Horror Doppelgangers: Tom Atkins And Christopher Stone

Every time I watch Night Of The Creeps, I always think to myself….I can’t believe Rusty from National Lampoon’s European Vacation is in a horror movie.  Another thing I always think though is why can’t there be two Tom Atkins’ in the world?  He’s so damn cool.  He’s a ladies man.  He has a mustache made out of gold whiskers.  That last part may or may have not been confirmed.  I mean for God’s sake, just look at him!

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Ok – so the point of this post isn’t just to gush over Tom Atkins, but to bring to everyone’s attention that while watching The Howling the other night, I had to do a double take. Now as far as I knew, Tom Atkins wasn’t in The Howling. But what I saw on-screen was a man who portrayed the same mystique and charm as the aforementioned Mr. Atkins. He even had a similar mustache! No, this wasn’t an ‘Invasion Of The Body Snatchers‘ type scenario.  This was actor Christopher Stone doing his best Tom Atkins impersonation…..

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Oh yeah – and he slays bitches just like Tom Atkins too.  Just look at that look of pure pleasure on the face of Dee Wallace Stone!  Either that, or she’s realizing that her husband’s a werewolf and she’ll become one soon as well. Now as much as I love having two Tom Atkins’ walking around and flaunting their flavor savors, there can only be one Tom Atkins.

I’d actually like to think that Tom turned down the role for The Howling and director Joe Dante decided to track down the next best thing.  Only Tom Atkins can be Tom Atkins though, but there is somewhat silver lining in all of this. Tom was never in a werewolf movie that I know of, so if you ever wanted to see ‘Werewolf Tom Atkins’, this is the closest you’re going to come!

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God Bless Practical EFX: Eddie’s Werewolf Transformation From ‘The Howling’ (1981)

Quick!  What’s the best werewolf transformation from a horror movie ever? The common knee-jerk answer would be to say An American Werewolf In London.  But another werewolf movie came out in 1981 that in my opinion, topped David Naughton’s iconic lycanthrope metamorphosis.  I’m talking about Joe Dante’s, The Howling, and when Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo) gets his full werewolf on in front of Karen White (Dee Wallace Stone), it’s quite a feast for the practical effect eyes:

That clip was both awesome and depressing at the same time.  Awesome for obvious reasons of course, but depressing because of the fact that practical effects are becoming more and more extinct each day in horror movies.  It’s this scene in The Howling that helped me to talk about it in the same sentence as the classic An American Werewolf In London.  Rick Baker’s work in the latter was outstanding, but Rob Bottin one-upped him in Joe Dante’s film and gave us some special effects that will stand the test of time. Minus the cute Chewbacca looking werewolf version of Dee Wallace Stone in the movie’s final frames of course.

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