User Reviews

'THE HOWLING: REBORN': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

This reboot to the 1981 Joe Dante cult classic is sort of like 'TWILIGHT' with werewolves. It's not quite that horrifying but it is definitely aimed at the teen youth market with a lot of the same styled gimmicks. It's full of attractive young actors and the star (Landon Liboiron) looks a lot like 'Harry Potter' (Daniele Randcliffe) actually. There are some cool visuals and effects (the werewolves actually don't look half bad) but it's still got all that cheesy teen angst and melodrama. Not quite as poorly done as the 'TWILIGHT' films but it's still pretty bad.

Liboiron plays Will Kidman, an insecure nerd crushing on a popular hot girl at school, Eliana Wynter (Lindsey Shaw). He lives with his father Jack (Frank Schorpion) and has been brought up under the impression that his mom died giving birth to him. Oddly Eliana is impressed by his stalker like obsession with her and invites him to a party one night. Once there Will is drugged by a popular clique of creepy guys and believes he's being pursued by a monster he thinks is a werewolf. Will goes to his friend Sachin (Jesse Rath), a media school nerd working on a horror project, the next day at school and asks him what he knows about werewolves. He soon believes he is becoming a 'teen wolf' himself and also learns that his mother may not be dead after all.

The story has nothing to do with the other films in the 'HOWLING' franchise and is a reboot by all senses of the word. It's credited as being based on 'The Howling II' novel and was written and directed by first time filmmaker Joe Nimziki. I haven't seen any other chapters in the 'HOWLING' series except this and the first one so I can't say how it compares to the entire franchise but it definitely doesn't live up to the beloved original. The production values are impressive for such a low budget film it's just a shame they're all spent trying to cash in on the 'TWILIGHT' craze. Fans of that series will probably be more than pleased with this but I doubt die-hard fans of the werewolf franchise it's attached itself to will be happy. Overall I'd say it pretty much matched my pretty low expectations (maybe even exceeded them). I found it mildly amusing and definitely would say this is one time when the rip-off is better than the material it's knocking off (I'm referring to the popular teen vampire series of course).

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This movie actually kept my attention for most of the entire movie and it is a fun watch. It is freaky at times, and yes, there are times when you say what..?? where was everybody and you will know it when you see it,a scene where it obviously looked fake. This is a B movie that is interesting to watch. And no, not one I would watch again but I did enjoy it.

It does not continue from the other movies, this is a brand new on going movie. Also, there is a part in the movie where you will think someone is something when they might not be. I would recommend all the Howling though some are bad.

There is a theory of film study which asserts that an important factor in how a film is experienced is the time and setting in which one sees it. It's especially true for horror films. Teens who see films like the original Texas Chainsaw and The Howling for the first time decades after they were made will compare them to films like Saw and other films they've seen earlier. People who saw them when they first came out got the full impact of the new ground they were breaking at the time.

The Howling: Reborn breaks no new ground. It does however break one of the cardinal rules of screen writing: avoid voice-over as much as possible. This film is plastered wall-to-wall with the pretentious observations of a "teenaged mind." The main characters are like rejects from an MTV dramedy, slinging pseudo-pithy ruminations of teen angst that only a pre-adolescent could find intriguing.

It's not all bad though. There is Lindsey Shaw to look at. And the lighting is top notch. Unfortunately the cinematography is lost in a flashy mess of music video after effects and choppy editing, apparently used to cover up the less-than-state-of-the-art CG work.

The original Howling was a notable entry in the horror genre. Aside from the fact that it was genuinely scary and atmospheric, it featured the first truly impressive "real time" full body on screen transformation of a man into a werewolf. (Yes American Werewolf had good efx too, if you found it impressive to see one hand transform at a time.) And this was before CG, when make-up artists had to figure out complex robotics combined with masterful sculpted skins.

And while the original Howling drew you in with realistic situations and characters, Reborn starts off with a few unreal clunkers. One is a security guard in charge of a school lockdown system that would be the envy of any maximum security prison. The second is when a high school student is pushed against a locker and has a three inch blood-gushing gash sliced across his jugular, and shrugs it off as if the school bully just rubbed a booger in his hair.

Not long after that we find ourselves immersed in a wannabe feature length MTV video with standard rock video efx like color desaturation, flash cuts, and worst of all, a string of songs with sappy vocals that make the mickey mouse orchestral score even more mickey mouse.

