Nightmare, perhaps. Original, perhaps not.
Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988)
I tell you, when a film makes you wish you were watching Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf, well….
(So did we all sign a pact to review something we hate, or what?)
Liz Kingsley is the insane genius behind And You Call Yourself a Scientist!« What a way to welcome a new year.
TC 3000 »
Comments
Comment from JessicaR
Time: January 3, 2008, 2:22 am
And I loved Michael T. Wiess as The Pretender (and the show too). Maybe being kitted out in the Billy Ray Cyrus mullet and stuble is what made him so lethargicaly depressed.
Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: January 3, 2008, 7:23 am
I remember renting that many years ago on the strength of the trailer put together for it on another video.
The only effective moments were, of course, in the trailer…something I had not expected.
I was so young and naive then…
Comment from El Santo
Time: January 3, 2008, 8:29 am
This would be the “awful sequel to a good movie,” yes?
Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: January 3, 2008, 8:37 am
From the looks of it, this would’ve fit better into that Roundtable you guys did about sequels not living up to the original than The Devil Bat’s Daughter. And darn it! Stomp Tokyo never gave us the review of Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla we wanted!
Comment from El Santo
Time: January 3, 2008, 8:44 am
“And darn it! Stomp Tokyo never gave us the review of Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla we wanted!”
Brave Sir Holland turned about, and valiantly he chickened out…
Comment from Matthew Fudge
Time: January 3, 2008, 12:17 pm
The Howling was a good movie but, as it’s sequels so aptly demonstrated, what was good about was not the concept but the execution. A truth that escapes a lot of hollywood execs an awful lot of the time I reckon.
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 3, 2008, 3:55 pm
This would be the “awful sequel to a good movie,” yes?
Bing!! Next up, a franchise crossover.
Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: January 3, 2008, 4:05 pm
I have more respect for GvsSpaceG nowadays than I once did. The monster stuff isn’t bad (although that horrifying Little Godzilla sucks) and the human stuff, while crap, is still more interesting than the stuff in GxMechaG.
Still, it’s definitely a low point in the series.
Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: January 3, 2008, 4:10 pm
Rev: I enjoy the movie a lot, although I wish there was more flat-out monster wrestling in it. Toho could’ve created their own kaiju version of X-Men if they got Miki Saegusa in this movie, the “mutant” in G: Final Wars, one of the “H-men”, the Telegian, and the Human Vapor together for one movie.
Lyz: So you’re not going to taunt us by going through the other franchise first? You’ll just cut to the chase?
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 3, 2008, 4:22 pm
Lyz: So you’re not going to taunt us by going through the other franchise first? You’ll just cut to the chase?
Well, it’s a bit awkward, isn’t it? Either we hang around for another four years or so while I struggle through Franchise B; or I take a crash course in Franchise B - which is, in fact, what I’ve been doing for the past fortnight - just so I’m in a position to say something meaningful about the wrap-up to Franchise A.
(Oddly enough, overall I think I like Franchise A better….)
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 3, 2008, 4:24 pm
And again, I worry for you constantly subjecting your self to films that are several sub-basments below the bottom of the barrel. But then I want you to review Zardoz so I obviously speak out of both sides of my mouth.
Oh, how nice. My friends are concerned for me. [*mutter, mutter, mutter*]
Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: January 3, 2008, 4:58 pm
“Oddly enough, overall I think I like Franchise A better….)”
That fits perfectly with what you said about not liking wisecracking serial killers so much.
Comment from Zack Handlen
Time: January 3, 2008, 7:34 pm
Oddly enough, overall I think I like Franchise A better….”
Really? Huh. Since we’re being all cutesy with names, I’ll just say, at least Franchise B had two, two and a half honestly good movies to its credit. Much as I love Franchise A, it really doesn’t have a whole lot in the way of defensible entries.
Nice Police joke, by the way. 
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 3, 2008, 8:24 pm
Oh, absolutely! The B-s are better as film all the way down the line, but in the end they just don’t grab me in quite the same way. I can’t and don’t defend that feeling (except, as Blake says, for my dislike of smartmouth killers).
(And thank you!)
Comment from El Santo
Time: January 4, 2008, 11:19 am
The other thing Franchise A has in its favor is that a craplousy entry in a series that never scored higher than the fat part of the bell curve is far less offensive than an equally dire film in a series that occasionally flirted with brilliance.
Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: January 4, 2008, 4:29 pm
I’m torn…on the one hand, if she plows her way through Franchise B, we get more reviews from her, and this is A Good Thing Indeed. I’d like to see her take the crappier films to task, the way she did most of Franchise A (her review of the fifth one in particular fills me with delight.) And there’s a couple of darn good ones in there as well, to help balance things.
On the other…I wouldn’t wish the fifth and sixth films of Franchise B on most people, and I understand the fourth’s terrible as well.
