Question about the movie.......

Thriller.

Interesting question, because I was seven years old when it was first run. The family TV was in the living room and my bedroom was right off the living room so I could sneak a watch of something on TV if I left the vinyl sliding door askew when I went to bed. I was told not to do this for "A Howling in the Woods" because it was "a scary monster movie," which of course made me more determined than ever to watch it!

So I did, but remember I was seven. All these years my recollection of it has been as a monster movie, because it seemed to me that there was some monster howling in the woods despite the fact that it's never shown.

I remembered being scared by it and so all these years later, now that I am ancient, I wanted to watch it, so I hunted down a bootleg copy on some pirate retailer, and to my considerable surprise -- no monster!

I think part of it might have been that I mixed it up with another movie -- I think there is possibly another film with some sort of howling creature in the woods, and a woman alone in a cabin?

It's a small town mystery with some thrills at the end. Despite being a television production (1971), the cast is noteworthy (Barbara Eden, Larry Hagman, Vera Miles, etc.) and the rustic Lake Tahoe locations are exquisite. Unfortunately, the contrived story is too drawn out and would’ve worked better at 74 minutes.

It’s still a worthwhile movie for the highlights noted as long as you don’t mind slow pacing and some artificial scripting, just don’t expect any werewolves.

Presumably some may think there is a supernatural hound in the woods similar to the Baskervilles legend. But that myth is dispelled shortly into the movie.