HOWLING IV: THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE (1988)

 

(Directors: John Hough and an uncredited Clive Turner. Screenplay by Clive Turner and Freddy Rowe, based on Gary Brandner’s The Howling trilogy.)

Storyline

A bestselling author and her husband head to the small town of Drago so she can recover from a mental breakdown, unaware it’s den of werewolves.

 

Review

HOWLING IV is essentially a remake of THE HOWLING (1981). Curiously, this fourth franchise entry is a more faithful adaptation of Gary Brandner’s 1977 novel of the same name.

This time out, it’s a bestselling author, Marie Adams (Romy Windsor, THE HOWLING: NEW MOON RISING, 1997), who has a mental breakdown─she sees visions of a nun who keeps trying to warn her about something, but Marie can’t tell what. Her husband, Richard (Michael T. Weiss, FREEWAY, 1996), suggests they go to a quiet, secluded mountain town he was told about, where Marie can rehabilitate. The town is Drago, the site of lycanthropic happenings in the first film.

At first, it seems close-knit and homey, if gossipy. Night after night, Marie hears “sinister” howls, which people say they don’t hear, or dismiss as coyotes. Marie’s nun-visions occur more often, each successive appearance showing the nun to be more frantic, making Marie, who feels increasingly alone, more neurotic, further driving away her moody, jealous husband. The presence of a flirtatious local artist, Eleanor (replacing the character of Marsha Quist from the first film), does not help Marie’s state of mind─Eleanor clearly has designs on Michael, who’s on shaky ground as far as marital fidelity goes.

Director John Hough (THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE, 1973) has stated in interviews that HOWLING IV is not his work. He was constantly at odds with producer/screenwriter/uncredited director Clive Turner, who undercut Hough’s authority by constantly changing the script, not letting Hough meet co-screenwriter Freddy Rowe (whom Hough believes is a fictional person created by Turner) and other trickery. Once Hough delivered the finished film to Turner, Hough said the producer─who also has a cameo as “Tow Truck Driver”─shot more scenes and drastically recut the film, the version that was released.

It may be for the best for Hough that he can disavow this flick. While it’s mostly solid story-wise (aside from those weird nun-visions and how the werewolves fear the bell tower), its ultra-low budget goes a long way toward ruining it. It was shot without sound, with audio dubbed in post-production, and its uneven sound quality reflects that. It also lacks suspense (a good soundtrack would have helped) and there are a few instances of questionable editing. Its FX (melting-puddle werewolves?) are laughable─according to FX artist Steve Johnson who worked on the film, the FX team’s creative hands were tied by Turner and HOWLING IV’s financial constraints.

Normally, I would not criticize a film for its limited budget, but given some of the unnecessary scenes and other questionable creative choices made in the film, HOWLING IV could have better used its resources to deliver an improved movie─I’ve seen other filmmakers do it, why not Turner and (possibly) company?

Two of HOWLING IV ‘s other horror-notable actors: Susanne Severeid (DON’T ANSWER THE PHONE, 1980) as Janice, a friendly visitor with secrets; Lamya Derval (HELLHOLE, 1985) as Eleanor, Michael’s temptress artist.

Can you skip this one? Absolutely.