Full Moon Renaissance

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.

On the eve of his high school graduation, unremarkable Will Kidman (Landon Liboiron) 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.

The biggest criticism one can give this film, and I have seen others do this, is that it has that MTV style, and focuses on awkward high school kids (not to mention the main character being played by a regular from "Degrassi"). I am torn between believing this is the new format we have to accept and trying to reject it as an unfortunate trend.

Allow me to quote fellow reviewer Staci Layne Wilson: "There's a little more to it than its inherent wafer thinness. Yeah, it's a corn ball flick without a whit of sense nor much suspense, but The Howling Reborn is surprisingly well-shot, has some good action sequences, the acting is fine, and the spooky bits are augmented by better-than-usual cg and practical effects." Usually I use these quotations to jump off from and disagree, but I think Staci pretty much summed it all up.

I have to call attention to the soundtrack. Some of it I do not know (probably new bands an old fogey like me never heard of) but the ones I do -- like Echo and the Bunnymen -- really set a great tone. I could have used more 80s throwbacks, like the Smiths or the Cure.

The wolf suits are impressive, though it is hard to top the creative force that is Rob Bottin from the original film. Bottin is a god. But, again, these suits are good. The camera moves fast so we cannot see any seams or flaws, which might be mildly annoying but serves the film well and adds a level of realism to the wolves.

There is also a definite sex factor. While I did not personally find the women of this film attractive, the intent was clearly to make them so and others may enjoy that. There is something feral about sex, and the director is well aware of this, throwing in not one but two sexually oriented scenes.

Is this worth seeing? Perhaps. It is not as great as some other werewolf films (e.g., "Ginger Snaps" or "Dog Soldiers") but it has the high school mentality without being as bland or mushy as "Twilight". So I guess it could have been worse.

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.

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.

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!