The Howling Reborn might not be that good of a film but it’s far better than most of the direct-to-video flicks that have been released in the last few years. The acting is decent, the direction adequately average and the story, albeit predictable, was at least engaging. I can’t say I’m excited to see where this franchise goes from here but it’s a good start.
The Howling Reborn (2011)
REVIEW NAVIGATION
The Movie | Special Features | Video Quality | Audio Quality | Overall
Genre(s): Horror, Thriller
Anchor Bay | R – 92 min. – $29.97 | October 18, 2011
MOVIE INFO:
Directed by: Joe Nimziki
Writer(s): Joe Nimziki and James Robert Johnston (written by)
Cast: Lindsey Shaw, Landon Liboiron, Ivana Milicevic
DISC INFO:
Features: Commentary, Featurette, Storyboard Gallery
Number of Discs: 1
Audio: English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1)
Video: 1080p/Widescreen 1.78
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Region(s): A
THE MOVIE – 3.0/5
It’s no surprise that Hollywood has run out of ideas so they’ve turned to the tried and true practices of remaking “old” movies and when the word “remake” became a bad word, it was turned into reboots or in some cases, re-imagining. This goes beyond feature films and has come to television with such shows as “Hawaii Five-O” (which is actually a decent show) and “Charlie’s Angels” (it was cancelled at the time of this review). Horror movies are probably the most susceptible to being remade since they’re generally cheap to make, usually star relative unknowns and have a rookie director; one needs to only point to Friday the 13th, Halloween, Last House on the Left and many others to see that the industry plays it safe.
The latest is, as the back cover states, a reboot of a series that began in 1981 and ended in 1995 after 5 sequels. Now in 2011 we get The Howling Reborn which starts the franchise afresh.
The film centers on a high school freshman Will Kidman (LANDON LIBOIRON), an angst-filled teen – not surprising since, as the film opened, his mother was killed by a werewolf while he was in the womb – who is nearing graduation and has had a crush on hottie Eliana Wynter (LINDSEY SHAW) throughout high school but she barely noticed him… until one day after her boyfriend has had enough of Will leering at his girl. She stops by after the boyfriend ruffs him up and checks out his sketch book which contains only sketches of her. Instead of being creeped out by this, she instead has sudden interest in Will for whatever reason and soon enough they start hanging out where sparks fly! Teen angst wins again!
This all happens just when Will discovers he has something inside of him that he can’t explain and using the cinematic expertise of best friend, and comic relief who will most certainly die, Sachin (JESSE RATH) to find out what the signs are one is a werewolf, one being immediate healing after getting injured to which Will got the bright idea to cut his wrist as Sachin watches. Well, he does heel up and then runs into some bad dudes who go to the same school as well as a mysterious woman named Kathryn (IVANA MILLCEVIC) who has a connection to Will’s past and a scheme that could destroy humanity as we know it.
When the Blu-ray arrived on my doorstep, I honestly wasn’t looking forward to watching this film mainly because I don’t have a high opinion of the onslaught of the werewolf and vampire movies that have mutated out of the Twilight movies. However, The Howling Reborn, while not great, was at least semi-entertaining. The film has a pretty good production value, an adequate creature design (of course, most of it takes place in the dark to hide any flaws) and at least a decent cast to carry the movie.
Speaking of which, I was impressed with Landon Liboiron as the main character but found myself more intrigued by Lindsey Shaw (who actually got top billing). She hasn’t appeared in a whole lot with her biggest role was on the ABC Family series, “10 Things I Hate About You”, but here she provided enough mystery and intrigued that it was at least believable that A. our main character would be fascinated with her and B. that she would actually go for the guy; meaning, their chemistry at least came off as authentic and not driven by something that would look good on a magazine cover or movie poster.
The Howling Reborn was helmed by Joe Nimziki (he also served as the writer) in his feature film directorial debut, though he does have a 1997 episode from “The Outer Limits” officially to his name. His direction technique isn’t anything special with your typical blocking, two camera shots that you would see on television, not that there’s anything wrong with that, just serves for mundane direction. In the credits, James Johnston was the co-writer in some fashion (maybe brought in by the studio), I only bring his name up as he wrote a awful direct-to-video sequel, Joy Ride 2.
This reboot – probably created to ride the Twilight franchise coattails – is actually a semi-entertaining flick. Sure, the make-up effects when we do get to see the werewolves isn’t the best, but it’s certainly more than adequate given the smaller budget but the cast at least did a good job with their roles and the story itself seemed fresh and at least a fine start for a new Howling franchise.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.25/5
Feature Commentary – Writer/Director Joe Nimziki and Actress Lindsey Shaw provide a low key, but informative, commentary track offering perspectives from both the performance side and behind the camera side as well.
The Making of The Howling Reborn (29:57; HD) – This is a pretty standard making-of featurette where we get scenes from the movie in between interview sound bites as they explain the movie and behind-the-scenes footage. It’s not a bad featurette as they do go through the process of making the film from the script reading with the cast to the actual filming.
Storyboard Gallery – Here you can check out different storyboards from the film.
Previews – A Terrible Way to Die, Super Hybrid and Bereavement
VIDEO – 4.25/5
The video transfer for The Howling Reborn is surprisingly strong with good detail levels for the close-ups and even background objects are very clear. The dark levels also are excellent without looking crushed and still being able to see what’s going on during those scenes, although some of it is hidden probably to cover-up cheaper make-up effects or costume work. However, this isn’t exactly the type of film that pops off the screen but is still a solid transfer.
AUDIO – 4.25/5
The disc comes with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track which gets the job done featuring the occasional werewolf growls, crisp and clear dialogue levels, off-screen ambient noises and showing off the tween rock soundtrack.
OVERALL – 3.0/5
Overall, The Howling Reborn might not be that good of a film but it’s far better than most of the direct-to-video flicks that have been released in the last few years. The acting is decent, the direction adequately average and the story, albeit predictable, was at least engaging. I can’t say I’m excited to see where this franchise goes from here but it’s a good start.
Brian Oliver, The Movieman
Published: 10/11/2011
Check out some more screen caps by going to page 2.