howling iv : the original nightmare
the howling iv: the original nightmare was released on dvd on june 15th, 2004 .
vhs trailer for howling iv: the original nightmare (1988) stars: romy windsor, michael t. weiss, antony hamilton
howling iv the original nightmare with bonus cd dvd with romy windsor, michael t. weiss, anthony hamilton (r) + movie reviews
this movie was called the original nightmare as it was supposed to be based more on the original story
the howling
by gary brandner .
howling iv: the original nightmare by john hough | john hough, romy windsor, michael t. weiss, anthony hamilton | 96009180492 | dvd | barnes & noble®
1. the howling (1981) 2. howling iii: the marsupials (1987) 3. howling ii: your sister is a werewolf (1985) 4. howling vi: the freaks (1991) 5. the howling: reborn (2011) 6. howling iv: the original nightmare (1988) 7. howling v: the rebirth (1989) 8. the howling: new moon rising (1995 )
released in 1988, “howling iv: the original nightmare” chronicles events in the southern cal desert town of drago, where a writer (romy windsor) goes to heal after a mental ...
howling iv: the original nightmare is a great horror movie – for the last ten minutes. that would be the only time in this movie where we actually see werewolves. yep, a movie called
this page uses content from wikipedia. the original article was at howling iv: the original nightmare. the list of authors can be seen in the page history. as with horror film wiki, the text of wikipedia is available under the gnu free documentation license .
howling iv: the original nightmare (1988). stars: romy windsor, michael t. weiss. director - john hough. moria - the science - fiction, horror and fantasy film review .
howling iv: the original nightmare [ dvd ] (1988): urltoken romy windsor, michael t. weiss, antony hamilton, susanne severeid, lamya derval, john hough: dvd & blu - ray
howling iv: the original nightmare ,
the fourth chapter in the notably odd werewolf franchise finds diminishing returns finally catching up with the series. recycling plot points from the original film, this entry is not badly made; but it is extremely dull and finds itself strangely lacking in werewolves .
part one of my rant on the pathetic direct to video fourth installment in the howling franchise, howling iv: the original nightmare (1988) starring romy windsor, michael t. weiss, antony hamilton, susanne severeid, lamya derval, norman anstey, kate edwards, dennis folbigge, anthony james, and clive turner. directed by john hough ,
the howling iv: the original nightmare is a 1988 werewolf movie and the fourth installment in the howling franchise. it was released direct - to - video in november of 1988. the film is loosely based on the original gary brandner novel the howling and is closer to the source material than the original the howling film. the plot of the movie revolves around marie adams and her husband richard who take some time away from their troubles at an isolated southern california cabin called wilderness cottage in the secluded town of drago. marie, already suffering from a near nervous breakdown grows increasingly frightened as she begins hearing a baleful howling coming from deep in the woods. as she spends more time in drago, she learns more about the community' s dark ties to the occult and the terrible truth behind the howling .
part two of my rant on the lame and excruciatingly boring horror sequel, howling iv: the original nightmare (1988) starring romy windsor, michael t. weiss, antony hamilton, susanne severeid, lamya derval, norman anstey, kate edwards, dennis folbigge, anthony james, and clive turner. directed by john hough .
truer to the text: the plot follows the original gary brandner novel more closely than the first film .
easy to find on a multitude of labels on both dvd and vhs, this is worth watching even if you end up hating it (many apparently do) simply because you' ll see things here that you won' t see anywhere else. with the possible exception of howling vi: the freaks (1991), none of the other sequels - howling iv: the original nightmare (1988), howling v: the rebirth (1989), howling: new moon rising or the howling: reborn (2011) - did anything remotely interesting or out of the ordinary with the werewolf theme .
the howling iv: the original nightmare although this movie was made a long time before michael t weiss did the pretender, i enjoyed this more than net worth, i don' t usually watch horror movies i only bought this one because michael was in it. it had me glued to the screen for 94 mins but i hated the end .
howling ii: your sister is a werewolf aka. howling ii: stirba - werewolf bitch (a direct sequel) .
the tow truck driver is played by clive turner. turner plays starring roles as two separate characters in the howling v: rebirth and the howling: new moon rising. he was also the co - writer on the howling iv, rebirth and new moon rising as well as director, producer and editor on new moon rising .
or “what the fuck am i watching? ” for all its first eighty faults, i still applaud howling iv for trying to rein in the franchise and take itself seriously again .
