Grito de Horror 5: O Renascimento

I first saw this in the early 90s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently.

We dont get to see a single werewolf in the entire movie and all the kills are offscreen except for a lousy decapitation.

This one is more like a whodunnit without any suspense, tension or engrossing story.

I agree that this film is probably one of the most underrated werewolf films ever made. The original was truly a masterpiece. The second was very campy and corny, but worth the watch thanks to an amazing actor you might have heard of...Christopher Lee. The next two Howling installments were terrible and gave the franchise a bad name. Then along comes Clive Turner. He takes the werewolf out of the woods and confines it within a castle. What scares most people? Isolation...no escape...the unknown. Add an enormous werewolf to the mix and throw a scooby doo mystery twist on it and you've got Howling V: The Rebirth. A group of strangers are hand picked to spend the weekend in an isolated medieval castle in the Budapest country side that hasn't been opened for 500 years. Slowly, the guests begin to notice many similarities between themselves. Then it is revealed that one of them is a werewolf. The blood that flows through their veins is the blood of the werewolf that has plagued this castle and country once before. One of the members of the bloodline must kill the werewolf and lift the curse forever. In classic who done it fashion, The Rebirth delivers a compelling story with a fairly obvious twist. The entertainment value is high enough to deserve a late night viewing with a blanket and some popcorn. Just make sure to leave at least one light on...you'll need it.

Basically this is the werewolf version of Ten Little Indians. A group of people end up stranded at a castle during a snowstorm and while they wait for it to end someone or something begins to pick them off one by one. With the howling and teeth marks on the bodies it points to one of them not being what they seem. This is actually a fairly descent Howling movie but it does have a small budget. I will give credit in the fact that they did well with what they had. The ending is also somewhat clever if you are not paying close attention throughout the movie. Overall not bad for what it is and is better than some of the other sequels.

With this one, I've finally watched all the HOWLING sequels. I can see why people actually like this 5th installment, as it does try to do something else with the werewolf concept. It plays out like a whodunit-slasher, set on one imaginative location (a Hungarian castle setting). Yet still, when you have to judge it on its own terms and nature, it falls short at the end of the ride. There's too little of the mystery-plot to enjoy (not enough red herrings, no twists worth mentioning and the killer/werewolf could just be anybody really - it's no fun to think along with the plot as there is not much to think about and no real puzzles to be solved). All the actual kills sadly happen off-screen (only ripped throats are shown after the events). We don't get to see much of the werewolf (only some brief glimpses during the attacks) and the film does not feature a transformation-scene (which I was so hoping for to happen during the conclusion). It's even lacking a decent climax of sorts.

The acting is strictly so-so, provided by a cast compiled out of unfamiliar names (at least to me they were). The small bits of humor injected into some of the dialogues, didn't really pay off. Fortunately they weren't too distracting. As far as cinematography goes, I only found the special effect shots, of the exterior of the castle during a snow storm, to be enjoyable. The interior sets of the castle chambers, dungeons and corridors looked a little cheap. But that can be forgiven, due to the movie's low budget.

It's an amusing watch and certainly not the worst or most idiotic HOWLING sequel, yes, but nothing more. HOWLING V might have drawn a lot of influences from that other 'guess the werewolf'-film THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974, starring Peter Cushing). Slightly more ridiculous but also a lot more fun, that film's at least worth checking out. I'm not too sure about HOWLING V, though. I probably should be flunking this film, but I'll be forgiving in my final rating. If only for the fact that HOWLING V: THE REBIRTH is infinitely better than the series final installment, (Part 7) NEW MOON RISING. Part 7 tries to tie up loose ends between part 4 (THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE) and part 5 (THE REBIRTH), but writer/director/producer/actor Clive Turner turned it into an insufferable mess of a movie.

i first saw this movie about 4 years ago, and feel in love with it almost instantly. At the time i had never seen any of the Howling movies, in fact, i don't think i had even heard of the howling before this. Now that i have seen them all, i can see that Howling 5 is by far the best in the series.

The other howling movies seem to be a lot of talk and very little action, especially Howling 4 and 7. For all in this installment of the Howling, there is little Werewolf action, the fact that you do not see the werewolf, i believe, adds to the suspense. In Howling 4, the werewolves are seen in great detail, and i think this ruined it, as the wolves were overdone and slightly silly. In this, the idea of the wolf, and the three second shots of teeth etc. are more effective then a full plastic-wolf bounding about the castle after the victims.

one other thing i have to note, is the incidental music. Whenever one of the cast is butchered by the werewolf, a sinister piece of opera is played and the scene pans off, so you dont get to see the body until later. When i first saw the scenes like this, i couldn't help but laugh. For all i love it, and i think it is a brilliant effect, the first impression for someone who considers Excalibur an extension of Monty Python can find the incidental operatic slightly humorous.

This movie is by far the best of all the Howling movies, and is a movie all werewolf fans should find enjoyable.