While not as openly campy as its sequels from The Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf (1985) to The Howling VI: The Freaks (1991), this film has its pleasures, including Christopher Stone's bare backside as he gets busy with a woman who is NOT his wife by the fireside!