When reviewing films, especially horror films, I feel sometimes it is necessary to go in with an open mind and without prejudice.
Only in name is this film connected to the very tedious Howling entries, this being the 8th film in the series. I feel after seeing it, that this was just a cheap cash-in on the franchise name much in the same way the Hellraiser series has gone since Bloodline, with the possible exception of Hellseeker.
The plot (which is loose at best) tells the story of everyday soon-to-be High School Graduate Will, who starts to experience strange incidents when a ‘pack’ (for lack of a better word) of young men join his school a week before graduation.
This is after we learn that he is the child of a woman who is attacked in the first reels by what we assume is a wolf.
We have all the cliche werewolf behaviour, as Will starts to have improved vision, starts to eat meat (having been a vegetarian) and his wounds are healing on their own.
All of this and he is now developing a relationship with Elliana, a girl he has lusted after the whole of high school.
The further the film goes the more the plot goes out the window, plus the fact we don’t actually see a werewolf on full until the final few scenes and even then they are bizarre gargoyle-like creatures.
When it comes to werewolf films, you expect there to be violence and mood to be a bit darker, but in this film it is clearly a cash-in on the success of the Twilight franchise as it seems clearly aimed at the PG/12 market.
By the finale you are just kind of glad it’s all over, and hopefully that means the Howling series as well.
The most entertaining part is in the credits where a werewolf epidemic is being reported nationwide and causing pandemonium, if only the film was as entertaining.
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