The Howling: Reborn (2011)

On the eve of his high school graduation, Will Kidman (Liboiron) finally looks up from his books to catch the eye of the girl he’s longed for the last four years –the mysterious Eliana Wynter (Shaw). He’s always been the shy kid, flying under the radar, but when he discovers a dark secret from his past— that he is heir to a powerful line of werewolves -- he finds he has a choice to make between succumbing to his primal nature, or turning against his own, and maintaining his humanity. In order to fight the destiny of his legacy, and save Eliana – as well as himself – he must battle not only his growing blood lust but an army of fearsome beasts bent on killing him, Eliana...and then, us all.

The Howling: Reborn, a straight to video release reboot of the 80's horror classic follows the story of high school senior Will Kidman (Landon Liboiron, Terra Nova), who finds out about a dark secret that will change his live forever as he finally gets the girl of his dreams (Lindsey Shaw, 10 Things I Hate About You). As his animal instinct take over Will discovers that he is the heir to a powerful line of werewolves and now must make a choice, succumb to the nature of the beast or turn again his bloodline to save the girl he loves. 

 

Most of today's horror films (especially the direct-to-video) releases tend to have a "typical" methodology – bad acting, lots of sexuality and nudity to fill the gaps in between gory scenes The Howling: Reborn thankfully goes against the grain. The acting from the cast is believable and while the story is far from original (typical case with a reboot) it was engaging enough to keep me entertained throughout the entire film.

 

The production value of this direct-to-video release reboot is extremely well done and director Joe Nimziki's (The Outer Limits) choice to use mostly make-up effects instead of CGI for the werewolves in the film was a welcome choice in this day and age.

 

The Howling Reborn Blu-ray is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio with a fairly normal AVC transfer. Colors are a bit muted at times and sometimes the dark scenes are hard to make out without adjusting the brightness on your television set. In the same respect the Dolby TrueHD audio track, while being far from horrible tends to not make use of the full spectrum and is mostly front-loaded.

 

Surprisingly unlike some large budget films that come to Blu-ray The Howling: Reborn has an in-depth making of featurette that looks deeper into the mythology of the Howling.

 

While never going to be a cult classic like the original Howling, The Hollowing: Reborn makes for a great reboot, however if you are a bit squeamish be sure to steer clear of this film as the blood and gore can be over the top at times for even a R rated film.