Howling Reborn

You know I always link "The Howling" with "The Wolfen" both were big budget (well big for horror movies)films with some major talent behind them. I find it interesting that in the years since their release there has been a god awful amount of Howling sequels, rip offs, and name rapes but there hasn't been one peep from "The Wolfen" side. Now admitedly, it didn't have the same effect as "The Howling" in mass culture, nor did it make as much money, and honestly it's concept is a lot tougher to pull off. Given all this however you have to weigh on the other side that in hollywood (or nearby) are folks who'd sell their own mother's wholesale for a name property. The short answer is that the people who hold the name and property that is "The Wolfen" have had the foresight to not just let it go for the song. The people behind the Howling on the other hand let theirs go even if you can't hum.

So here we are, "Howling Reborn." I believe its the tenth in a less than proud series. The last howling film I saw sported line dancing as a large part of the film couple with black scenes not so different than what you have seen on "Hee Haw." In other words, there is no other place to go but up. The film hits a good note by being based on one of the Howling books of the original author so at least they are trying to get back to something sort of authentic.

Or at least that was the intent at one point.

The story is basically, high school kid who's a nerd finds he's going through the "changes." Yes, this is a dark version of "Teen Wolf." He is madly deeply in love with a tough girl who is surprised to find that she has feelings for him as well. His friend is planning on stealing a TV signal on graduation day to show his horror movies. Things hit a snag when a bunch of over thirty high school "kids" move in and are actually bad werewolves.

Honestly as straight to DVD goes, its not horrid. It's by the numbers, it takes a few pages from "Twilight," and as I said before "Teen Wolf." It does try to make you care for some of the characters. Overall though, I admit I wanted to just doze off by the end. It wasn't connecting with me and I fear by tomorrow I'll forget all the details of the film.

Still, for the Howling series this counts as a plus. Who knows maybe in the next one they might find some excitement, logic, frights, or anything to bring back some honor to the name. There's always hope.