The Howling: Reborn (2011) Reviews

• What was I thinking?

  Bret_Allen2011-10-08

  Where should I start? There is just so much to hate about this lame duck, that it is hard to pick what to speak about first. The Howling: Reborn... If this is the "rebirth" of the franchise, it should have been aborted before it was filmed. The story line was ridiculous. Eighteen years and just now he is turning? The makeup was terrible. The "werewolves" looked more like were-rats. Hairy arms and legs with a hairless torso does not a werewolf make, in my opinion. The main character's love interest goes back and forth between wanting to be a werewolf and wanting to kill them all; within 5 minutes. The main character whom is supposed to be a newly eighteen year old man acts more like a wimp than a lycanthrope, more like a school girl with a skinned knee than a fearsome werewolf. He should have been an emo, sparkling vampire instead. The special effects are anything but, and the acting left much to be desired, although I suppose that the actors did their best with the horrendous script that they were given. The only halfway saving grace is the mother. I feel that she did a great job, and even she was more of a man than the main character. All in all a terrible waste of time. I wish that I could have the hour and a half of my life back.

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• So many holes in the story

  ilvevh2011-10-15

  Who ever edited this film must have been high. At one stage it's like they accidentally cut out 1/5th of the movie and forgot to put it back in. It jumps ahead and never goes back, no explanation and no follow through. *spoiler* I was real disappointed when Will was attempting to test if he really was a Werewolf in the Hospital. He slices his wrist in front of his friend. When it appeared the test had failed, his friend runs to get a nurse; while this is going on the would heals itself. You think oh this could get interesting, or at least cool when the friend comes back and finds his friend really is a Werewolf, but no, immediately after the wound heals the entire storyline just fast-forwards to hours later. We don't even see the friend again until the end of the movie. Also while Will is in the hospital a woman tries to hook up with his father which he declines, but then after the Werewolf test and the entire movie fast-forwards the father is suddenly on a date with the woman. The main female character starts off the movie as a confident, mysterious, strong woman - yet somehow half way through the movie she turns into a 14 year old girl. Her character changed so much, with no explanation it may as well have been a different person. In total the entire movie was just a complete disappointment. I had extremely low expectations and just thought I could be somewhat entertained for an hour and a half, but there were too many holes in the story. Incredibly bad editing, painfully bad graphics and a poor story line. Don't waste your time.

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• Shallow

  melissa-1832011-10-19

  I like the concept (myth) of werewolves and some movies showed it's possible to create an exciting and/or interesting story around them (like American Werewolf in London, Dog Soldiers and even Ginger Snaps). Unfortunately this movie is far from interesting. The acting is quite OK but somehow you find yourself not caring for the main characters. It's not such a big deal the special effects aren't that great but I've never 'seen' werewolves this ugly! They're just laughable. The story is about Will and he is in fact a werewolf but doesn't know, his father prevents Will from becoming one by medication (silver nitrate - what must be poison to a normal werewolf and has no effect on a Alfawerwolf, so how is this helping him?). Somehow the father knew about his werewolf son and apparently Will never wonders why he's taking pills. The beginning of the movie is quite OK but then Will finds out he is a werewolf. He's being chased by something that growls and discovers he doesn't need his glasses anymore (so of course, then you must be a werewolf). After that everything goes further down hill. The story becomes ridiculous and overdone. The dialogs are empty, way to many plot holes, useless scenes, dumb werewolves and not a plot, just holes. **spoilers** The shy and nerdy Will suddenly becomes a good looking super hero, saving the world from ugly werewolves with his pretty girlfriend by his side. In 'human form' these werewolves (including many scenes) reminded me a lot of the vampires from Twilight. The intimate scenes between Will and his girlfriend are sparkless and forged. At the end there is a happy graduation party while a school kid just died, the basement is full of (some dead) bodies and the school is infested by werewolves. Nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems missing. To many plot holes and shallow scenes to count...A very bad script.

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• Lame Movie, Awful Music Score

  claudio_carvalho2012-10-26

  In the Shermer High School, the teenager Will Kidman (Landon Liboiron) is bullied by his school mate Roland (Niels Schneider). Will lost his mother when he was born and he lives alone with his father Jack Kidman (Frank Schorpion). Will's best friend is the aspirant horror film director Sachin (Jesse Rath) and he dreams on his mysterious school mate Eliana Wynter (Lindsey Marie Shaw), for whom he has yearned for a long time. On his eighteenth birthday and eve of his graduation day, Will is invited to go to an underground party and he stays with Eliana. Will is drugged by a colleague and he has the sensation that a werewolf attacked people in the party. Out of the blue, Will gets stronger and stronger and he suspects that he might be a werewolf. When the evil Kay (Ivana Milicevic) meets Will at school, he learns dark secrets about his past and finds that Eliana might be in danger. "The Howling: Reborn" is a lame movie, with a terrible story with many holes, poor special effects and acting and awful music score. Eliana is a strange character that seems to be strong in the beginning but totally changes her behavior. Will is unstable, and does not seem to know what he wants. Further, he never misses or grieves the deaths of his father and his best friend. A question: why he turns into a werewolf only when he is eighteen? Last but not the least, people are murdered, the school is burnt down but there is no consequence. My vote is three. Title (Brazil): "Gritos de Horror – O Renascimento" ("Screams of Horror – The Rebirth")

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• Not bad!

  SolitaryHowl2012-03-18

  I found this movie to be pretty enjoyable and I don't like the Twilight series. I don't know why it got poor reviews, sure the plot has a few minor holes and it fast-forwards at one point, but really, I thought the fast-forward was a good idea. It was obvious to the viewers what the friend's reaction would be, and the nurse would write it off as a practical joke, so there was no reason why that scene had to be extended. I found the werewolves to be good looking, actually, and its rather good special effects for a low-budget movie...I've seen worse! The soundtrack was forgettable, but I found it didn't really need a soundtrack anyways. The movie could have been better with the scares, but it had more of a creepy tone to it, though, which I like. I found the plot to be somewhat dry and overused, but some points were rather unique (I never saw the original Howling movies). The acting wasn't bad, neither was the character development. All in all, if you're a werewolf fan and you don't mind watching a low-budget movie, then I'd recommend this to you.

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