A successful author moves to a new town after suffering a mental breakdown and is tormented by demons and werewolves.
Well here we are with another addition to the franchise, whether you wanted it or not.
My first thoughts regading this feature was “Is this really needed?!” The last two features hadn’t exactly been a huge success, even by their lower budget standards they didn’t exactly fire up Horror fans. I’m sure they made their money back but only because of the name alone, especially with the VHS rental market.
Going into this film I have to admit that I felt bad for it, Werewolf fatigue had seriously set in and I admittedly had to force myself to watch it. Luckily for me it seemed that the studios budget didn’t factor in much in the way of effects so the Werewolf scenes featured here are very minimal, at one point I actually forgot it was a Werewolf film.
The only thing that is really a constant reminder that it’s a Werewolf movie is the constant howling (no pun intended, honestly), though I have to give credit where it’s due here, the financial restraints force the film to really focus on its storytelling and it does what it does well despite the horrific acting on display.
The money shot of the film comes right at the end of the feature and even though they are the weirdest and craziest transformation scenes I’ve seen I have to say that they were fun to watch and pretty gruesome to boot. I’m sure it annoyed purists but I give kudos to the crew for trying something new to keep it fresh.
“Howling IV – The Original Nightmare” plays like an early evening Sunday Horror film, it knows exactly what it is and tries its best, if it were released today I’m sure it would get a participation award.
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
The Howling (1981) and Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988) are both based on the same novel by Gary Brandner. Interestingly, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988) actually represents the more faithful adaptation of the novel than The Howling (1981).
Writer and co-producer of the film Clive Turner was originally supposed to direct, but when the financiers pulled out he had to get veteran horror director John Hough in to direct at the last minute with what money remained.
The budget was so low that the movie had to be made without sound. All the audio had to be dubbed in during post-production.
John Hough was thwarted by producer Clive Turner at every step who tried to alter the script while production was en route. After Hough turned in his version, Turner went out and shot tons of new scenes and edited the film to the liking that he wanted and constantly fought Hough for.
John Hough said in an interview in Fangoria that there wasn’t a script when they went to go make the film. The script was eventually written by Freddie Rowe and he would also receive notes and messages from him as well as additional pages. However, when Hough tried to ask for Rowe’s phone number or an address so he could reach him, he was denied every time. He suspected Rowe was actually Clive Turner himself. Supposedly because he and Turner never got along and that Turner kept trying to make power plays as he wanted to be the producer and director.
The original version by John Hough that he turned in was different to the film that was released. When the film was finished, Hough was in England while post-production was performed in LA by Clive Turner. The final version has little resemblance to Hough’s version. Turner had re-cut and re-voiced the film. Scenes like Lamya Derval giving oral to Michael T. Weiss were never in Hough’s version, but was placed in through re-shooting and re-editing by Turner.
John Hough greatly enjoyed Joe Dante’s The Howling (1981) and is a lover of horror films in general, so he was all for making the sequel and was eager to do a werewolf movie for the first time. However he was disappointed with the final result due to the changes made by producer and writer Clive Turner with the re-shoots and re-editing. He felt that Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988) is one of the few films that he can call his own.
In an interview with Fangoria, Clive Turner said that he was “disappointed with the director John Hough, but they ended up with a reasonable film.”
While on the opening credits it says “Based on the novels The Howling I, II and III by Gary Brandner”, on the poster it says “Based on the book Howling by Gary Brandner”, this is more accurate since the film is a closer adaptation of the first book by Brandner.
There exists a stillshot of a deleted scene where Marie, Romy Windsor, is covered in blood. It appears to be a scene from the original version of the film by director John Hough before Clive Turner re-shot and re-edited the movie.
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