UNCLOAKING A SEQUEL--The producers are calling “Howling...

UNCLOAKING A SEQUEL--The producers are calling “Howling II” a sequel to 1981’s campy werewolf shocker--but that’s seems to be stretching the use of a title.

The original ended with the death of newscaster-werewolf Dee Wallace, gunned down in front of TV viewers. “Howling II” opens with her brother (played by Reb Brown) picking up clues at her funeral, according to co-writer Gary Brandner, but then the movie metamorphoses into an entirely different animal. Gone is the Southern California setting, replaced by Transylvania. Sybil Danning appears--sometimes nude--as a “werewolf queen.” She does battle with her brother (Christopher Lee), who fights to turn away a werewolf invasion drawn by an evil configuration of planets.

The picture, filmed by director Phillippe Mora for $2 million and in search of an American distributor, also fudges with werewolf lore, Brandner admitted: “There have definitely been liberties taken. This time the werewolves have built up an immunity to the silver bullets that have traditionally proven their downfall.”