The Howling series gets a bad rap

[thedamnedthing]

Honestly, I actually think the majority of the movies in the series are pretty decent. Even the bad ones have some redeeming factors (mostly).

You've got the original, which is the second best werewolf movie of all time, and one of the top 20 horror movies of all time, too. 9/10.

Then you've got Your Sister is a Werewolf, one of the worst movies of all time, of any genre, but fucking hilarious, and consistently entertaining. 2/10 as a horror, 9/10 as a comedy.

Then you've got The Marsupials, which is...uh, unique. So that's something, it's a goddamn mess, but at least they had some imagination with it, and it also provides some entertainment just because of how off-the-wall it is. 4/10

Then there's The Original Nightmare, which I feel actually works as a decent little mystery/thriller. The story is pretty engaging, and there's some good atmosphere. 5/10

Then there's The Rebirth, the best of the sequels. Actually a pretty cool horror flick. Suspenseful, atmospheric, great setting and a cool story-line. First time I watched it, it actually had me on the edge a bit, and made me jump a couple of times. 7/10

The Freaks has a plot that's just B-movie gold. It's competently made, original and entertaining. Plus Bruce Payne kicks the asses. 6/10

The only irredeemably bad movie of the series is New Moon Rising, which is one of the top 5 worst movies ever made of all time. Ever. Fuck, I hate that movie. 0/10

I think the sequels get so much shit because none even come near the quality of the original, and they don't follow any common story-line (that makes any sense, at least). But if you just view them as individual horror/werewolf movies, and keep your expectations low, I think most of them worth-while.

[keywolf]

I actually mostly agree with you, albeit a few points less for most of the sequels. Except that I hated the Marsupials. Dame Edna? Seriously?
And I have yet to see The Rebirth, as it's so hard to find I'm starting to doubt it's existence.

[dedwyre]

Jun 25, 2008 12:04:01 GMT -5 keywolf said:

And I have yet to see The Rebirth, as it's so hard to find I'm starting to doubt it's existence.

I saw this set at Wal-Mart once:
www.amazon.com/Howling-Beast-Returns-V-Rebirth/dp/B000IJ79TS/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1214430770&sr=1-3

I don't know if they have it in PAL format, though.

[thedamnedthing]

The Rebirth/The Freaks double disc is OOP, I think. I have it, though. Good set.

[Marcus]

The sequals were just such a let down, running off the original's name.

Even when they tried to in effect remake the original story about a town full of werewolves, they didn't do that good a job of it.

Yes, I suppose if you look at each film as a stand alone, and remove it from teh howling set than some of them are not complately horrible to watch.

Though you'll never convince me that howling 2 is funny. It's just bad.

[Werewolf]

I haven't seen the rebirth either. I wonder if there's somewhere online to download it.

[sabertooth]

The should remake The Howling series!!!!!!!

[Werewolf]

Well maybe the later ones but not the first one. The eddie transformation scene is too good to be remade.

[sabertooth]

Howling 2 was pretty bad.

[Marcus]

Nothing pretty about it. It was just bad bad bad!

[Nyctivoe]

I share your love for Freaks. Sure, the make-up made the guy look more like an undead chimp than a wolf, but hell, I liked the purple Byronic vampire, I liked the alligator boy, and Ian actually was a sympathetic character (such as refusing to eat the gator boy's kitty). I would have loved to seen a sequel to this one, considering gator boy was bitten by a werewolf AND a vampire at the end.

[keywolf]

I've finally seen Howling 5, the only one I hadn't seen. It's been a while since I saw a Howling sequel and had forgotten how awful they can be, but for some reason I was expecting myself to like this one. I didn't. Depressingly I'd still put it near the top of the list tho:

The Howling (9/10)
The Howling 6: The Freakshow (5/10)
The Howling 5: The Murder Mystery (5/10)
The Howling 4: The Remake (4/10)
The Howling 2: My Sister is a Bitch (2/10)
The Howling 3: The Wombats (2/10)
The Howling 7: There's Dirt in My Chili (1/10)

[Kavik]

I still haven't seen Howling 7: The Line-Dancing, but I've enjoyed all the others. They're all good for at least one viewing, and Sibyll Danning as Stirba may be responsible for the idea that werewolves can be sexy.

[ArcLight]

What? Elisabeth Brooks as Marsha in the first one didn't do it for you?

[mau]

The only sequals I've seen are Howling III and New Moon Rising.
And I watched New Moon Rising because it had a cool cover and title. Bleh! If you like country ho downs, you may enjoy this. Heck, I think my grandmother enjoyed it more than I did, I could've fallen asleep watching it. The only thing exciting about it was the VERY end of the movie where the werewolf jumps out of no where. You wait for the whole movie to see the werewolf, and then boom there it is, and then the end credits. 0/10. I couldn't watch this again if you paid me to! (Well...maybe if you gave me a million dollars. XD)

The Marsupials was original and I didn't think it was that bad. It was more emotional than a horror movie though. I'd have to watch it again to give a proper rating.

The original howling was great, I didn't like that one female werewolf though because she stole away the main character's husband and I for one do not condone infidelity. However, she was an excellent villian. I loved how everyone turned out to be a werewolf, even the people the girl trusted, and she became a werewolf at the very end. I wish she didn't die though, they could've done something with her in the second movie.

I'm tempted to watch the other movies, hearing how horrible the second one is makes me want to see how horrible it is for myself.