In the end, the bombastic direction and flashy editing fail to make up for what this film lacks: substance.

Kids will probably like it though. Fans of the original hoping for a state-of-the-art update will be sorely disappointed.

A surprisingly good watch. being a lover of the original first Howling movie, I knew i was gonna pick this sequel apart. As i got into the film, i realised that this was actually a decent "Stand alone" movie.

Being a believer that the "MTV Generation" horror genre is far too cliché these days. This film worked quite well. It is the basic tale of a "Coming of age" teen, who realises he is different. Through the course of the film we see how he adapts to his new found strengths, all the while, dealing with his impeding graduation and trying to win the girl of his dreams.

The Story progresses at a decent pace, feeding you enough plot points and mythology along the way. One cliché that did really stand out was, the abundance of only beautiful people that attend the school, not that i'm complaining, but its a little shallow. Every person in this film is eye-candy, which does make for a pleasantly aesthetic watch.

A down-point for me was that I am a big lover of the classic werewolf transformation scene. I felt a little cheated by this movie in that there were several opportunities for this key moment. Every time you think you're in for the big change, what you get is very small.

The special effects are not great. At several moments of the film you can spot that "photoshop" look, it does not really effect the film too badly, but it does look a little cheap at times.

So lets sum this up.

Sexy teenagers, under parr effects, sexy parents, decent story and pace plus a kick ass soundtrack. Its one of those "watch with your girlfriend" movies. Scary werewolves for him to enjoy, romance for her to enjoy and loads of sexy people for you both to enjoy!

The Howling series has gotten a lot of flack over the years, and rightly so. Following the Joe Dante's original werewolf classic, a whole slurry of sequels were made, none of which even remotely living up to anything half as good as the original - and they were getting progressivly worse. Now after 15+ years since the last sequel a new Howling has come out. When I first heard this news, I did what every horror fan did, rolled their eyes and expected the worst - another sequel! BUT after watching it I actually really really enjoyed it! It takes a whole new approach to the series (so there's no need to have seen any of the previous installments). A mix between SCREAM and THE HOWLING, this is without doubt the second best film in the franchise, just second to the undeniable classic. Whilst it's comparison to TWILIGHT may put some of the more gore-hungry horror fans off, don't let it! Although there are TWILIGHT elements present such as werewolves, romance and a topless guy (the very fetching Landon Liboiron) to satisfy those fans, there's much much more on offer here. From the werewolf-know-it-all a la SCREAM, sexy werewolf women and a fresh new story that really draws you in and keeps you captivated right up to the action-packed ending, it's got lots here to please hardcore horror fans as well as those just getting into horror.

If you like horror films with plenty of teens running around, fearing for their lives like URBAN LEGEND, SCREAM, HALLOWEEN and countless others with a werewolf twist, then I would highly recommend this film! It's surprisingly the best werewolf film of recent years with some rather nice touches. The werewolves look incredible in this and there's plenty of them especially in the second half.

I'd give it a 7/10. A must see for all werewolf fans, HOWLING fans and horror fans (both old and new).

I actually like how they kept the werewolves similar in appearance to the original movie. Pretty sure that was done on purpose. Being a fan of Landon Liboiron from Hemlock Grove and Frontier as well as Lindsey Shaw from Pretty Little Liars I decided to give it a chance. No, it wasn't ground breaking by any means but this day in age its pretty hard to do something completely original that hasn't been done at some point already. That said I found entertaining enough and enjoyed it. I liked the music,nothing wrong with doing a score that isn't all top list songs. It fit well. I would probably rate it more of a 6 but due to such bad reviews pulling it down I decided to rate it a bit higher.

It's Bad, Really Bad! Think about all the sequels that followed The original and ONLY good movie in the series and set your expectations a thousand times lower and even then it's far worse. I don't review a lot of movies because their doesn't seem much point as most things get covered and said by other people but having just wasted 1hr 40mins on this pile of stinking Werewolf excrement i think it's my duty to warn you away from this. But here's a tip, if you want Hellraiser Revelations to seem like a good film, watch this first. Seriously bring back Bruno Mattei or Herschell Gordon lewis, at least their crap movies were funny. This is about as low as the genre has ever got, so low you can't even see it. But that said, this will probably appeal to pubescent 17 year old girls who spend most of the day dreaming about robert pattinson, blogging to people who don't give a crap and wishing that they glowed in the sunlight. Horrid!!

