The Howling VI: The Freaks (Video 1991)

***S  P  O  I  L  E  R  S***

"Vampire vs. Werewolf

The Ultimate Clash of the Forces of Evil"

RATED- R

RUN TIME- 102 MINS

WRITER(S)- GARY BRANDNER AND KEVIN ROCK

STARRING- BRENDAN HUGHES, MICHELE MATHESON AND SEAN SULLIVAN

DIRECTOR- HOPE PERELLO

Synopsis taken from IMDb

A villainous carnival owner traps a young werewolf to include in his growing menagerie of inhuman exhibits.

STORY: I'm back with another round of abuse for myself. I'm a glutton for punishment, as I said before. I've seen all of the Howling films except V and VI, up until recently. I should have called it quits after the 3rd film and I wanted to, but my OCD wouldn't allow me to not finish the series. Christ, almighty.

This film focuses on a drifter named Ian who stops in a small town and takes up a job working on rebuilding the town church. He's known to the town instantly as a good worker and has everyone's attention since he's the mysterious new guy in town. One night when the full moon arises we see Ian change into a werewolf and my God is it awful looking. It doesn't look like a werewolf at all, I don't know what the hell it looks like but it's absolutely terrible. While out roaming, a freak from the circus sees Ian as a wolfman and reports it to his boss, R.B. Harker.

Harker imprisons Ian and uses him as a freak in his hideous display for his carnival business. While locked up, Ian is abused and mentally tortured and picked on. Of course, we all knew that he was going to escape and have his big battle to freedom. It's completely predictable and tasteless. I knew from the go that Harker was a vampire and I think they made it very obvious, even if they didn't mean to.

Ian and Harker battle it out for superiority and dominance. With a stake and a heavy, lethal dose of direct sunlight Ian pulls off the victory. Now he's off on the road again traveling. Until he passes the next town worth stopping in.

Possibly...probably the worst werewolf design I have ever seen

ACTING/PERFORMANCES: The acting in this movie was dry and boring. It wasn't convincing at all. I guess all the actors knew this movie was such a piece of crap, they just signed on for the paycheck. Ian is made out to be sympathized with but to be honest, I couldn't care less what happened to anyone in this movie.

KILLS/GORE: The gore was sparse and the kills were generic as well as the ridiculous fight scene at the end. I really don't know what went through the people making this film's minds. There wasn't a single scene that stood out to me. 

OVERALL: This movie is a dare to watch. A dare to see if you'll fall asleep or turn it off before it's over. I somehow survived but I will never watch this again. I haven't seen a movie this bad in a while so I'm pissed it ruined my good movie streak. I'm going to wash this bad taste out of my mouth with a viewing of An American Werewolf in London. Beware of this movie, it bites.

THIS FILM GETS 1 1/2 REAPER SKULLS OUT OF 5

The Howling: Reborn (video 2011)

RATED- R

RUN TIME- 90 MINS

WRITERS- JOE NIMZIKI AND JAMES ROBERT JOHNSTON

STARRING-  LANDON LIBOIRON, LINDSEY SHAW AND IVANA MILICEVIC

DIRECTOR- JOE NIMZIKI

Synopsis taken from IMDb

On the eve of his high school graduation, unremarkable Will Kidman finally bonds with the girl he has long yearned for, reclusive Eliana Wynter. But he also discovers a dark secret from his past...that he is about to become a werewolf. Now, in an effort to fight destiny and save their love as well as their lives, they must battle not only Will's growing blood lust but an army of fearsome beasts bent on killing them...and then, us all.

I'd like to start off by saying that I love the original The Howling (1981) and truly consider it to be a landmark horror film. Especially for the werewolf genre. And after a few years of postponing the sequels I decided to give in and give them a shot and I should have listened to my gut. The sequels increasingly got worse! Part 3 was the worst and after that I was done, part 3 was one of the worst films I've ever seen and I wouldn't watch it again unless I was paid to do it. I never finished watching the sequels that followed part 3 because judging by the covers they're even worse than part 3.

Just another prime example of giving the right film franchise to the wrong people wanting to make a buck. So funny how they fail to realize that we'd rather see a good horror flick than a horrible one that was just fun to make. I take film seriously and I think the way some people say other people shouldn't be allowed to have kids, I say some people shouldn't be allowed to have a camera. I believe everyone has the right to express themselves through art and film, just don't do it while trying to uphold a franchise that deserves better.

So going into this film I had very low expectations and I wasn't even sure if I should waste my time on more crappy sequels. But since the title says "Reborn" and since it's only a year old I knew that meant that they were going to come at this film from a new angle and try and make it modern and give the series a clean slate. This little fact is what got me intrigued to give it a chance. I thought maybe it is possible for them to bring a long dead series back to life. I always try and remain optimistic.