co - writer clive turner appears in the film as a tow truck driver. turner also worked on the subsequent howling v: the rebirth and wrote and directed the seventh film in the howling series, howling: new moon rising .
urltoken howling iv: the original nightmare (1988): romy windsor, michael t. weiss, antony hamilton, susanne severeid, lamya derval, norman anstey, kate edwards, dennis folbigge, anthony james, dale cutts, clive turner, megan kruskal, john hough, avi lerner, edward simons, harry alan towers, freddie rowe, gary brandner: movies & tv
after the extremely campy howling ii & iii, they decided to adapt the original gary brander novel more faithfully for part iv, and they didn' t do such a great job. the original nightmare has some good ideas here and there (such as linking werewolves to satan, and that melting transformation scene was amazing) but the film is just so dull, the performances are so lazy and a good bulk of the special effects are terrible. add to that the fact that the chain of events are a little too similar to that in the first film but less engaging and you have what is basically a badly done remake that could have been a fun companion piece to the original .
howling iv is certainly better than the awful third movie. romy windsor is good as the lead character and some of the visuals are both eerie and striking. the music adds much depth and i liked how the story was more faithful to the source material .
howling iv in which a young an beautiful writer heads for the sanctuary of a rural hideout in a desperate bid to restore he sanity - only to find ba horror far worse than her own deranged imaninings .
the howling iv: the original nightmare bears many similarities to the original 1981 version of the howling. both films involve covens of werewolves hiding in secrecy. they both involve a married couple who take some time away from work to relax at an isolated cabin in the woods. both women work in some form of media (marie adams is a writer while karen white was a news reporter). both women complain about hearing an eerie howling noise coming from the woods. both of the male leads commit infidelity with a seductive werewolf vixen and suffer traumatically as a result. the climax of both films involves trapping a group of werewolves inside a wooden structure and setting it on fire. in each film, at least one werewolf is known to survive .
she bitch, the marsupials, were horrible sequels, and part iv was a disaster. so producers tried to copy the winning formula of
the howling
and use it in
the original nightmare
. the result is a mess, a disaster. think about the original howling, but with different and less likable characters, a less interesting setting, poorly done f / x, and a not so good plot .
the original nightmare
is a dull version of
the howling
disguised as a sequel. the acting is horrid except for romy windsor who seemed to have a bright future because of her looks and decent acting skills. the direction is dull, boring, and does not offer anything for the viewer. the f / x as i mentioned, are poorly done and have nothing to do with the original. ugh. the gore is laughable and i won' t even talk about the beasts. please, my advice is, avoid this horrid sequel. it' s truly one of the worst sequels to any movie. not to mention that it has one of the most horrible endings in the history of horror! the look of romy windsor' s face in the last scene summons the whole movie .
all the films mentioned by name in kim newman' s definitive encyclopedia of horror films, nightmare movies. well worth a read. …
the legendary globe theater in england mounted this 2011 stage production of william shakespeare' s history henry iv, part 2 (1596 - 99). the story, of course, finds king henry iv dying, with the rebels showing no signs of surrender; meanwhile, the corpulent ...
this howling sequel is subtitled the original nightmare because, supposedly, it is a closer adaptation to the source novel than the first film. i haven’t read the novel so i can’t say for sure how accurate that is. what i can say is that this is almost the exact same story as the first one... except it’s only about half as good as that one .
the howling: revenge of the werewolf queen is a comic by space goat publishing, continuing from the first film .
the howling is a 1981 horror film directed by joe dante. based on the novel of the same name by gary brandner, the screenplay is written by john sayles and terence h. winkless. the original music score is composed by pino donaggio .
due to their work in the howling, dante and producer michael finnell received the opportunity to make the film gremlins (1984). that film references the howling with a smiley face image on a refrigerator door. eddie quist leaves yellow smiley face stickers as his calling card in several places throughout the howling .
current price is $ 6. 63, original price is $ 6. 99. you save 5% .
