Howling IV: The Original Nightmare

Okay here's a great premise -- what would The Howling have been like if it was made by somebody without the talent or good sense of Joe Dante? Well, thanks to the fourth of the dire sequels, now we know. It would have sucked.

There are two good things I can say about this movie. First, it serves as a lesson about how not to adapt a book to the screen. Second, it shows how much of a great film The Howling is, simply by comparison. As it's another version of the same novel, you already pretty much know the plot ... a disturbed woman goes to a retreat of some kind in order to set her mind straight, and decides to investigate a mysterious howling in the woods. The only positive thing I'll say about the adaptation is that it retains the strong religious element from the book, which was neglected in the Joe Dante version. This movie is apparently a lot closer to Gary Brandner's novel, but it lacks any of the flavour, metaphor or subtext.

First off, you don't care about the characters. Secondly, it just isn't scary. Director John Hough may manage to stay faithful to the book like some kind of a literary parrot, but apparently he hasn't heard of those things we call mood or pace or style ... in no way does this feel like a horror movie (it features the most un-frightening ghosts I've ever seen in a film). It's not even a particularly well-made film, and I noticed several errors in continuity. The acting isn't great, as all of the cast seem to belong on a soap opera, but by no means is that the worst thing about the movie. Also, for some odd reason all the dialogue is dubbed. Badly. And there's no excuse for it ... it just distracts you from the rest of the scene (or perhaps that was the intention). The special effects are actually very good, but unfortunately you don't see any of them until the last ten minutes of the movie when they're all thrown together in a hectic mish-mash.

Why do we need this movie? It sure beats me. There's absolutely no reason to watch it, unless you're curious about the original novel but can't be bothered to read it. Joe Dante's The Howling is superior in every single way.

Of 'The Howling' franchise, the best of the films will always be the first by some considerable distance. While not perfect, it's the only one classed by me as good, still having a lot of wit and atmosphere with amazing effects. Don't consider the numerous sequels (seen as part of a franchise completest quest) completely disposable, but all of them have major problems and are nowhere near close to being as good, suffering primarily from looking cheap, poorly written and acted and either being far too silly from taking the camp to extremes or being too serious.

Didn't care at all for the previous two sequels, which suffered from all the above problems bar the being too serious one, the excessive campiness and cheapness indicating films made by people who had completely forgotten seemingly what was good about 'The Howling'. It is hard to say whether 'Howling IV' is better or worse than the previous two instalments, in my mind they are as very bad as each other in their own way. Sure 'Howling IV' is one of the more faithful 'Howling' films to the source material, as has been mentioned frequently here, and it does try to take itself more seriously compared to the previous two sequels with the daftness and campiness being nowhere near as strong.

Sadly, all of this should have made 'Howling IV' a superior film but it is an instance of being more faithful not being a good thing. Have actually found this a lot in the past, when a re-make or another version of a book etc. is made that is more faithful in some way but in translation loses what made the previous version(s) so memorable on its own terms or doesn't have the same amount of impact. That was one of 'Howling IV's' biggest issues, it completely lacks the wit and atmosphere of 'The Howling' and has the opposite problem of the previous two sequels of being completely bland and taking itself too seriously. For most of the film, there is absolutely no tension or suspense and what little there is of the story is meandering, contrived and with nothing to it. On top of the first quarter of an hour being rather rushed, on the most part 'Howling IV' takes far too long to get going with interminably sloggy pacing, often uneventful stoytelling and too much emphasis on very talky and utterly uninteresting melodrama passing for dialogue and drama.

The acting from a largely unknown cast is better not going into too much detail because there isn't really much acting going on to warrant talking about. Not one redeeming cast member and they are all as bad as each other that giving an award for who fared worst of all would be hard. 'Howling IV' on the most part looks cheap, with editing that really lacks flow and feels slapped together while the camera work is chaotic and the lighting dreary. Most of the effects are slapdash at best and they and any gore are used gratuitously, despite being present much less than in the previous two films. The werewolves are criminally underused and are not scary at all while the direction has no character, style or pace.

What does redeem 'Howling IV' a little are a few things. It does pick up a little in the last twenty minutes, where there is a little fun and well-timed genuine shocks (too far and between) that come far too late. A few of the effects are decent and a little credit is due for them not being overused or being as bad-looking as in 'Howling II' and 'III'.

Likewise with the music, which is a lot less intrusive or inappropriately cheap here with a nice enough main theme that doesn't grate.

So all in all, a mess and far from terrifying but with a few merits. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The writing makes it painfully obvious what characters are good, evil, or just naive. You would have to be pretty thick to be surprised by any of the plot twists thrown your way. All the canned dialogue comes from the worst movies we've groaned at in the past. Special FX kick in towards the end, but end all too abruptly as does the film.

If we've got to have a Howling movie so similar (plot-wise) to the first one, could we at least have it improve on the original in just one way? Apparently not.

It is called the original nightmare because this is an update remake of the first Howling movie. In both movies, a husband and wife retreat to a small town that turns out to be full of werewolves. I like this update, this is definitely a breath of fresh air to the series. Special effects weren't terrible and I loved the the different ideas of how people change into a werewolf. One melts into a puddle of goo in a gruesome scene when he is walking in the woods and drops to the ground and begins to literally melt and then comes back together as a werewolf. Well done scene Tom Savini worthy. There is another man that rips the skin off of his jaw and it grows and he turns into a werewolf. Alot of memorable scenes in this movie makes this a standout movie in the werewolf horror genre and is definitely one of the best movies out of the series.

Gary Brandner wrote The Howling trilogy. Seven The Howling

movies were made from these books. Even though this movie

may seem like a remake of the original, it is actually the one movie

closest to the first book. When seen from this perspective it's a

pretty good movie. Plus you get to see Michael T. Weiss (of TV's

Pretender fame) with a mullet! What more can you ask for from a horror movie with the number 4

after it?