Horror Movie Review: The Howling: Reborn (2011)

After seven films, and sixteen years after the previous entry (Howling: New Moon Rising), the Howling franchise returned and it’s a reboot. A failed reboot that, as of May 2025, has meant there hasn’t been a new entry since.

Coming from director Joe Nimziki, The Howling: Reborn is a bad film, but not as bad as expected. Simply put, the bar for this franchise is at such a low point that nothing could be worse than what we’ve seen so far. Even though there are plenty of moments where this film sinks to the bottom. Thankfully, there are also plenty of moments where it rises too. Not to the top, it’s not a patch on the best of this franchise, but more able.

Starring Lindsey Shaw, Landon Liboiron and Ivana Miličević, The Howling: Reborn focuses on the character of Will, a high-school student whose mother was attacked and apparently killed by a werewolf while pregnant with him. Don’t roll your eyes, it’s not as crap as it sounds.

Now 18 years old, Will is a bit of an outcast and constantly gets the ire of a bully. Although he could probably save himself from a fresh beating if he would stop lovingly staring at the bullies’ girlfriend, Eliana Wynter. Yes, Will has a crush on her, but of course, she wouldn’t look twice at a nerd like him. Until she does, and they end up at a party together. It’s there that Will gets attacked by a creature, something that he believes to be a werewolf, and when he starts to investigate, he discovers he might be linked to the mythical creature in unexpected ways.

Spoilers, if you care, but Will is a werewolf, something that was ed on to him while in the womb. He is stronger, faster, can heal quickly, and is more dangerous than even he fully knows. He’s also not alone, and that is what the latter part of the film is about. Will discovering that his ‘coming out’ was planned and that someone from his past has been waiting for his moment, all so thy can unleash an army of werewolves on an unsuspecting world.

It’s quite a dull plot point, and delivered with very little gusto, but whereas the latter part of the film becomes awkward and uninteresting, everything else up to that point is mostly quite watchable.

Taking some inspiration from the Twilight films, The Howling: Reborn choses to focus on the blooming love story of Will and Eliana, who make a cute couple and have decent chemistry. Both are perfectly fine actors, and excel when not having to talk about nonsensical werewolf stuff or act scared of shirtless young men chasing them about. Unfortunately, a decent love story is not why anyone is pressing play on The Howling: Reborn, as enjoyable as it is.

Everything surrounding the werewolf side of things is mostly trash and the horror is delivered in predictable and cliched fashion. Swap out the werewolf angle for a vampire or any other supernatural evil, and the film would be exactly the same. The werewolf aspect is wholly unremarkable, and while that is par for the course with this franchise, this is supposed to be reboot.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

There is entertainment to be found in this film, and as far as the overall franchise goes, it’s not the worst by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s also not a good film by any stretch either. Did you really expect any different? It’s one hell of a beleaguered franchise and it would take something quite miraculous to resurrect it now, I think.