The film starts with what I can only describe as being very bubbly and poppy, this film is not PG-13 but it was directed at a younger crowd, which I don't like. It reminded me of Wes Craven's Cursed. No matter how hard I tried to look at it it was hard for me to take seriously.

The story wasn't bad but it becomes predictable and losses its charm after a while. It semi hooked me, one minute I thought that it was going to be a horrible movie and then 10 minutes later I'm asking myself if maybe I was wrong, the movie seemed to have some potential.

The lead cast wasn't very convincing although I could tell they were trying hard, they just weren't the quality actors this film needed, but they did what they could. And I guess for a straight to video movie you shouldn't expect very good acting, although it is a great feeling when you find one that does have good acting. However, this film wasn't one of them.

I really appreciated what this film was going for and trying to achieve. It was still hard for me to take this film very seriously, at this point I knew that I wasn't in for a great movie like I foolishly wished. It was more entertaining that the original sequels though so they get the "thumbs up" from me on that. You don't really have to be very good at all to beat the originals, so let that be the question. Is it worse to be such a bad series that anything can be better than it or is it worse to be a movie that's better than the series but any film can achieve?

One of the things that made it so hard for me to take seriously was the werewolves. They looked good in the face but the bodies were absolutely ridiculous. They gave the werewolves Faun legs. It looks like the werewolves are wearing furry chaps. Terrible design. And the transformation scenes were pretty bad, not the worst I've seen but they were very far from the best and looked cheap with the CG used to achieve the transformations.

There is also a werewolf all-out brawl at the end between 2 werewolves, very reminiscent to the ridiculous scene in 2010's The Wolfman remake. This scene was entertaining in the pure fun aspect, I mean come on, who wouldn't want to watch a fight-to-the-death fight between to werewolves? But the fact that the film is trying to be taken seriously ruins it. You realize how cheap and poorly executed this was. This film tries really hard but it doesn't satisfy my Howling needs. I guess only the original can do that as it's proven again.

In conclusion The Howling reborn is better than the original sequels of which there are 8 including this one. This film was still a disappointment and didn't do anything to provide us hope with a comeback for The Howling series. I guess some things are better left dead as they say, right?

I don't know if a sequel would have been a better move than a remake in this case. I usually say sequels would be better than remakes, but that also depends on the film at hand. In this case I think a remake would have been a better movie because The Howling series has lost long ago the charm and magic that makes us love to watch it. It has lost itself and has become subject to horrific sequels and ridiculousness. Maybe one day we'll see a light at the end of the tunnel for this series and a bright new hope for a future. But as of right now I wouldn't hold me breath and I don't suggest you do either.

THIS FILM GETS 2 REAPERS OUT OF 4

Howling 3: The Marsupials (1987)

After watching this movie I had only question, why in the hell did they do sequels to The Howling? Howling 2 was awful and this one was even worse. Then I come to find out that they did 7 Howling movies, which means I still haven't seen 4 of them. Well, I'm calling it quits with them, I don't care to see anymore of these sequels and I don't want to waste more time from life I'll never get back. And I don't want to waste a Netflix rental on these. These sequels don't even come close to the original, seriously. I don't know why the ever did them but they are a travesty.

I don't know how many of you have seen these but they are horrible. I kind of wish I know people who've seen them so I know that I'm not the only one here who thinks they're ridiculous. I really don't suggest that you see these unless you are curious, but I'd rather catch some sleep than sit through these again. Such a shame, the first film was so good.

Synopsis taken from IMDb
A strange race of human-like marsupials appear suddenly in Australia, and a sociologist who studies these creatures falls in love with a female one. Is this a dangerous combination?

I give this movie 0 stars. I'll still throw the trailer in here for the sake of uniformity.

Howling 2: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985)

So I never heard much of the sequels, so I didn't know what to go in expecting. Now I am aware of why I never heard much of them, there's nothing to say about them, or atleast the 2nd film. I was awed by how bad this movie was. It was horrible. One of the many movies I will never watch again. The effects were bad, the story was bad and the acting was bad (except for Christopher Lee).

Now part 3 is next on my Netflix queue so we'll see how that goes. I already watched the trailer and it looks to be even worse than part 2. I guess I'm too dumb to call it quits, that or my ocd is forcing me to follow them out 'til the end. Either way, I'm on a bad run of horror movies lately, it sucks. I guess that's what you get when you love this genre so much, you have to put up with so many bad ones to get to the good ones. Happens with every genre I guess.

Synopsis taken from IMBd
When Ben, the brother of one of the werewolf victims from the first movie, is told that the world is actually full of werewolves and they're planning to take control, he is skeptical. After a good deal of convincing from werewolf hunter Stefan, however, he finally agrees to join Stefan's band of lycanthrope hunters in Transylvania on a mission to kill Stirba, Queen of the Werewolves. Can the group survive against her army of evil?


Anyway, if for some reason you're intrigued by maybe watching this movie go ahead and view the trailer below. Hopefully it'll change your mind.

I give this 0 stars.