So much average

Memorable, crazy movie

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

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

Dreadful, and not in the good way. This is like watching a porn movie without the porn. The acting is terrible, the plot is stupid, and the movie made me want to hurt myself.

Forgive me if this review is short, but I just finished watching the movie and I hope to have this review written before the credit sequence ends. (What a terrible theme song, by the way.)'Howling IV', according to the IMDb trivia, is a more faithful depiction of the original novel than the Joe Dante's first 'Howling' film. I don't know whether this is true or not, but either way -- Who cares? Accuracy of the source material does not necessarily mean a better film. And this film isn't even close in quality (or b-movie fun) to the original movie, or even its goofy sequels. 'Howling IV' was incredibly dull and slow moving. And despite the ending picking up the pace with some pretty solid gore and special effects, the final moments of the movie - the "gotcha" moment - was just insulting. Very little of this movie worked on any level, and even worse, it wasn't so-bad-it's-good like many other films in the 'Howling' series.Just avoid it.

Joe Dante's THE HOWLING (1981) was one of the great cult horror hits of the 80s and a lot of that had to do with the director's ability to infuse a good sense of humor into the proceedings without sacrificing the scares in the process. However, it also took major liberties with the source novel of the same name by Gary Brandner, which displeased some fans. This third sequel attempts to right that wrong by presenting a more faithful version of the first book in Brandner's series. The basic plots of the two films are nearly identical, but the approach to the material is not. Gone from this one are the production values, the sense of humor, the scares, the trend-setting special effects and the great cast. This lower-budgeted film simply comes off by-the-numbers, humorless, dull and actually surprisingly amateurish considering the fact the director is very experienced in the horror genre.Bestselling author Marie Adams (Romy Windsor) is haunted by visions of a nun and wolf faces and ends up spending time in an asylum as a result. After she's released, her husband Richard (Michael T. Weiss) takes her to a remote cabin located deep in the woods so she can have some quiet, peaceful time to recuperate. It isn't long before our troubled heroine begins doubting her sanity once again. Every night she hears wolves howling in the woods, despite the fact the sheriff (Norman Anstey) keeps insisting there are no large animals in the area. She's haunted by more visions of the nun as well as the home's former occupants, her poodle Pierre disappears and is later found with its head cut off and a pair of hikers vanish without a trace. To make matters even more stressful and sinister, all of the people living in the small neighboring town of Drago behave strangely and secretively.Loose ends start to finally come together once Marie meets Janice Hatch (Susanne Severeid). A former nun herself, Janice is there looking for answers as to why another nun from her convent, Sister Ruth (Megan Kruskal), spent some time in the area and later went crazy and died. It's rather personal for Janice because Ruth was her lover and it also becomes personal for Marie seeing how her hubby has been spending a little too much time making special trips into town to visit an exotic, seductive shop owner named Eleanor (Lamya Derval). It should come as no surprise to anyone reading that the entire town is actually a haven for werewolves.There are three major problems that completely sink this film early on. The first is atrocious monotone acting from nearly everyone in the cast. It seems like many have been dubbed over and the audio recording is terrible to start with, so that may play some part is the thoroughly inept performances seen from nearly everyone in this film. The second major issue is the location. This is supposed to be taking place in Northern California but it was filmed in dusty, dry South Africa, which looks absolutely nothing like Northern California. The final major problem with this one is the pacing. It plays out like a boring made-for-TV "thriller" with endlessly talky scenes that don't contribute a thing of interest to an already utterly predictable plot. Even worse, this film wastes so much time on nothing for the first hour that it must then quickly rush through a choppily-edited finale in just a few minutes.The only positives in this one happen during the final few minutes and those are some Steve Johnson special effects, including a gory human meltdown and a guy ripping his face apart. Still, this is far from Johnson's best work. Aside from one brief flash of an actual werewolf (which seems to have been taken from another film altogether), the beasts are shown only as hairy-faced people and then as dogs in their full "transformation" stage later on. Very lame. The only other point of interest is that the opening 80s cheese-rock song ("Something Evil, Something Dangerous") was sung by Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues.

Writer Marie Adams (Romy Windsor) is having strange visions. Marie's husband Richard (Michael T. Weiss) takes her to a cottage in the small town of Drago to relax and rest. The visions continue, however, and Marie eventually finds that the town of Drago is full of werewolves. The plot to this film is a reworking of the original Howling. Actually, it's a more faithful adaptation of the original novel in many respects. It also sucks big time. It's all very drab and tedious. Obviously the movie has fans. My sister is one of them. Growing up she actually preferred this film to the original Howling! Windsor and Weiss are fine, I guess, but it's all so dull. See the original or even the hilarious part 2 instead.