The original 'The Howling' had its flaws and was not quite a classic, though it is one of the better werewolf films out there, but it was still well made, witty and atmospheric with make-up/special effects that still impress hugely now. None of the sequels were anywhere near close to its level and most of them were way off. The only ones for me that were watchable were the fifth and sixth films, which were still heavily flawed. The others either went into camp overload or took themselves too seriously.

2011's 'The Howling: Reborn' appears to be a reboot, though with very little to do with the previous films in the 'The Howling' franchise other than being supposedly based upon the 'The Howling II' source material by Gary Brandner. The name 'The Howling' is pretty much the only similarity and connection this has with the previous films. Will say that as far as the franchise goes, 'The Howling: Reborn' is better than the abomination that was 'Bad Moon Rising', due to that it doesn't have as much as an incompetent in every way vibe. For me though it is second worst, the main reason for that being that it doesn't feel like a 'Howling' film at all. Others have likened it to 'Twilight', and despite wanting to be fair and not make comparisons as such the comparison is apt. Actually think it worse than 'Twilight', and this is coming from someone who doesn't care for any of the films in that franchise while not completely detesting them.

Will start with what just about saved 'The Howling: Reborn' from being a complete abomination. Some of the lighting is suitably eerie and has atmosphere.

Lindsey Shaw also did a pretty decent job with what she was given, which didn't have much meat and was pretty naff material but she made the most of it and was more than a pretty face.

None of the rest of the acting was good though, especially with a charisma-free lead who bores and annoys the viewer very quickly and that feeling never goes away and gets worse. Elsewhere, the performances veer on desperate. The narration is overused, over-explanatory and at times pointless, not to mention it kills the pace dead whenever it appears. The pace is very messy throughout, sometimes feeling rushed due to the choppiness and incompleteness of the editing and transitions and at other times it drags hard and makes an hour and a half in length film feel considerably longer. The direction came over as unrefined and disengaged.

In terms of the script, that was weak too. The overly-campy cheese that was there in some of the previous films is still present while also being too melodramatic. This was a case of being both cheesy and also taking it too seriously. The story is dull and has no scares, thrills or suspense. Ruined by the erratic pacing, the predictability and in particular that there is far too much focus on the romance which due to the complete lack of chemistry never engages or moves. The werewolves are severely underused and introduced far too late. When they do appear, they exude no threat or menace at all and instead come over as unintentionally goofy, plus the effects and make-up are cheap looking. As are the headache-inducing camera work that makes MTV look good, haphazard editing and an intrusive and ill-fitting music score that sounds out of date.

Overall, very bad though not irredeemable. 2/10

Howling: Reborn, The (2011)

* (out of 4)

Thirty-years after Joe Dante's THE HOWLING was released, we get this direct-to-DVD sequel that's obviously more interested in copying TWILIGHT than actually doing anything on its own. Eighteen years after his mother was murdered, Will Kidman (Landon Liboiron) is about to graduate when he starts feeling certain changes. It turns out that he's actually a werewolf and a "wolf leader" (Ivana Milicevic) is after his powers so he must try to fight them off while at the same time falling in love with a girl (Lindsey Shaw) that he's always had a thing for. THE HOWLING: REBORN is the eighth film in the series but the first one in sixteen-years and I think it's easy to say that we wouldn't have had this movie had the TWLIGHT movies not been so popular. Granted, none of the previous sequels were all that good and none of them could touch the original but this film here is a real insult to everything that pre-dated it and it's a real shame because for months the producers have been talking this film up as some sort of return to form but in the end it's just pure garbage. The biggest problem is the screenplay by writer/director Joe Nimziki. It's clear he just wanted to deliver a love story with horror elements but the problem is that everything is just so corny that you'd have to be 12-years-old to take it serious. Throughout we get this stupid narration with the character talking about how different he feels and when you hear this speech you'll be wondering why the TWLIGHT producers haven't gone after this film. This is followed with the various "groups" being laid out and if you've seen TWILIGHT then you know what to expect. The majority of the running time is devoted to the love story aspect and it's just downright boring and never goes anywhere. If you come into a film called THE HOWLING anything then you're going to expect werewolves but these here don't show up until after sixty-minutes. Even worse is when they do show up and we're treated to some of the worst transformation scenes that you're ever going to witness. Throughout the movie we get these little speeches that appear to be trying to "connect" with a younger generation and this includes a few shots at older movies and werewolves. It's all just so stupid and insulting to fans of the original series and once again the dialogue is just so bad that you can't help but roll your eyes. Liboiron isn't too bad in the film but he just doesn't have enough energy to really push the film. He is made out to look like Harry Potter though. Shaw is actually the best thing going in the film but it's a shame the screenplay doesn't give her anything to do. Considering the love story aspect it really doesn't help that the two don't have any chemistry. The entire film is just a poor excuse for a movie and not only does it rip TWILIGHT but we also get some SCREAM elements including a nerdy friend who knows everything about werewolves. The only good thing THE HOWLING: REBORN has done is gotten Wes Craven off the hook for CURSED as it's not longer the worst of the recent werewolf movies.

