The Howling: New Moon Rising

The Howling: New Moon Rising (1995)

Runtime: 90 minutes

“Directed” by: Clive Turner

“Starring”: Clive Turner, John Ramsden, Jack Huff, the citizens of an actual town playing themselves (no, really)

From: New Line Cinema!

As this movie was brought up recently on a forum I look at, I figured I would talk about this; while I haven’t seen it in years, I did see it more than once so I say that’s good enough for me. I might as well review one of the all-time terrible movies I’ve seen as an adult. Plus, you can read an extensive recap of the movie here and watch a video review here which contains clips from the movie which proves that it really is as bad as many have said. I don’t even remember how I first heard about it, but I do know I’ve seen it more than once, which makes me quite the masochist.

Describing the plot is rather futile but in short, a drifter comes to town and (off-screen) killings take place. Some investigators nearby try to solve the murders, and meet up with some people from earlier Howling movies. That’s pretty much it in terms of stuff that moves from Point A to B. The rest of it…

I’ll be honest and say I haven’t seen any of The Howling movies in full. Not that it really matters for this one as none of them are related to each other in any way. Yet, director/producer/writer/actor/everything else Clive Turner tried to retcon things by having some characters from a few of the sequels appear here and he tried to tie it all together… to zero success, according to what I hear. No matter what things are just confused all around.

Besides the awful screenplay, the barely-there presence of any werewolf action, and the special effects being a joke even for ’95, the bizarre decision was to set the movie in an unincorporated community known as Pioneertown (built in the 40’s in order to provide a backdrop for western features of the time), and all the residents of that town play themselves! Do I need to say that the non-actors deliver terrible performances? It’s a crime the full movie isn’t on YouTube anymore, as that’s probably the easiest way to watch this if you want to punish yourself for an hour and a half. It’s only on DVD overseas and you know it’ll never be ported over here. I mean, much of the runtime is filled with awful country songs (no matter what you think of the genre, this material is putrid) and line dancing! This really is one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my entire life.

How anyone thought this was a good idea, I do not know, and how it got released by New Line Cinema… that still befuddles me today. No wonder why there hasn’t been another Howling movie until just recently, The Howling Reborn, which just came out earlier this month and I’ve heard it be best compared to Twilight, so yeah I’ll avoid that at all costs.

I won't be back until Halloween night due to the rest of the month being busy for me. I'll try to find an interesting and appropriate movie to write about.