Horror Movie Review: Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (1988)

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, the fourth film in the franchise, bucks a bit of a trend for the series so far by being a thoroughly serious film, even while having absurd moments. It’s a film that ends up rehashing aspects of the very first entry in the series while trying to stay better aligned with the source material, Gary Brandner’s novel.

Directed by John Hough from a screenplay by Freddie Rowe and Clive Turner, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is quite unremarkable. Another entry in a franchise that should never have been a franchise, but one that doesn’t offend or anger, it just exists and that is that.

Romy Windsor stars as Marie Adams, a successful writer under pressure, who is having visions of fire, monsters (werewolf looking), and nuns, so suffers a nervous breakdown and ends up in the hospital. Her husband, Richard (Michael T. Weiss) suggests they go away and spend some time at a remote cabin in the Californian town of Drago. A good idea, expect the townspeople are odd and Marie is baffled by the constant howling she hears outside.

Just what is going on in the town of Drago?

Familiar sounding, right? In a way, this is a reboot of the franchise, but it’s probably best seen as just another standalone entry. Most are, with the only connective feature being the title. Knowing that, it’s more watchable, but it still comes down to the same thing, which is how ordinary it is. An unexciting story, underdeveloped characters, average acting, predictable turns, a lack of humour, and some really notable technical issues around sound, notably the ADR.

It’s also quite unsexy, which might not seem like too much of a big deal, but this is a series that prided itself on being sexy, even if it was weird. Hey, no kink-shame here, but Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is so vanilla.

None of this makes the film notably bad though, expect for one aspect that hasn’t been mentioned yet and it’s going to be a deal breaker for many. Howling IV: The Original Nightmare’s biggest problem is its pacing and it all stems from its desperate, and pathetic attempt, to try and make the story ‘mysterious’.

Is it all in Marie’s head? After all, werewolves aren’t real, right? It’s Howling IV! There’s simply no reason to be coy here and its attempts to dance around the answers means the film consistently grinds to a halt instead of ramping up. It’s infuriating.

All done in serious fashion, which makes the latter part’s extreme gore (there’s an imaginative melt scene transformation) even stranger than it first seems. Considering very little happens for such a long time, the latter part of the film does get a little crazy. Although it’s hardly enough to save it. When it’s all said and done, the summation of Howling IV: The Original Nightmare is that it exists. It is another entry in the franchise, and that’s about it.