i love horror movies point blank! .. it' s just my thing one of the things i love doing the most is following up on squeals i must say the howling iv is the best in the series after the first one none of the other parts have that creepy, grim feeling that the first howling gave us part 2 is just garbage part 3 i own it but have not took the time to see it part v is the only one that' s good enough to stand by part 4 howling vi: the freaks sucks the big one & new moon rising i can' t find anywhere. the howling 4 sets out to capture the first film, a writer who as a nervous break down heads out to the country with her husband to relax and enjoy some days off but it quickly turns into a nightmare when see starts to hear howling outside her window and gets involve in solving a local mystery when all is said and done this movie is worth a watch and worth the buy
not one to rest on its haunches, the series was back the following year with its first direct - to - video entry, 1988’s howling iv: the original nightmare, which confusingly claims to be based on all three of brandner’s novels (a trait it shares with the next three sequels). dropping the self - help angle introduced by the first film and the traumatic rape that the novel is predicated on, the original nightmare ’s screenwriters, clive turner and freddie rowe, also turn their protagonist into a best - selling author named marie whose repeated visions of a ghostly nun and other disturbing sights eventually land her in a mental hospital. there her architect husband, richard, is told she needs to get out of los angeles and go “somewhere where her imagination won’t be stimulated. ” following orders, he finds a rustic cabin in the insular town of drago where, lo and behold, marie starts hearing howling in the night and seeing the ghosts of its previous owners telling her to leave. meanwhile, richard is drawn to flirtatious shopkeeper eleanor, with whom he embarks on a torrid affair .
the successful author marie adams is haunted by nightmares. in order to recover, she travels to the countryside with her husband richard. at night, she hears the howling of wild animals. together with the former nun janice she tries to uncover the mystery. does that sound familiar? you bet it does .
howling iv
is the forth entry in the
howling
series and basically a rehash of the original
the howling
from 1981. they most certainly wanted to distance themselves from the two trash escapades that were part ii and iii. that was probably a good idea. unfortunately, the result is a veritable snoozefest. bless them, they were trying their best to give the story some kind of class. but it' s just plain boring. the movie spends a whole hour to mystifying the fact that we are dealing with werewolfs here. we already know that, guys! it' s the fourth movie, there' s no need to be so secretive about it. the production is riddled with shortcomings. the editing is unbelievably sloppy and the sound is inconsistent. the script is slow and predictable. the special effects at the end of the movie are alright, and the obligatory transformation scene is pretty cool. but at this point, why should we even care ?
howling iv
is a truly mystifying movie. there' s just no good reason for this remake to exist. it' s worse than the original in every single way, and the original wasn' t that great in the first place. a lycanthropic sleeping pill – ingest at your own risk .
unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on wikipedia article
the howling (film )
or another language wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the gnu free documentation license; or on original research by jahsonic and friends. see art and popular culture' s copyright notice .
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film  the remote cabin location, the seduction of the husband, the werewolf locals. (although what should be said is that the film here is in fact a more faithful adaptation of gary brandner' s original novel
a waste of time. i normally love the howling movies. this only showed a werewolf maybe once or twice towards the last 45 minutes of the movie .
this is a poorly made, low quality werewolf film - that really has no connection to the other instalments in the
howling
franchise. the intent behind this movie was to return to the original source material - that is, the novel that inspired the first
howling
film - and create a story that better reflected the horror narrative contained in that book. for this reason, this movie is subtitled
the original nightmare
. however it fails to capture the dark and foreboding plotline presented in the novel. ultimately, this is a cheap and partial re - make of the first film in the series. it' s about a woman being attacked by a werewolf, and struggling to stay one step ahead of the beast. but the way the film offers this story reduces the narrative to sheer boredom! and the special effects are anything but special... i can' t see any reason to recommend this film. it' s far from entertaining. and it' s certainly not horrific. i thought the original
howling
movie was excellent, and i' m a big fan of werewolf fiction. i wish this film had been worth watching. but it' s not. i suggest you avoid this item .
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 ?
truthfully, i have not read gary brandner’s the howling, but i have seen the movie, and i can’t imagine the novel would be much better! if anything the ending of the film, in which karen (dee wallace) turns into a werewolf on live television, certainly beats the ending of the novel, in which karen just escapes the burning mountain village while hearing the sound of howling in the distance .
with each sequel howling gets worst and worst and worst, and less scarier and more boring. oh well .
the howling (1981) is a werewolf horror film directed by joe dante and scripted by john sayles, loosely based on the book of the same name by gary brandner .