I was a little excited to see this one, as I am with every new instalment to a franchise that has either faltered in recent years or has not produced a sequel in decades. But after watching this one, I kind of wish they'd have left the series dead and buried.

The plot is about an eighteen year old teenager Will (Landon Liboiron) who is beginning to turn into a werewolf all while vying for the love of his classmate Eliana (Lindsey Shaw). Together the two have to try and stop other werewolves from killing them or something, blah, blah, blah. It is just so ridiculous, there's really no need to go further about the "plot". While I was watching this, all I could think of was that this was a cheap rip off of the Twilight series. Now I have nothing against Twilight, I haven't seen it personally. But to fans of the original films, this was a kick in the gut. Sure some of the sequels made after the first Howling were pretty awful, but this one is catering to a different audience than the other films did.

The acting was fine in Howling Reborn, I had no problem there. The movie did look a little cheaply made though. I don't know if I'd recommend it to horror fans or not. Most fans of the original Howling films will probably be disappointed in this one. My low rating for this isn't because it's a terrible movie, but more because it isn't a true Howling sequel in my eyes. Therefore it was very disappointing and something that I probably won't watch again.

3/10

Instead, we have the new spectacular reboot of The Howling. It's a Twilight ripoff, with like an homage to The Lost Boys maybe. But oh so much worse. This is what bad directing, writing and acting look like in conjunction. Not one can support the other, do any heavy lifting, and there is no saving grace. This is a blue and grey tinged, choppily edited soulless dreck.

But hey, at least the werewolves aren't always CGI. Seriously, this is redeeming, but the movie seems almost ashamed of it for some reason and edits them out of coherence.

In the intro we meet a pregnant woman who is attacked by a werewolf. 18 years later the kid, Will, is about to graduate from high school. He's a loner, loser, smart, nerdy, goofy- the usual. His only friend is a horror movie buff. He's got a crush on a pretty and popular girl- as expected, who doesn't know he exists. Until one day that Eliana catches him staring and discovers that he's drawn her countless times. She invites him to a party were he's given ecstasy by some gang of wanna-be-thugs/tough guys. He starts seeing things and thinks he's being chased by werewolves. Over time he also starts thinking he might be a werewolf.

Meanwhile his dad meets a hot lady, K, who's a werewolf. Will discovers with the help of his friend that he's indeed a werewolf and ends up killing Eliana's violent boyfriend. Will and Eliana become closer when suddenly K shows up and wants to convince Will to let his werewolf nature out. He ends up confronting her.

There are two types of werewolves here- some ugly rubbery latex ones that look more like mutants and more impressive hairy ones. That said, they aren't really put to good use. They don't attack a lot of people, although at some point we discover a school basement full of victims.

The romance or rather the sexual tension is well handled. Eliana represents temptation- and she's very tempting, although not much happens between the two. She falls for him too suddenly. At times the conversations between these two are bizarre. He'll talk about lycanthropy and she'll answer in sexual/romance terms.

