In 1981 director Joe Dante two years after directing the cult hit Piranha would go on to direct one of the most successful werewolf films that would also spawn another cult hit. The Howling, is one of those werewolf films that took a back seat to the likes of An American Werewolf in London in 1981, however in terms of financial success the film did a lot better based on its budget to box office ratio. The film was made for around a million dollars but made almost 18 million in box office receipts. This spawned a series of sequels throughout the eighties and nineties but eventually died out. Now more than twenty years after the last sequel was made, the series is kind of being reinvented with The Howling Reborn.
The Howling Reborn is actually based on the second book of the Howling series. I have never read the books by author Gary Brandner, but from what I’ve heard the film and the book are nothing alike.
The film follows a boy named Will. Will is invited to a party by a girl named Eliana where he is drugged and a werewolf attacks. Will just gets away, but not for long. His friend Sachin is trying to make a horror film which he plans on hacking into the high school news channel to broadcast his feature. Will seeks help from Sachin about werewolf’s and soon discovers, after scratching himself, that he is a werewolf. Will’s mother Catherine, was one (The back story is told during the credits), however Will lives with his father and has no clue that his mother is one until she comes back looking for him. However, his mother is not back to claim Will as a son, but rather to give him an option of joining or becoming her prey. Now Will must fight off Catherine and her plans to raise a werewolf army, while defending his friends lives.
I was actually surprised that this film was not as bad as I expected it to be. I was expecting it to be a real stinker. Don’t get me wrong the film has its downfalls and is nothing great, but overall its not that bad of a film. It has great production value and although there is not much of full transformation werewolves in this film until the conclusion, the make-up effects are good. It’s a film that has its small budget issues and a basic plotline but it works and the film is not all that bad.
The Blu-ray disc features Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Joe Nimziki and Actor Lindsey Shaw, The Making of The Howling Reborn featurette and a Storyboard Gallery. Overall its not a great werewolf film were you get all this nonstop werewolf action ,but the story holds up and it’s well worth checking out if you have nothing better to watch.
– Horror Bob
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- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