of course, the abrupt ending might just be because the film ran out of money. howling iv was shot in an arid south africa, doubling not all that well for california. yet, this obvious budgetary concession works somewhat in the films favor, since it makes the entire town of drago seem familiar yet somewhat alien. for a community of werewolves masquerading as regular townsfolk, the landscape, building construction and supporting actors all exude the
haunted by a series of unnatural happenings, a young author, marie adams heads for the sanctuary of a rural hideout in a desperate bid to regain her sanity - but only to find a horror much more deadly than her own deranged imaginings. from the depths of the forest it' s calling and waiting for the full moon, to hunt marie down and to take her on a terrifying journey into the gaping jaws of death. as night descends, the howling rises again to shatter the stillness of the night. this film starred: romy windsor, michael t. weiss & anthony hamilton. i have seen the first 4 howling films and this is my favourite one although i still don' t like it. in my opinion best to worst is like this (so far as i have not seen some of the sequels)... howling 4 howling howling 3 howling 2 this film is not really recommended. * * / * * * * * poor .
now i' ve watched iii, it' s easier to see mora' s stamp on ii, and what he was going for. doubt anything would have worked on a nightmare production / shoot like that .
“sister ruth was found in drago. she was almost incoherent, babbling on about finding the devil, and the sound of the bells, and... . and then the howling... . ”
imagine if instead of joe dante' s the howling, we got a run - of - the - mill dtv movie instead. riveting, right? this promotes itself on being much closer to the original book, which is technically true, especially in the re - inclusion of the detective nun subplot. the novel' s about 75% anal sex, though, so the movie can' t * quite * be described as altogether accurate .
shot in south africa, this direct - to - video installment of the werewolf series continues that franchise' s tradition of generating sequels light - years distant from the quality of joe dante' s witty and frightening original. the fourth chapter even attempts to rewrite the original film' s premise, which admittedly took grand liberties with the novel by gary brandner. the revamped tale involves successful author marie (romy windsor), who visits the scenic woodland town of drago to find respite from constant nightmare visions involving werewolves and a mysterious nun. needless to say, her stay in the village does nothing to dispel the visions, which increase in frequency and seem to suggest strange portents of evil events to come... and a warning to get out of town before the next full moon .
horror franchises come in two varieties: those based on existing properties (typically novels) and original creations (even if they’re not all that original in and of themselves). one that falls into the former category is the series that sprung from gary brandner’s the howling, published in 1977 and billed as “a blood - chilling novel in the shocking tradition of salem’s lot ” and “a terrifying tale of the occult” on the cover of its first paperback edition. strange to think that a property that has become synonymous with werewolves, spawning eight movies in 35 years, was coy about their existence at the outset. but this was not the case when brandner’s bestial creatures made the leap to the silver screen in 1981 .
i think this film is great and not as bad as other people say. if you have read the book you will no that this is a much closer film to the books plot than the howling 1 .
the howling was also notable for its special effects, which were considered to be extremely convincing at the time. the transformation scenes were created by rob bottin, who had also worked with dante on piranha. rick baker was the original effects artist for the film, but left the production to work on the john landis film an american werewolf in london, handing over the effects work to rob bottin. bottin' s most celebrated effect was the on - screen transformation of eddie quist, which involved air bladders under latex facial applications to give the illusion of transformation. in fact, variety notes that the howling' s biggest flaw is that the impact of this initial transformation is never topped during the climax of the film. the howling also features stop - motion animation by notable stop - motion animator david w. allen and puppetry intended to give the werewolves an even more non - human look to them. despite most of the special effects at the time, it also features an obviously fake effect: the silhouette of bill and marsha having sex as werewolves is obviously a cartoon animation .
howling iv is an absolute chore to sit through, the first tease of gore doesn' t pop up until almost 40 minutes in and werewolves? forget it, we get a glimpse of one at just over an hour and the [ admittedly incredible ] transformation sequence is reserved for the final 10 minutes. the most frustrating thing about this movie is that the gore in those last few moments was so. god. damn. cool. i loved the look of the werewolves and in the transformation scene, it was more of a deconstruction, the human flesh melting down to the bones, the skeletal remains being sucked into the liquid and as if the lycanthrope is a phoenix rising from the ashes, it emerges a…
not that there’s much chance of it staying silent too long in this era of endless horror remakes. as was reported last year, a new company has acquired the rights to “reboot” the howling, which prompted joe dante to ask, “isn’t there anybody with a new idea or anybody who wants to try something different? and the answer is no, they’re afraid to do it. ” so even if 2017 does bring with it a new howling movie, fans would probably be best served by sticking with his 1981 original and philippe mora’s marsupials and pretending they’re a series of two .
