(Director: Joe Nimziki, who co-wrote the screenplay with James Robert Johnston, billed as James Johnston, barely based on Gary Brandner’s 1978 novel The Howling II.)
Storyline
A high school student discovers he’s a lycanthrope just as other werewolves converge on him and his girlfriend.
Review
When a popular, aggressive girl invites high school senior Will Kidman (Landon Liboiron) to a party, his life is irrevocably changed. The girl, Eliana Wynter (Lindsey Shaw, billed as Lindsey Marie Shaw), runs with a pack of adolescent thugs, many of whom menace book-nerdy Will. After he is stalked at the party by a wild animal and escapes uninjured, secrets about his dead mother, Kay (Ivana Milicevic, CHILDREN OF THE CORN III: URBAN HARVEST, 1995), are revealed, threatening his future as well as the lives of those he cares about.
This eighth HOWLING entry is solid, with sketched, likeable or loathe-worthy characters, good FX, mostly fast-paced writing and a strong, quirky B-movie sensibility. Yes, some of its characters’ backstories could have been better developed─e.g., Kay’s contentious relationship with Will’s father, Jack (Frank Schorpion, PET SEMATARY, 2019), and a few less scenes with melancholic pop songs (including Gus Black’s slowed-down cover of Blue Öyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper”) might’ve improved said scenes. That said, these are minor complaints. If you keep your expectations low─not THE HOWLING: NEW MOON RISING (1995) low─but moderate nonetheless, this might be a worthwhile, unmemorable flick for just-before-bed viewing.
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