| The Howling: New Moon Rising (1994) Dir: Clive Turner Cast: Clive Turner, John Ramsden, Jack Huff, Elizabeth She, Romy (Windsor) Walthall Rated R, Approx: 90 minutes New Line Cinema/Turner Home Entertainment |
| It's tough to even begin to review a movie such as this one, there's so much I want to say, there's much to talk about and I feel it my duty to warn each and everyone of you that Howling: New Moon Rising, is very much one of the worst, most embarassing movies ever made. Now some readers out there may be thinking that a bad movie in the Howling film cannon isn't such a new thing, but I disagree and implore you to reconsider. At least those films had a budget (sometimes a very small one), featured actors (okay, at times, some very bad ones) and were at least watchable, but hell I enjoyed all of them (except for this one). What seperates this film from all the other movies in the series is that this one was crafted on NO budget, has very few actors to speak of and is very much unwatchable. Getting through the entire running time without tapping the fast forward button isn't likely to happen this time folks, not only is this one a pretty rough sit, but realizing that this is a sixth string sequel to Joe Dante's awesome The Howling, is a rather depressing though. |
| Our story opens when a mysterious drifter by the name of Ted (writer, producer, director Clive Turner) rolls into the small California dust bowl called Pioneertown. Very little is known of Ted and as a series of gruesome murders plauge the small place, Ted becomes a suspect. Meanwhile, over in the next town, a grizzled, burnt out detective investigates the gruesome killings with the help of an occult expert who believes the murders are the work of a werewolf, and worse yet, fears that very soon, the creature will realize its full powers and begin to convert others into permanent lycanthropes. |
| Very much of the story is set in the real dwelling of Pioneertown, a small place inhabited by citizens who flock to the local bar for country line dancing (of which there is plenty in this film). What's rather curious about this film is the fact that multi-tasker Turner (who also co-wrote and appeared in Howling's IV and V), saw fit to set very much of the film around these very real people (these aren't actors and its painfully obvious, so bad in fact, you should never complain about a bad actor again!). What's actually more curious about this film is why Turner thought genre fans would give a shit about them in the least. So much of this clunker's run time is squandered away on tedious bar antics, bad joke telling and loads of horrendous country music and line dancing that not even the most hardcore werewolf fan could sit through this junk. It had been reported that Turner had so many disputes over the direction of the film that the original director (wisely) quit the project and wished his name removed from the film. It's clear from the finished product that Turner had been trying to fashion a film based around the real people living in Pioneertown, my question, is even with a miniscule budget, why do this with a Howling sequel? |
| For the die hard fans of the series, there is a laughably clumsy attempt to tie the past three sequels into this one. Flashabck footage is incorportaed into the film in an attempt to tell the stroy of one ultimate werewolf, but this fails miserable for several reasons. Through clumsy flashback footage, there's an attempt to make the character Turner played in part V, the same as his character in this film, the audience is supposed to go along with this ignoring both the fact that his name was then Ray and now Ted and also that 'Ray' died in that film (although that particular scene is omitted during the flashback). Even Howling V's Elizabeth She reprises her role in this one, but her part is also devoid of sense. Furthermore, (and most surprisingly), Howling IV's Romy Windsor pops up here reprising her character of Marie, but not only is she given precious little to do (tell of her experiences with werewolves, an excuse for more effects laden flashbacks-since our film is entirely without them this time), but the perposterous way in which she is connected makes absolutely no sense (something about her being under the influence of the wolf's evil). To add further insult to injury, during the flashbacks, the voiceover isn't even Romy's leading me to believe the filmmakers had Mrs. Windsor for probably all of two hours! If that weren't absurd enough, to believe that Marie would still be in the same state, living near the werewolf colony which she stumbled upon is implausable to the extreme! Toss in a brief throwaway line about the circus just leaving town (but still we forget that the werewolf in Howling VI was a good guy!), and you have a pathetic attempt to tie these movies together. What's especially insulting about Turner's film here is that the man assumes that no one remembers previous installments and misuses the footage for the purpose of making his piece of garbage film work better (it's goona take more tha some flashbacks to make New Moon Rising better Clive!). Seeing the footage used out of its proper context, within this film also does a great deal to hinder the dignity of the good sequels in the cannon, flashback footage hasn't been mishandled this poorly since the Corman flick Hard to Die tried to make footage from Slumber Party Massacre its own (there's also some quick werewolf attack footage lifted from part V used here during the murder sequences). It's a sneaky trick in my opinion and strips even more integrity away from an already devoid film. |
| Scored with an endless amount of annoying country-western music, this film is real hard to enjoy, unless it's country yokels you elike, particularly seeing them swill down beer after beer, this my friends isn't much of an exaggeration, that is primarily what you get with this one. Aside from the R & R of Pioneertown, the story which becomes more and more convoluted as it reaches its climax and the hilariously ineffective werewolf POV shots (which appears to be the film's negative with some red tint job added), we get the worst transformation scene in movie history: a quick morphing effect which is nothing short of embarassing, followed by ten seconds of a rubber looking wolf crashing through a door before it's shot down by off screen gunfire. |
| There's plenty more to carp about when discussing this film, I just choose not to ruin all of it for those of you adventerous enough to take a look. This is a horrible film, one that's a harsh sit even by Mystery Science Theatre standards (I loathe that show, but you people who think you're an extension of that show, just try having fun with this one, it will eat you alive), for there isn't much to make fun of. There's only so many jokes you can make about non actors spouting memorized lines with the clunkiest line deliverly I've ever heard, as for the creature glimpsed at this one's climax, you can laugh, but really, that one's way too easy. For the duration of the running time, we have tons of filler dialogue between the townsfolk, about 15 minutes worth of plot stretched across 90 minutes of movie, and of course, the aforementioned line dancing. This will probably hit fans of the series harder than anyone else, but this is a movie I firmly believe everybody reading this should watch at least once. Something that truly needs to be seen to be believed, it's getting one star from me because it needs to be watched...once. |
| Shockingly enough, there have been rumors of a Howling 8 going before the cameras real soon, if this seventh entry in the series wasn't enough to kill the franchise, perhaps nothing can, one just hopes Clive Turner will no longer be involved! |
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| Matt's Rating: * (out of 5) |
| Reviewed by Matt Serafini 06/05/02 |