Classic rockers of the 80s sure knew how to wail on stage, and while some even needed surgery to recover from those ear bleeding howls, they did have something to offer the artform.
And now their gifts were tapped, among others to help shape up the unique sound of the Wolfman’s howl in Universal’s remake of The Wolfman.
Dread Central quotes director John Johnston:
“We didn’t get a lot from our research in what’s been done before. We were looking for this great pure tone—we knew we were going to process it and overlay elements to it, but we wanted that great foundation. We tried Gene Simmons and one of Gene Simmons’ howls is in the movie. I don’t think Gene Simmons would recognize it, but it’s in there. We had David Lee Roth come in and do a few howls … That was a blast. We had opera singers come in and howl, we had animal impersonators. Gene Simmons and David Lee Roth were pretty near the end of the process. By then we knew what we were looking for, we were homing in on it. And their stuff became the most useful stuff that we did.
With something like the Wolfman, they have to walk a fine line of traditional representation and still coming up with something new. The howl is a good place to do that.
If the wolfman’s howl was weak it would be distracting. It is the battlecry and the mournful statement of the conflicted creature. It has to be right.
Worse off than that, if it was done poorly it could be equated to Annakin’s first rageful moment as the newly dubbed Darth Vader weakly offering a subtle “nooooo…..” that will echo in fanboys ears for an eternity (and give Lucas a reason to remaster it with new 3D effects and get James Earl Jones to speak Vaders lines like he should have)
