THE HOWLING: REBORN (2011)

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Joe Nimziki
Cast: Landon Liboiron, Lindsey Shaw, Ivana Milicevic, Jesse Rath
RunTime: 1 hr 32 mins
Rating: M18 (Violence and Sexual Scene)
Released By:  Shaw
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 3 May 2012

Synopsis:  On the eve of his high school graduation, Will Kidman (Landon Liboiron) finally catches the eye of the girl he's longed for these last four years: the mysterious Eliana Wynter (Lindsay Shaw). Will has always been quiet, but he soon discovers a dark secret from his past: He is heir to a vicious line of werewolves. In order to fight nature's primal legacy, Will must do battle with an army of fearsome beasts bent on killing Eliana. Can Will fight his own growing blood lust and save himself from becoming a brutal savage?

Movie Review:

If ‘The Howling’ sounds a tad familiar, that’s because it was in fact the title of a fun werewolf flick from 1981 that became something of a cult classic for its campy blend of horror and comedy. And like many of its genre cousins from the same era, it spawned a string of forgettable sequels that all but drove the franchise into the grave. Fifteen years after the last embarrassing entry, director and co-writer Joe Nimziki attempts to revive the franchise with an all-new reboot set in a high school.

Wait, did you say high school? Yes, the similarity of its setting with the Twilight saga is not simply a coincidence- rather, even as it mocks the ‘twinkly vampires’, it is clear that Nimziki had intended from the very start for his movie to follow the template that the vampires had left behind. So in ‘Twilight’ mode, the movie begins with its lead character Will Kidman (Landon Liboiron, or the teenager from ‘Terra Nova’) narrating in pseudo-serious fashion about the bad things that are going to happen.

But first, Will has a more important matter at hand- and that is, to get the attention of the girl of his dreams, Eliana (Lindsey Shaw). So despite an open threat by her boyfriend, Will shows up at some party and dances with Eliana- though a drug he takes prior leaves him with some illusion that he’s being pursued by a creature that growls and moves with lightning speed. Will might be ignorant, but it’s no secret to us that it had something to do with a clan of three mysterious students trying too hard to channel their inner Cullen.

The occurrence of a rare blue moon phenomenon has somehow emboldened them to realise their plans of multiplying the numbers of their species, led by their alpha male Kathryn (Ivana Milicevic) who just happens to be Will’s long-lost mother for the past 18 years. Before you think that there could be something interesting going on, let us state quite categorically that it is true insofar as Kathryn happens to be a MILF, and not for any psychological dilemma that Will potentially faces.

After all, it seems that Will is too busy trying to get it on with Eliana on the floor of a library in between the bookshelves no less and then in some classroom while in the middle of a pursuit. Can it get any more blatant that Nimziki is trying to cash in on the romantic teen horror craze, right down to the use of sappy soft-rock songs to set the mood? Consider this as fair warning for those who hated any of the ‘Twilight’ movies- if you thought they were bad, this will probably leave you howling in agony.

Even if we were to overlook Nimziki’s deafness of tone, there are still the appalling leaps of logic that are simply inexcusable. Look past the high-tech security lockdown of the school, and you’d still find no way of believing that scores of people can simply vanish without nary any suspicion raised by anyone else at school. Or that Will somehow manages to broadcast a message across all the TV channels? Or that the school is holding its graduation ceremony on a dark stormy night with no parents present? The idiocies are aplenty- but none can match the one where our hero revives his girlfriend using live electrical wires inside an elevator.

In case you’re wondering why we haven’t quite gotten to the werewolves yet, that’s because they only do make an appearance in the last 20 mins of the film. Owing to the film’s budget no doubt, we don’t get to see them until towards the end- which is fine for us had not their revelation turned out so awful. To disguise the fact that the rubbery suits the werewolves wear look absolutely horrendous, Nimziki uses a whole lot of shaky shots which frankly do little for the piss-poor action choreography and a lot to irritate the hell out of us.

Even more infuriating is the fact that the filmmakers obviously don’t know how to quit- so even as the end credits roll, we get some random footage of how the werewolves have reproduced in tremendous numbers across the globe, plunging the entire world into darkness and chaos. And if it hasn’t been clear till this point- unlike the very first ‘Howling’ movie, everything that happens here is meant to be taken seriously, which only confirms not only the ignorance of the people involved, but also their sheer arrogance.

There’s little doubt that the only reason this got made was because it seemed tantalising to do a ‘Twilight’ equivalent but with werewolves instead of vampires- but even if we try to overlook the fact that this is no more than a blatant cash-grab attempt, there is just nothing redeeming about the entire production. We dare say that even episodes of ‘Supernatural’ look better than this crap, which doesn’t so much as breathe new life into the ‘Howling’ franchise than suck what life there was left in it in the first place. 

Movie Rating:

(An awful attempt at aping the ‘Twilight’ franchise with werewolves, this supposed reboot of ‘The Howling’ qualifies as one of the worst films of the year)

Review by Gabriel Chong