Howling VI: The Freaks (1991)

"Vampire Vs Werewolf. The ultimate clash of the forces of evil"

Plot

Drifter Ian Richards arrives in a small town and is taken in by the local preacher and his daughter. His appearance coincides with the arrival of a carnival and freak show. It turns out that the owner of the freak show is actually a vampire and he placed a curse on Richards' family years ago. Whenever there is a full moon, Richards turns into a werewolf. Harker, the carnival ringmaster, now wants to enslave him into his freak show.

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Between 1985 and 1989, four progressively cheaper Howling sequels were churned out, each with varying levels of quality, though most without any distinguishing features save for their ever-deepening levels awfulness. By doing so, the series had transformed itself into one of the worst horror franchises ever made. With a small break in production after Howling V: The Rebirth, a miracle happened to the series – the addition of Howling VI: The Freaks, arguably the best sequel of the entire bunch. And I think there's a good reason for that - neither director Phillipe Mora (who was behind Howling II and Howling III) nor writer and producer Clive Turner (who had been involved directly in Howling IV: The Original Nightmare and Howling V: The Rebirth) were anywhere near this instalment and it shows. Whilst Howling VI: The Freaks isn't necessarily a great film, it is a great film in comparison with what had come since the original The Howling.

Having viewed the previous instalments, and feeling someone walking over my grave whilst I type this, I was expecting this fifth sequel to be the worst film ever. Seriously, the franchise couldn’t really have gotten any lower. But what we get with Howling VI: The Freaks is a far cry from the other sequels. Sure its not without its problems but Howling VI: The Freaks isn’t just another rehash of the same tired plot about someone going somewhere remote and uncovering a group of werewolves living together. This one has new, fresh ideas and for the most part, they work. Like the later Hellraiser sequels, it may be the case that this started as a stand alone werewolf film and the producers decided to slap the Howling moniker onto it to make a bit more money. The setup involving the carnival and the 'freaks' reminds me of one of the episodes of The X-Files and strangely enough, this whole film has that kind of strange, ethereal vibe to it. The pairing up of the freakshow with lycanthropy and all of the torment and grief that contains is a natural one.

Building a better film from the ground up involved constructing a decent story and that’s the first thing you’ll notice here. The script actually has some purpose and an end goal in sight to channel the direction of the narrative towards the inevitable climax. The characters are given priority here and are allowed to develop so that we come to sympathise or hate them. Keeping the focus of the film onto a handful of characters, the narrative is able to move forward in a logic and coherent manner – unlike some of the earlier sequels, there are no masses of sub-plots fighting over screen time. At a lengthy one-hundred minutes, Howling VI: The Freaks has time to breathe some life into its thinly-sketched characters, even if the film does overstay its welcome a tad and could have been clipped by about ten minutes. It really is the first time since the original that there have been some interesting and engaging characters for us to follow and makes a nice change.

Brendan Hughes gives a good account of himself as Ian Richards as does the lovely Michele Matheson. Although a bit bland in a one-note role, she at least has some doe-eyed innocence and likeability to her character, though the romantic sub-plot never actually goes anywhere. It’s the criminally underrated Bruce Payne who steals the show as Harker, the freak show master. He looks downright creepy and has a very eerie voice (British bad guys are the best!), delivering some excellent lines and making for a highly dangerous villain. He has a presence and charisma which oozes off the screen and would go on to bigger and better villain roles in the likes of Passenger 57 and Dungeons & Dragons. I still wish we'd have seen more of him in bigger films over the years as he's got 'it' in buckets. There's a good supporting cast of characters all the way from the sheriff (Carlos Cervantes, a go-to guy if you wanted a Hispanic villain in the 80s and 90s) to the assorted 'freaks' in the carnival including Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear from the Starsky and Hutch TV show) and Deep Roy (the guy who played the Oompa Loompas in Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

One of the main issues that people tend to have with the sequels is their lack of monster screen time. This is still the case with Howling VI: The Freaks as the werewolf and vampire moments are few and far between, mainly confined to the final third as both Richards and Harker reveal their true nature. When you eventually see the special effects, you can see why the characters were given so much focus. The transformation scenes are very watered down and some of the make-up doesn't look particularly convincing – but it’s an almighty improvement over the last few films. At least the monsters in this one look scary enough, not like the daft warped cartoon characters of Howling III or the angry dogs from Howling IV: The Original Nightmare. The werewolf here has been given that retro Wolfman look rather than a full-on snarling beast whilst the vampire is more Nosferatu with shiny blue head than a Lugosi/Lee suave and sophisticated gentleman. Sadly, there's not enough confrontation between the two to make all of the build-up and back story worth it - even the final shots of the film just suddenly end without tying up a few loose ends (hello romantic subplot?) which is a bit unfulfilling.

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Final Verdict

For a Howling sequel, this is excellent stuff by default alone, though werewolf lovers are better off getting their hairy fix elsewhere. The direction is a bit bland at times, it's a bit too long for it's own good and there's a distinct lack of werewolf action, giving you a feeling that there was untapped potential with a bit more refining in pre-production. But Howling VI: The Freaks is the best of the sequels by a long shot and it's a solid, if undemanding way to spend some time in front of the screen and would have worked better if it ditched the Howling moniker and had gone on its own - it wouldn't have had the excess baggage to carry with it.

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Howling VI: The Freaks Director(s): Hope Perello Writer(s): Gary Brandner (based on a series of books "The Howling I, II & III" by), Kevin Rock (screenplay by) Actor(s): Brendan Hughes, Michele Matheson, Sean Sullivan, Antonio Fargas, Carol Lynley, Jered Barclay, Bruce Payne, Gary Carlos Cervantes Duration: 100 mins