not as good as all the hype

Brilliant and touching

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

When you expect so little from a movie and it fails to meet even your lowest expectations, you know it is one of the worst. I like werewolves and I liked the howling. I thought the remake would be at least decent. But no, not at all. First of all, we do not see a werewolf till the 65 minute mark, and even then it is a naked guy with furry trousers. Even though there are some lycan on lycan action towards the end, it is ruined by quick pacing and close shots. The first part of the movie is basically the first spiderman and the rest is incoherent, plot less and dumb. Though the writers say this is not a remake but a version from some novel also called howling, it is nonsense since the "getting werewolves on camera to prove they are real" scene is there. Now when you have a decent work done, you can include inside jokes like "no werewolves were harmed during the making" but when the hero stabs the intimidating muscle-bound werewolf with a necklace and kills it instantly, thereby destroying the viewers hopes to witness some action scenes, you should know you have done a terrible job. And what's with the ending? So the Alfa is not dead, and werewolf apocalypse actually began? What's the point of including cliffhanger when it is obvious you have no chance to shoot sequels?

In the intro we meet a pregnant woman who is attacked by a werewolf. 18 years later the kid, Will, is about to graduate from high school. He's a loner, loser, smart, nerdy, goofy- the usual. His only friend is a horror movie buff. He's got a crush on a pretty and popular girl- as expected, who doesn't know he exists. Until one day that Eliana catches him staring and discovers that he's drawn her countless times. She invites him to a party were he's given ecstasy by some gang of wanna-be-thugs/tough guys. He starts seeing things and thinks he's being chased by werewolves. Over time he also starts thinking he might be a werewolf.Meanwhile his dad meets a hot lady, K, who's a werewolf. Will discovers with the help of his friend that he's indeed a werewolf and ends up killing Eliana's violent boyfriend. Will and Eliana become closer when suddenly K shows up and wants to convince Will to let his werewolf nature out. He ends up confronting her.There are two types of werewolves here- some ugly rubbery latex ones that look more like mutants and more impressive hairy ones. That said, they aren't really put to good use. They don't attack a lot of people, although at some point we discover a school basement full of victims.The romance or rather the sexual tension is well handled. Eliana represents temptation- and she's very tempting, although not much happens between the two. She falls for him too suddenly. At times the conversations between these two are bizarre. He'll talk about lycanthropy and she'll answer in sexual/romance terms.Ordinarily I despise movies that abuse of the horror genre for some other purpose- vampire comedies, zombie romance, etc. This is more of a werewolf romance we are told. It's definitely not a werewolf horror movie, but it's not a romance movie entirely either. This movie has some horror, some romance, but it also has a social message-and a good one at that. So I can forgive that it isn't horror. The script is smart and, well, there is a lot of script here. There are a lot of voice-overs by Will where he's philosophizing about life in high school and after, about human nature, about free will, etc. In fact there are too many voice overs. Much is made of the animal nature in man versus the civilizing/socializing of that nature. There are plenty of symbols in that regard. Will is very bored and his life is dull apparently because he has lived by the rules and hasn't let his animal nature run wild. I'm not sure we need the message that folks should stop acting civilized and just follow their instincts. But the deeper social criticism and message of this movie is a good one- to value relationship more instead of avoiding them. No doubt scientific and technological development haven't exactly led us to be better people. On the contrary, people are looking for no drama, no strings attached relationships. In order to avoid complications we are avoiding each other altogether rather than developing and maturing precisely through relationship and commitments.We are told in the making-off feature that the writer/director is some experienced veteran although IMDb shows this as being is first major work. In a way then it's understandable that this movie tries to do more than it can, that the writer wants to overwhelm us with his ideas, that this movie is unfocused. What I can't forgive though is the annoying, awful overuse of music. As if there weren't enough talk and voice overs, repeatedly we get loud music with lyrics that are allegedly relevant to the moment. It reminds you of the 90s when movie makers were more interested in selling you the soundtrack CD instead of making a decent movie.Most of the time I hate a movie like this- it makes use of an established and respected name (and The Howling I is in my opinion the best werewolf movie ever made), it doesn't give us a lot of horror, it has a somewhat moralizing message, etc. But at least this one is smart and doesn't treat the audience like morons. It has a likable and attractive cast- in particular Ivana Milicevic who is gorgeous and devastatingly hot. This writer/director has some potential if he learns to moderate himself and finds better vehicles for his message.

On the eve of his high school graduation, Will Kidman finally looks up to catch the eye of the girl he's lusted over for the last four years, mysterious Eliana.He's always been shy, but when he discovers a dark secret from his past - that he is heir to a powerful line of werewolves - he finds he has a choice to make between succumbing to his primal nature, or turning against his own, and maintaining his humanity.In order to fight the destiny of his legacy, and save Eliana - as well as himself - he must battle not only his growing blood lust but an army of fearsome beasts bent on killing him....An awful attempt to cash in on the name of a horror movie that was tarnished by some of the worse sequels ever made and obviously the Twilight saga.The main guy looks like Harry Potter without the personality, and he spends the movie being stared at by some angry Backstreet Boys wannabes and some woman who looks like his dead mother, just without glasses.The story makes no sense, he falls in love with some girl who sleepwalks through the film, and Werewolves, they should be called Where? wolves, because you never really see the things in full.Please, if you want to see a blatant rip off of the Twilight saga, watch Vampires Suck, it's just as bad, but at least you will get references.Or watch the Howling instead, and refuse to believe that this exists.Boring and dreadful.

I was a little excited to see this one, as I am with every new instalment to a franchise that has either faltered in recent years or has not produced a sequel in decades. But after watching this one, I kind of wish they'd have left the series dead and buried. The plot is about an eighteen year old teenager Will (Landon Liboiron) who is beginning to turn into a werewolf all while vying for the love of his classmate Eliana (Lindsey Shaw). Together the two have to try and stop other werewolves from killing them or something, blah, blah, blah. It is just so ridiculous, there's really no need to go further about the "plot". While I was watching this, all I could think of was that this was a cheap rip off of the Twilight series. Now I have nothing against Twilight, I haven't seen it personally. But to fans of the original films, this was a kick in the gut. Sure some of the sequels made after the first Howling were pretty awful, but this one is catering to a different audience than the other films did.The acting was fine in Howling Reborn, I had no problem there. The movie did look a little cheaply made though. I don't know if I'd recommend it to horror fans or not. Most fans of the original Howling films will probably be disappointed in this one. My low rating for this isn't because it's a terrible movie, but more because it isn't a true Howling sequel in my eyes. Therefore it was very disappointing and something that I probably won't watch again.3/10