in gary brandner’s original novel, protagonist karyn beatty was a hotel manager. that’s not sexy enough for hollywood, so john sayles turned her into a tv reporter for the dante version. in this one she’s now called marie (
rish outfield' s reviews well, watching this was a nightmare, but i can' t say it was very original. strangely, this film is a remake of the first film. i don' t know if that usually happens, but in this case, it shouldn' t. take terrible acting and terrible dialogue, marry it to terrible pacing and a terrible story, and guess what, you' ve got a terrible movie on your hands. the plot was close to this: familiar - looking, flat - chested writer suffers hallucinations, so she and her husband go out to a summer cottage in the middle of nowhere to relax. stuff happens, they meet creepy townsfolk, she makes a friend, and i guess there' s a werewolf there, but we don' t really see him till the end (there' s a lot of pov shots of the monster early on, and people pretending to be scared of it, but it didn' t really work). to say good things about howling iv is hard, but i' ll try: the tape i watched had neat - o previews before it. and the movie began with a great 80' s song. but that was the highpoint. i felt like creating a stupidity in the first five minutes skull. it was awful. i read a review that said the remake was far superior to the original, but i can' t think of a single area (not a one) in which part iv even equals part i. it was filled with a lot of dumbness on the part of the script and the characters, and illogical, stilted dialogue that sounded like a poorly translated foreign film. oh, and it came with a shitty ending too. it has the star of the equally terrible house of usher in it, if that helps you stay away. best scare: even the sounds of wolves howling in the night, so eerie in the original, weren' t at all scary here. i' d recommend it to: fans of werewolf movies without any werewolves in them .
howling iv starts out decent enough, but by the end of the film it degrades to something less than average. the main problem with this movie is its very slow pace. those looking for action - packed werewolf sequences will not find it here. in fact, you don' t even see a werewolf until almost the end of the movie. this could have been excusable, if there was enough suspense to make the viewer want to keep watching until the end. unfortunately, the audience' s suspense is replaced with impatience. i kept looking at the clock, wondering when a werewolf would actually show up. when the werewolves finally do make their grand entrance, it is disappointing. they consist of: a) dogs with red eyes and b) actors in cheesy masks. and the transformation sequence of a human into a werewolf - something the original howling was famous for - is bizarre and goofy in this movie. recommendation: see it for free on tv if nothing else is on, but don' t bother renting .
shot in south africa, this direct - to - video installment of the werewolf series continues that franchise' s tradition of generating sequels light - years distant from the quality of joe dante' s witty and frightening original. the fourth chapter even attempts to rewrite the original film' s premise, which admittedly took grand liberties with the novel by gary brandner. the revamped tale involves successful author marie (romy windsor), who visits the scenic woodland town of drago to find respite from constant nightmare visions involving werewolves and a mysterious nun. needless to say, her stay in the village does nothing to dispel the visions, which increase in frequency and seem to suggest strange portents of evil events to come... and a warning to get out of town before the next full moon. director john hough has yet to surpass his horror masterpiece the legend of hell house, and this deadly dull exercise is hardly a step in the right direction .
an evil alien bong crashes on earth. its intent: world domination. our stoner heroes are sent to the alien bong planet and held captive by nude alien beauties. their only hope to escape and save planet earth: eebee, the original evil bong .
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 .
for those who remember the first howling, this will be similar in story. unlike the second and third, this one is much more traditional and less
out there .
there is much less nudity in this one than the second, which may kill it for some fans. the gore level is about the same though. it falls short of the original in some ways, but still holds the
who is it
theme. it also fits in with the fnial movies of the series as they often fall back to this one as the start. the dvd is very nice and the movie is also better than some other 80s cheap movies. the actors may not be well known today, but they were there when this was filmed. it holds much better to the original than the hammy acting in the second movie. for the price paid, this was a steal. still, it may not appeal to all the gore - hounds out there because it isn' t blood soaks or the women topless (clothing or otherwise). the implied violence to the small dog can also offend some .