On the third hand…I’ve seen part of the crossover film, and I have a feeling she’ll tear into that like a giant mutated bear into a happy, smiling family of campers (or an unconvincing dummy.) Although there were a few things I saw that were kind of fun, most of it was crap (and when did one of the title characters learn kung fu? Maybe he went to Kroenen’s dojo?) So the sooner she gets to that, the better, I’m thinkin’.
On the fourth hand…I need to figure out where the hell these extra hands came from.
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 4, 2008, 4:58 pm
Eep! I haven’t finished watching that crossover yet, so I think I’m going to ask everyone to pull the plug on this conversation until after the event.
In other franchise news, I have decided to use this year wrapping up The Howling and Amityville. God help us all….in the future.
Comment from Blake Matthews
Time: January 4, 2008, 6:25 pm
Amityville would constitute “a blah sequel to a blah franchise” or something like that?
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 4, 2008, 6:35 pm
It probably would, but that wasn’t the one I was thinking of. I was talking about - let’s see, how shall I put this? - more in Nathan’s usual line of work.
Comment from JessicaR
Time: January 4, 2008, 9:15 pm
A Full Moon product? Oh no, rhymes with shamdroid? You poor bastard.
Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: January 4, 2008, 9:45 pm
I’m looking forward to reading about the Howling movies I haven’t the need to inflict on myself. The Amityville ones…already inflicted those on myself, except the 3rd one (gods know why) but still look forward to it. It’s about time!
Ms. Kingsley already did a Full Moon movie that rhymes with shandroid. Unless there’s more than one…nope, I’m cutting that line of thought off right now. I have enough trouble sleeping as it is.
Comment from Matthew Fudge
Time: January 5, 2008, 9:17 am
Can I specifically request the amityville dollshouse? just because, y’know, it’s called that.
Comment from Ed
Time: January 6, 2008, 2:52 pm
Nice job as always, Liz. Oddly enough, the two following this entry are slightly less painful, though that’s speaking relatively of course.
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 6, 2008, 5:22 pm
Welcome, Ed! And thank you. As long as V and VI aren’y as boring as this one, I’ll try to find something kind to say about them. (When it comes to VII, however, all bets are off.)
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 6, 2008, 5:24 pm
The Amityville ones…already inflicted those on myself, except the 3rd one
I always found the third one to be a lot of dumb fun, a classic 3-D film that isn’t.
Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: January 7, 2008, 7:41 am
Not for lack of trying, but while I saw it in every video store as a kid (along with a lot of other movies I had a hell of a time finding when I was old enough to watch them), I can’t seem to track it down nowadays on the occasions where I think about it.
Might be time to make a concerted effort to find it, if it’s “a lot of dumb fun.”
Comment from KeithA
Time: January 7, 2008, 11:19 pm
Here’s hoping for Dollman in the Amityville Doll House.
Comment from Ed
Time: January 8, 2008, 2:21 am
If it’s a Full Moon production, I think I have an idea of what she’s going for. I can only say this. Liz, you should probably have a supply of booze on hand for the viewing. Trust me, you’ll get through it easier.
Comment from Matthew Fudge
Time: January 8, 2008, 4:28 am
“Dollman in the Amityville Doll House vs Demonic Toys II: The Marsupials”
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 8, 2008, 4:53 am
I would death-wrestle Nathan for the chance to review that.
Comment from The Rev. D.D.
Time: January 8, 2008, 7:18 am
That may be the greatest movie title of all time. *awes*
Comment from Matthew Fudge
Time: January 8, 2008, 7:42 am
With Romania doubling as the Australian Outback. Obviously.
Comment from JessicaR
Time: January 8, 2008, 12:42 pm
And Rutger Hauer as a confused bored looking Australian by way of Serbia Priest/Demon Hunter.
Comment from supersonic
Time: January 8, 2008, 8:51 pm
On another subject, I notice assorted borken links in your “snap judgements” page. Are there hidden short-review goodies in there that could be restored to the light?
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 8, 2008, 11:39 pm
I’ve slapped a coat of paint on the site, but there’s still a lot that needs to be fixed up inside; it’s a very slow work in progress. Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll take a look at that the next chance I get.
Comment from Chadly
Time: January 9, 2008, 2:39 am
Wonderful as always. Lesse, Howling V, VI and then,*gasp* the franchise killer. I will light a candle each and every week and burn a little effigy of Clive Turner to help you build up enough nerd-chi to climb that giant turd-burger of a mountain that is “Howling New Moon Rising But No Werewolf in Sight: Honky-Tonk Armageddon.” Egad, I’d rather climb into that pot with Eli Wallach in “Circle of Iron” and watch my winky-dinky shrivel up and fall off before subjecting myself to that *thing* again.
Comment from lyzard
Time: January 9, 2008, 2:28 pm
They should hire you to write the liner notes for the DVD.
Comment from JessicaR
Time: January 3, 2008, 2:10 am
And again, I worry for you constantly subjecting your self to films that are several sub-basments below the bottom of the barrel. But then I want you to review Zardoz so I obviously speak out of both sides of my mouth.