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Film: The Howling V: The Rebirth
Year: 1989
Director: Neal Sundstrom
Writer: Clive Turner
Starring: Philip Davis, Victoria Catlin and Elizabeth Shé
Review:
This film begins in a castle in Budapest in the year 1489. First we see a crib rocking back and forth. It then shifts to a great hall with a long table set-up. Everyone in the room is dead. Then a knight comes in with a woman and they know that they have to kill whatever did this. They accuse a small child of doing the carnage. In the end, the knight kills himself and the woman.
We then shift to 1989. A group of people have met in a hotel. They are going to be going to the castle from the beginning. It has been sealed off for 500 years and it will be reopened for the first time.
The man who is running the group is a count played by Philip Davis. There is a doctor played by Victoria Catlin. There is an actress who acts really bimbo-like, but she thinks she is smart; she is played by Elizabeth Shé. There is a photographer played by Ben Cole. There is also a man from Australia played by Clive Turner and there is a married man played by William Shockley. There is also a professor played by Nigel Triffitt and a model played by Stephanie Faulkner. Also a tennis pro played by Mark Sivertsen and a famous actress played by Mary Stavin.
Davis gives them the history of the castle. There is also some talk spread around wolves that were killing children in the area. There is talk that it is just rumors and myths by the locals, because they don’t know how to explain things.
They use a bus to arrive at their location. While they are driving, they hit something, but Davis plays it off. This rubs Faulkner the wrong way. She lingers by the bus and sees Davis tell the bus driver that he can leave.
Lunch is prepared as well as drinks. Everyone begins to meet each other and mingle. Sivertsen becomes friends with Cole and then tries to hit on Shé. Turner and Faulkner hang out with each other to investigate.
It turns out that there is a werewolf roaming the halls of the castle. As they investigate more, they are slowly killed off. First Triffitt knows that there is something up here that they are not letting on. He goes off by himself and becomes the first victim of the wolf.
Turner and Faulkner investigate a room, where Turner finds a hidden passage. Faulkner was in the room when he found it and when she comes back, he is gone. The wolf hides her and she is its next victim.
When Davis finds out that people have gone off on their own to search the place, he is bothered. He then wants them to find those that are missing.
While this is happening, Sivertsen gets Shé to join him in the spa and gets her naked. When he puts the move on her, she flees. Turner finds his way out of the castle as well. The wolf breaks out of a tunnel and kills him.
We also learn that Shockley and Catlin have been having an affair.
This becomes a who-is-the-werewolf mystery film. Davis tells him the reason that they all have gathered there is that there is a werewolf and all of them have the same birthmark. They are the only ones who can kill the werewolf, but they need to figure out who the wolf is before it is too late? When they get picked off one-by-one, will there be anyone to stop the werewolf?
I have to say that this one isn’t all that great, but better than some of the later installments of The Howling series. The mystery is decent and I wasn’t sure who the werewolf was. Every time I thought it was one person, I was proven wrong immediately after. I do like that in a good mystery film. The werewolf effects were solid as well. It was mostly shown quickly which makes it even better. I did think the ending was pretty solid as well.
There were a few things I didn’t like about this film though. I thought the acting for the most part was subpar. Some of the actors were decent, but nothing that blew me away. I thought the state of the attacks in this were a little weak. A lot of them were killed and they barely looked like it. I thought the history that they used was a little weak and didn’t make a lot of sense. I don’t like the rules of needing to kill the werewolf. Thought it was a little farfetched.
I wouldn’t recommend this one unless you want to see a different type of werewolf film. It isn’t your typical one, in that this is a mystery to figure out which character is the werewolf before it is too late. The acting isn’t good and story outside of the mystery is weak as well. Of The Howling Films, this one is one of the better in the later entries. If you are trying to watch all The Howling films, I would recommend it. If this sounds good, I would give it a chance. If not, then I would definitely avoid this one.
My Rating: 5 out of 10