Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988)

The successful author Marie Adams is haunted by nightmares. In order to recover, she travels to the countryside with her husband Richard. At night, she hears the howling of wild animals. Together with the former nun Janice she tries to uncover the mystery. Does that sound familiar? You bet it does. "Howling IV" is the forth entry in the "Howling" series and basically a rehash of the original "The Howling" from 1981. They most certainly wanted to distance themselves from the two trash escapades that were Part II and III. That was probably a good idea. Unfortunately, the result is a veritable snoozefest.

Bless them, they were trying their best to give the story some kind of class. But it's just plain boring. The movie spends a whole hour to mystifying the fact that we are dealing with werewolfs here. We already know that, guys! It's the fourth movie, there's no need to be so secretive about it. The production is riddled with shortcomings. The editing is unbelievably sloppy and the sound is inconsistent. The script is slow and predictable. The special effects at the end of the movie are alright, and the obligatory transformation scene is pretty cool. But at this point, why should we even care?

"Howling IV" is a truly mystifying movie. There's just no good reason for this remake to exist. It's worse than the original in every single way, and the original wasn't that great in the first place. A lycanthropic sleeping pill – ingest at your own risk.