Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988)

"A terrifying journey into the gaping jaws of death..."

Plot

When she starts having weird hallucinations, writer Marie Adams and her husband head off to stay at a cottage in the remote village of Drago. However, her hallucinations get worse as she comes to suspect that everyone in town is actually a werewolf.

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I don't know how. It seemed impossible. But this third sequel to The Howling is actually worse than the previous two sequels by a long way and that in itself is a big task. I’m not quite sure how I even managed to make it this far into the series without giving up but I’m a completist and like to make sure I’ve given franchises a fair crack. Call it insanity if you like but there’s always hope that franchises pick themselves up, dust themselves off after a stinker and get back to what they do best. Booting out Phillippe Mora, who had helmed the previous two camp instalments, seemed like a good start for Howling IV: The Original Nightmare which appeared to want to head back to genuinely straightforward horror.

A troubled production from the offshoot, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is the resultant mess. Writer and co-producer, Clive Turner, was originally supposed to direct this, but when the original financiers pulled out, the new financiers had to get veteran horror director John Hough (Twins of Evil amongst his credits) to replace him at the last minute with what money remained. Apparently the budget was so low, they had to film without sound and dub it all in during post-production. Hough said there wasn't a script ready when he was supposed to begin shooting and was basically sent notes and messages from writer Freddie Rowe (who many believe was actually Turner). When Hough finished his shoot and turned in his version of the film, Turner then went off and shot tons of new material and edited the film how he wanted it. Which all beggars the question as to why Turner just didn't suck it up and direct to begin with? Maybe he knew what barbecued dog hair he was about to unleash upon the world.

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is basically a soft remake of the original with two people heading to somewhere remote and stumbling upon a population of werewolves and is apparently more faithful to Guy Brander's original novel than The Howling was. But just because it’s a more faithful adaptation doesn’t mean to say that it’s any better as a result and in fact the opposite is true. I guess this is where the creative licence of Joe Dante came in handy to spruce up the material and make it a little more exciting in The Howling. Though I think he understood the basic necessity to feature a werewolf in a film about werewolves: the writers of this one have seemingly forgotten even that saving grace. It seems that the story has been sucked dry of anything even remotely interesting. I’ve said it before in other reviews but the cardinal sin a film can make is that it is boring and Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is a prime example of how to fill seventy minutes of nothing. The film does attempt to create some mystery but guess what? We know that it’s a film about werewolves so the whole angle is a bit of a waste of time because we know what the eventual outcome is going to be.

There is hardly a werewolf in sight (not counting the chest hair of one of the actors) with the exception of the poor finale when the werewolf angle is wheeled out for token screen time. Even here, the werewolves are either a bunch of actors dressed up in shoddy, cheap werewolf fancy dress costumes or simply normal dogs with red gleams added to their eyes. The best scene of the film involves an unsettling pre-werewolf transformation as one unlucky guy simply melts into a puddle of human goo. It’s a great effect, deserving of a much better platform, but in a film about werewolves, it’s not really that relevant. You'd have expect to see it in something like The Stuff or The Blob.

Devoid of any action or excitement, a flawed pace and no style whatsoever, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is even badly made from a technical standpoint with continuity errors, poor lighting and the aforementioned awful post-production sound. The colours are all drab and washed-out and there's no life to any of the sets or filming locations. Is it that difficult to make a bit of an effort and create some atmosphere using the cinematic tools at your disposal? Not forgetting the almighty mullet that Michael T. Weiss sports, a definite symbol of its 80s time. These are mere side distractions though and the bottom line is that there is nothing here, quite literally.

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Final Verdict

Do not watch Howling IV: The Original Nightmare. Do not watch it at any cost. Pretend it didn't happen. Even if you have a burning desire to watch all of The Howling films, avoid this at all cost and pretend that they just got their Roman numerals mixed up. Clive Turner wrote further instalments in this franchise so I can't wait to engage with them because if he's the one who has creative control, there's no wonder this is commonly heralded as one of the worst horror franchises to exist.

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Howling IV: The Original Nightmare Director(s): John Hough Writer(s): Gary Brandner (based on the novels "The Howling I, II, & III" by), Clive Turner (story by), Freddie Rowe (screenplay by) Actor(s): Romy Walthall, Michael T. Weiss, Antony Hamilton, Susanne Severeid, Lamya Derval, Norman Anstey, Maxine John, Greg Latter Duration: 92 mins