joe dante' s the howling is a classic werewolf movie with some good effects and i loved it but it wasn' t close to the novel and they even said so. it' s still a good film. so when clive turner decided to do a third howling sequel he decided to make it closer to the novel which was fine. howling iv is about a writer named marie who after having a metal breakdown goes to a town called drago with her husband richard. once there marie begins to hear howling noises from outside, her husband think' s she' s making it all up due to her breakdown and the townsfolk are not too concerned about the noises. soon an ex - nun arrives and tells marie about a friend of her' s that was attacked in drago and marie has seen her in her mind. the two soon go off searching for info about the town' s history. her husband soon catches an eye on the art owner who resembles a similar look to marsha from the howling. after meeting her again in the woods she changes into a werewolf and bites. after telling marie it was a wolf that attacked him the next day he tells her he fell and scratched is shoulder. soon her nun friend discovers that the town people are werewolves and hurries to warn marie, meanwhile marie' s publisher tom also tries to warn marie but sees richard in the road thriving in pain. he tries to help him only to get killed by a werewolf in the bushes. it' s not long before marie and the ex - nun hide in the bell tower where marie must wait outside while she summons the werewolves with the bell. doing so marie has no choice but to burn the tower with her friend, and after looking at the burnt body of her husband a werewolf jumps out at her. although i haven' t read the novels reading the reviews and seeing the film gives me a clue what the novel is like. howling iv isn' t a bad film, the transformation is kind of good and the werewolf in the tower isn' t that bad. the one thing is that the werewolves don' t show themselves until the final twenty minutes of the movie but i wasn' t that bothered. i enjoyed the film. i also love that theme song
something evil, something dangerous
this is just a woofing redoing of the novel, but not as good as
the howling
. in
howling iv: the original nightmare
we don' t see any werewolves until much much later on. a rubbish film is when it squeazes the best bits in the last few minutes of the film. the scene of the werewolves in the bell tower was cool, as well as the running pack, the fire and the heroic ex - nun who sacrificed her own life to save her favourite writer. there was campiness, especially the wooden husband who sports a real 80' s mullet and goes off to have a fling with the beautiful witch werewolf. the acting was awful. i mean, while richard is screaming in agony while his flesh is falling off, his wife marie just stood there looking at him. no emotions and no sense of distress. why doesn' t anyone call for the police or ambulance in these films? the local sheriff was creepy and a werewolf but still, the world exists outside of a small village. the richard scene changing into a werewolf was done in a gross manner. for so long his skin melted to bone and he can still talk and move around, but falls in a puddle of goo. then he returned back to normal with thick sideburns! also why no one else that turns into werewolf do that? they only sprout hair and fangs. what was the point in the friend character who visits from the city to help marie, only to get killed straight away? the only purpose he served was to annoy richard. anyway much of this film' s best bits happen at the last 10 or 15 minutes. before then, it' s just really long and boring .
anyway, in this version of the story, new karen (an author) has to go up to the colony (re - named drago, which they should' ve kept in the original, to be fair) because she saw a stock - footage shot of a werewolf from later in the movie in her mind while having lunch .
i' m pretty much in line with your take. wow! coming from the same director as howling ii, i didn' t expect to like this at all, but, mora really did his own thing and thought outside the box, here. unfortunately, it' s the kind of
sequel
people _ say _ they want, then knock for not being
more like the original
. at the time, when it
mattered
, reception woulda been much kinder without the howling (sub) title. there are good things in some of the other sequels: 5 has smart, quippy dialogue confined to a promising setup; 4 at least _ felt _ like brandner to me. at the time i thought the freaks was a good little film. now for new moon rising? 1995, blecch .
the remaker: the fly (1958) vs. the fly (1986 )
i' ve been very naïve. i think i' ve always assumed that a dtv sequel - ie direct to video - means that a film failed to get the cinema release it was hoping for, and sadly went straight to the shelves of blockbuster instead, with its tail between its legs. but now that i' ve seen howling iv, i think i' ve finally found a sequel that never expected to end up anywhere else. it' s so perfunctory, so lazy, and so lousy, that i can' t imagine anyone involved thought anything other than ,
well, it' s got the howling name on it, a few suckers will rent this shit, and we can take the money and run .