Ordinarily I despise movies that abuse of the horror genre for some other purpose- vampire comedies, zombie romance, etc. This is more of a werewolf romance we are told. It's definitely not a werewolf horror movie, but it's not a romance movie entirely either. This movie has some horror, some romance, but it also has a social message-and a good one at that. So I can forgive that it isn't horror. The script is smart and, well, there is a lot of script here. There are a lot of voice-overs by Will where he's philosophizing about life in high school and after, about human nature, about free will, etc. In fact there are too many voice overs. Much is made of the animal nature in man versus the civilizing/socializing of that nature. There are plenty of symbols in that regard. Will is very bored and his life is dull apparently because he has lived by the rules and hasn't let his animal nature run wild. I'm not sure we need the message that folks should stop acting civilized and just follow their instincts. But the deeper social criticism and message of this movie is a good one- to value relationship more instead of avoiding them. No doubt scientific and technological development haven't exactly led us to be better people. On the contrary, people are looking for no drama, no strings attached relationships. In order to avoid complications we are avoiding each other altogether rather than developing and maturing precisely through relationship and commitments.

We are told in the making-off feature that the writer/director is some experienced veteran although IMDb shows this as being is first major work. In a way then it's understandable that this movie tries to do more than it can, that the writer wants to overwhelm us with his ideas, that this movie is unfocused. What I can't forgive though is the annoying, awful overuse of music. As if there weren't enough talk and voice overs, repeatedly we get loud music with lyrics that are allegedly relevant to the moment. It reminds you of the 90s when movie makers were more interested in selling you the soundtrack CD instead of making a decent movie.

Most of the time I hate a movie like this- it makes use of an established and respected name (and The Howling I is in my opinion the best werewolf movie ever made), it doesn't give us a lot of horror, it has a somewhat moralizing message, etc. But at least this one is smart and doesn't treat the audience like morons. It has a likable and attractive cast- in particular Ivana Milicevic who is gorgeous and devastatingly hot. This writer/director has some potential if he learns to moderate himself and finds better vehicles for his message.

Normally I take my time to do a review but this flick has taken over 90 minutes of my flickering life that I won't go into details as I used to do. It's a shame that they are trying to fool the horror buffs by using the name The Howling. Just see how beautiful Joe Dante's The Howling was and what a beautiful effects they used and see what has become of The Howling franchise. This is pure a rip-off of the name and cashing in on the Twilight sucksess. The story is simple. First you hear someone telling about his life and then we see how he had to choose between becoming a werewolf or falling in love with a human. Does that ring a bell? And when you see the gang of werewolves guess what, yes, they walk half naked around just like in Twilight.

If that wasn't worse enough then I go in into the effects used. When we see a werewolf, after more than an hour, you just see a man in a suit filmed with shaky camera's not to reveal the costumes. One werewolf got killed and naturally he changes back into human, pure cheap CGI. The last 10 minutes are maybe the best part of it when their is a fight between werewolves. But the weak thing is that you can see it coming who is who and what is going to happen.

And then there is my complain about the so-called nudity. There is a scene were they are making love and the girl do strip her clothes just to reveal her back, further on, she is naked again laying with her hand on her breasts. If you do nudity then show it but don't do it if you hate it or don't do it if you want a PG-13 flick.

Is it all bad, no the acting was okay and believable but was I glad that I saw the end credits. I was reborn and howled to go back to the good old latex stuff, what a turkey, definitely one for teenies.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Story 2/5 Effects 1/5 Comedy 0/5

Let me say, I absolutely loved the movie. It was a good watch. I was already initially a fan of Lindsey Shaw's and decided to watch a movie with her in it. I'm also a big fan of supernatural and mythical movies/shows/stories. I'm also a sucker for romance. I'm surprised at the low ratings the movie received, I thought it was better than Twilight but hey that's just my opinion. The acting was far better too. So overall, just go watch the movie! You won't regret it. I also felt like there should be a sequel with the same two main characters. That would be pretty awesome. One thing I didn't like was the fact that the whole movie was based on one small thing rather than something bigger. If you watch the movie you'll understand what I'm talking about. Hopefully.

The Howling: Reborn, was not a reborn at all, this movie is trying to make some money out of the of success of Twilight movie series and we have seen this in a lot of direct to DVD movies, even so I like some aspect of the movie. The element of who is the werewolf? Is really good execute in it I also like some part of the dialog and the story is not that bad.

The acting was not good at all and the werewolves make – up well more of a Halloween costume really disappoints a lot.

The Howling: Reborn, is one of the weakest installments on The Howling series.