HOWLING V: THE REBIRTH (1989)

 

(Director: Neal Sundstrom, billed as Neal Sundström. Screenplay by Clive Turner and Freddy Rowe, billed as “based on” Gary Brandner’s The Howling trilogy, but it’s not.)

Storyline

While visiting a Hungarian castle, strangers discover they have a werewolf in their midst.

 

Review

Budapest, 1489.  A family, living in a castle, are slain at their dinner table by a couple who kill themselves afterward─just as they discover a baby survived the slaughter.

 Five hundred years later, Count Istvan invites eight strangers to the reopening of his castle. The guests include: former rock star Ray Price (Clive Turner); a distracted Professor Dawson; movie star Anna Stenson; photographer David Gillespie; songwriter Gail Cameron; tennis player Jonathan Lane; playboy Richard Hamilton; and a ditzy, aspiring actress Marylou Summers.

Shortly after they arrive at the snowy abode, Professor Dawson tells Marylou, a loud American, about wolf packs that preyed on local townsfolk a thousand years prior─these packs were, still are, said to be led by a lycanthropic Satan. About the time that happened, the castle’s construction was finished before being abandoned for unknown reasons.

Things quickly go sideways for the guests. Dawson disappears. Count Istvan─who recounted the 1489-slaughter tale to them over breakfast─tells the others Dawson left, without saying anything more about it. It’s clear he’s hiding something. And a fierce winter storm has trapped them in the castle.

Flirtations, sex, more deaths, suspicion, and allegiance-switching occur. Eventually, the reasons for their invitations become clear. The identity of the killer and the ending, not unexpected, are solid.

This campy, supranatural take on Agatha Christie’s 1940 novel And Then There Were None has good, character-interesting moments in it. Unfortunately, REBIRTH runs long in the middle before picking up near the end.

REBIRTH’s players are mostly solid. Some of the characters are off-putting, but that seems intentional. Solid performances include: Phil Davis (ALIEN 3, 1992) as Count Istvan; Nigel Triffitt as Professor Dawson; Elizabeth Shé (HOWLING VI: THE FREAKS, 1991) as Marylou Summers; Mark Sivertson (VAMPIRES, 1998) as Jonathan Hammet; Victoria Catlin (MANIAC COP, 1988) as Dr. Catherine Peake; William Shockley (SHOWGIRLS, 1995) as Richard Hamilton; Stephanie Faulkner (J.D.’S REVENGE, 1976) as the no-nonsense Gail Cameron.

The FX are not great but, given REBIRTH’s limited budget, are worthwhile─the werewolf itself gets a few seconds of screen time, so if you’re looking for good werecreature footage, skip this one (I appreciate that the producers didn’t foist a crappy-looking shapeshifter on REBIRTH’s viewers).  The violence is mostly off-screen, with torn-out throats seen post-assault.

REBIRTH is an uneven film. Its storyline, its atmosphere, its players, and some of its early scenes are promising, but its overlong running time leads to some dull moments. It’s still more entertaining and amusing (intentionally so) than its predecessor (HOWLING IV: THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE, 1988) but I’d suggest that only franchise completists and core genre fans spend time on this fifth outing.