Howling V: The Rebirth (1989)

the leading man is my tpye

just watch it!

Best movie of this year hands down!

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Finally someone has the cajones to put werewolves in a castle and initiate murder mystery slasher mode. My god, how did it take till 1989 to kick this into gear? And what fun we have here!At least in terms of a C-movie eclectic character cast and some cool castle cinematography. This is a murder mystery where you don't really care about the reveal, and you know it's a werewolf anyway so the why isn't important. It's also a slasher where there's not much bloodletting or fun. It lies somewhere flatly in-between these two genres that share so much in common and yet can't meet a happy middle ground.

"Howling V: The Rebirth" was to my knowledge never released in Holland on VHS back in the days. To this day, it's also never released on DVD which is strange, considering most sequels were released like III, IV and even VI. After viewing Part V, it's no longer a mystery: it has to be the worst of all. "The Howling" has something in common with another horror classic, "The Amityville Horror". They both spawned a lot of cheap sequels which had nothing to do with the original story. At least "Howling II" was a guilty-pleasure for me, so bad's it's actually entertaining. At least there were some gory effects in there. "Howling III" (from Part II director Phillip Mora) was awful. "Howling IV" was even worse besides a couple of good special effects from Steve Johnson. So how bad could Part V be compared to those ? "Howling V" is the cheapest one, the location is for 90% a boring castle in Hungary. The cast is terrible and there are no werewolves on the screen. Wait a minute ? No werewolves in a "Howling" movie ?? That's right, there was apparently no money for any effects. Instead we get a dull "who's the killer" story. The game "Clue" in a castle. No thrills, no excitement, no laughs. Very hard to sit through. "Howling V: The Rebirth" is a cheap and awful mess which doesn't live up to his title. On the original "The Howling" DVD there's an interesting interview with director Joe Dante. He doesn't like any of the sequels either. But any "Howling" sequel before this one is at least better than this mess. Avoid, you've been warned..

With this one, I've finally watched all the HOWLING sequels. I can see why people actually like this 5th installment, as it does try to do something else with the werewolf concept. It plays out like a whodunit-slasher, set on one imaginative location (a Hungarian castle setting). Yet still, when you have to judge it on its own terms and nature, it falls short at the end of the ride. There's too little of the mystery-plot to enjoy (not enough red herrings, no twists worth mentioning and the killer/werewolf could just be anybody really - it's no fun to think along with the plot as there is not much to think about and no real puzzles to be solved). All the actual kills sadly happen off-screen (only ripped throats are shown after the events). We don't get to see much of the werewolf (only some brief glimpses during the attacks) and the film does not feature a transformation-scene (which I was so hoping for to happen during the conclusion). It's even lacking a decent climax of sorts. The acting is strictly so-so, provided by a cast compiled out of unfamiliar names (at least to me they were). The small bits of humor injected into some of the dialogues, didn't really pay off. Fortunately they weren't too distracting. As far as cinematography goes, I only found the special effect shots, of the exterior of the castle during a snow storm, to be enjoyable. The interior sets of the castle chambers, dungeons and corridors looked a little cheap. But that can be forgiven, due to the movie's low budget.It's an amusing watch and certainly not the worst or most idiotic HOWLING sequel, yes, but nothing more. HOWLING V might have drawn a lot of influences from that other 'guess the werewolf'-film THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974, starring Peter Cushing). Slightly more ridiculous but also a lot more fun, that film's at least worth checking out. I'm not too sure about HOWLING V, though. I probably should be flunking this film, but I'll be forgiving in my final rating. If only for the fact that HOWLING V: THE REBIRTH is infinitely better than the series final installment, (Part 7) NEW MOON RISING. Part 7 tries to tie up loose ends between part 4 (THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE) and part 5 (THE REBIRTH), but writer/director/producer/actor Clive Turner turned it into an insufferable mess of a movie.

A bunch of people are invited to this remote castle. As far as they know they have nothing in common with each other. Then they start getting murdered one by one--they can't escape the castle because of a huge blizzard outside--and one of them is the murderer...and a werewolf.Sort of like Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians". It's very atmospheric with some good acting and a real neat ending that got me by surprise. There's not a lot of blood and gore however and ALL the werewolf stuff is kept off screen (!!!). The budget on this film must have been tiny. Still I was entertained and enjoyed it. A neat little horror film--just don't expect it to be a "Howling" movie. I give it a 7.