as long as it wasn' t going to be…
returning to the fold for a third go - round, clive turner staked his claim to being the howling franchise’s ultimate auteur, serving as new moon rising ’s writer, producer, director, lead actor, and supervising editor. moreover, he misguidedly attempts to reverse - engineer a loose continuity between the three previous sequels by having various characters tell each other the stories of the rebirth and the original nightmare, occasioned by copious clips from both. (the freaks also comes up briefly, but its connection to the plot is tenuous at best .) turner’s most egregious sins are his weakness for corny jokes and the bountiful screen time he gives to the residents of pioneer town, where his biker character—a long - haired, george jones - obsessed aussie who may or may not be the same person he played in the rebirth —sets up shop, giving them all a chance to sing terrible country songs while people robotically line dance, sometimes in a curiously underlit limbo. and that’s not to forget the long - delayed werewolf transformation, which is accomplished with a cheap - ass morphing effect, a harbinger of things to come .
one of the better of the series. the women are pretty and the plot better than o. k .
the plot develops slowly, the production is limited, and the performances are dodgy. by the time the werewolves arrive, the film' s lackluster narrative and flat execution…
famed director john hough (twins of evil, legend of hell house) directed this boring re imagining of the original film however based more on gary brantner' s book. the film sadly tries the slow burn whodunit of the original film even tho its the fourth in the series, that mixed with bad acting (mostly horrible dubbing) and awful editing make it a rough watch with little action and too much talking. rumor has it that producer clive turner fired hough and re shot and edited half the film himself, which probably explains why the film seems to be such a mess. steve johnson returned to do effects. justin hayward of the moody blues sang the theme song. was the first in the series that went direct to video and won fangoria' s golden chainsaw award for best direct to video film of 1988. filmed in south africa .
i was very pleasantly surprised by this one and have no clue why it has such a bad reputation. if i redid my 20 best 80s horror sequels list i' m sure this would make the cut. like you said, it does its own thing and isn' t slavish toward either typical werewolf formula or the original film. in short, it' s original. probably not for all tastes still but nice to see at least some appreciation for this one. the freaks is also a hair underrated i think. 5 was passable. new moon rising makes 2 and 4 look like masterpieces .
review: it seems that any successful horror film spawns at least a few sequels. unfortunately, as the roman numerals climb, the commitment to good filmmaking seems to deteriorate. this installment of the
howling
series does little to reverse that trend - - and even… (more )
i' ve seen many sequels of the original howling (can' t keep track how many actually) but this had my mouth drop wide open right after the first few minutes of it. the concept is almost exactly the same as in the first installment but this one sticks quite firmly to the original book. but it' s pretty much like watching the first movie remade by bunch of talentless amateurs (probably even retarded ones). the acting is worse than i' ve ever seen before. and to stay awake through the whole movie you should not have seen the first because it kinda gives everything away. bad camera work, bad screenplay with cheesy lines with every possible clichés in it. and on top of all this: extra low budget. low budget doesn' t mean the movie automatically sucks. it' s not worth making a movie with very little money unless you' re clever and creative. these guys were not. usually this kind of super - sucking low budget b - movies make you laugh and deserve some credit as
hilarious and good bad - b - movies
. but no, this one doesn' t and i cannot recommend it to anyone, not even the howling fans. one star for cool latex - gore effects in the end .
it seems that any successful horror film spawns at least a few sequels. unfortunately, as the roman numerals climb, the commitment to good filmmaking seems to deteriorate. this installment of the
howling
series does little to reverse that trend - - and even less to whet viewer appetites for
michael hoffman' s adaptation of a midsummer night' s dream comes to dvd with a widescreen transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2. 35: 1. closed - captioned english soundtracks are rendered in both dolby digital 5. 1 and dolby digital surround. english and ...
) who owns a trinket store in the town. marie’s sanity is tested yet again when her dog runs away and she finds what looks like his boney remains at a cave. she hears footsteps behind her and runs home, but when richard checks her tracks he says he finds nothing. seems as if this healing getaway is actually turning out to be a nightmare .
a poor movie... boring and tedious. suffers from a serious lack of' werewolf' action. the images on the dvd cover aren' t even from this film. the film plays out almost identical to the first movie, but without all the elements that made that movie good and watchable. it' s best to avoid this one. it' s the worst in the' howling' series .
