The Howling: Reborn

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.

'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.

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!

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.