lacking the relative star power of its predecessors and featuring no recurring characters from either of them or any of brandner’s novels, mora’s howling iii stands alone. over the course of its 98 minutes, he tosses in a trio of werewolf nuns, a russian ballerina transforming on stage at the sydney opera house, a marsupial werewolf birth, actual footage of the extinct tasmanian tiger, fake footage of aborigines killing one of its half - human relatives, a giant werewolf pig (actually, the repurposed monster from russell mulcahy’s razorback), and a los angeles awards shows hosted by dame edna everage, which brings mora’s howling diptych full circle. he also pokes fun at dante’s film and his own the beast within with the insanely drawn - out transformation in it came from uranus, an amusing, over - the - top film - within - the - film. that willingness to risk looking foolish turns out to be howling iii ’s greatest asset and the reason it succeeds where ii fails: freed of the expectation of following a hit, mora set out to have some fun, and he and his cast and crew did just that. they also made the last howling film to garner a theatrical release, for reasons that will become abundantly clear .
sixteen years after new moon rising limped into video stores—to date, it’s the one film in the series never to be released on dvd or blu - ray—the trigger finally got pulled on a follow - up, optimistically titled the howling: reborn. ostensibly based on the novel the howling ii, the 2011 film appears to take more of its cues from stephenie meyer’s twilight books since it’s about a teenage werewolf who has to protect his human crush from others of his kind. (on the commentary, co - writer / director joe nimziki claims he wrote and registered his first draft a year before twilight was published, but this doesn’t change the fact that by the time his much - tinkered - with script went before cameras it was in a post - twilight world where teen paranormal romances are a veritable cottage industry .) the plot also has echoes of howling ii: your sister is a werewolf, since it hinges on an impending “very rare blue moon” when packs of werewolves all over the world plan to rise up and take over. reborn ’s scope stays frustratingly limited, even if it does add yet another country—canada—to the roll call of far - flung locations where howling movies have been lensed. and at least it’s a marked improvement on new moon rising, the unequivocal runt of the litter, which would have been an ignominious way for the series to be put down .
howling iv understandably comes with a no - frills mono – well, what the hell, i’ll be…it’s a dolby digital 5. 1 track. don’t expect much directionality, because there isn’t any, but the track demonstrates a pretty full range, able to project sounds like the screeching halt of a car to wind chimes on the town’s shop door with nice clarity. the lfe track becomes noticeable in those last 10 - minutes, too, once that synth bass thump starts to kick in. as i mentioned in the review proper, there are some gross, eerie sound effects, from the werewolf howls to the slime dropping from richard’s body during the transformation that all come through with some force on this track. in the quieter scenes you can hear some hiss during dialogue bits because of a high noise floor, but that’s more a fault of the live recording than it is this mix. if the video track was a little above average considering the budget, then the 5. 1 sound is a very pleasant surprise.
howling iv : the original nightmare is a 1988 direct-to-video horror film directed by john hough from a screenplay by freddie rowe and clive turner . starring romy windsor , michael t. weiss , antony hamilton , susanne severeid and lamya derval . " the original nightmare " is the fourth entry in the series of seven stand-alone films with loose continuity and not so much a sequel , but , a more faithful adaptation of gary brandner 's source novel the howling ( 1981 ) ( hence the title ) . international video entertainment ( ive ) released this film directly to home video in 1988 . platinum disc corporation ( now echo bridge home entertainment ) released it on dvd in 2004 and it has been released numerous times since . it was filmed on location in south africa . 
howling iv: the original nightmare is a 1988 direct-to-video horror film directed by john hough from a screenplay by freddie rowe and clive turner. starring romy windsor, michael t. weiss, antony hamilton, susanne severeid and lamya derval. " the original nightmare " is the fourth entry in the series of seven stand-alone films with loose continuity and not so much a sequel, but, a more faithful adaptation of gary brandner's source novel the howling (1981) (hence the title). international video entertainment (ive) released this film directly to home video in 1988. platinum disc corporation (now echo bridge home entertainment) released it on dvd in 2004 and it has been released numerous times since. it was filmed on location in south africa.
howling iv: the original nightmare is a 1988 direct-to-video horror film directed by john hough from a screenplay by freddie rowe and clive turner. starring romy windsor, michael t. weiss, antony hamilton, susanne severeid and lamya derval. " the original nightmare " is the fourth entry in the series of seven stand-alone films with loose continuity and not so much a sequel, but, a more faithful adaptation of gary brandner's source novel the howling (1981) (hence the title). international video entertainment (ive) released this film directly to home video in 1988. platinum disc corporation (now echo bridge home entertainment) released it on dvd in 2004 and it has been released numerous times since. it was filmed on location in south africa.