This is a weird one. Apparently Philippe Mora intended this third entry in the saga to be more of a comedy, after the moody b-movie horror of part two (which he also directed). But Mora seems to have such a bizarre conception of humour that it actually comes across as even more horrific than the earlier installments. Just not in quite the same way ...

I don't even know where to begin summarising this. The opening scenes are made up of a couple of weird pieces of video footage, one of some aboriginals slaughtering a werewolf, and one of a homestead in Serbia or someplace being attacked by an off-camera creature. Then we cut to scenes of a couple of government officials talking about werewolves, and a professor screening the aboriginal werewolf footage to a class of students before travelling to discuss his lycanthropic theories with a government official. If the director intended to confuse his audience, he's doing a good job ... anyway, after this point things start to make slightly more sense (but only slightly). We're introduced to our heroine, who is on the run from her 'tribe' ("My stepfather tried to rape me and he's a werewolf!") and soon finds herself arriving in Sydney. She then gets randomly cast in a cheesey horror movie by some crazy guy (art imitating life), and strikes up a lightning-speed romance with him which is only slightly disturbed by the fact that she's also being hunted down by a pack of werewolf nuns.

When she collapses one night and is kidnapped from the hospital, both the government and her new lover start working to track her down, a search that is further invigorated by the discovery that she may be pregnant ... and so it continues. This movie reminded me of the movie "Werewolf of Washington" to some extent, as it has the same unusual sense of humour. Ultimately, it's a lot better than "The Howling II", simply by virtue of the fact that it is actually reasonably interesting and entertaining throughout. Much of this entertainment, however, comes simply from the fact that it's completely incomprehensible for the most part, as well as the enjoyment that comes from watching just how wooden some of the performances are. Few would argue against the fact that this movie firmly earns it's place in the 'so bad it's good' category. There are some good things about the movie itself though; it has a great setting and a pretty good soundtrack, too.

It's difficult for me to know quite how to rate this one. This is a bad movie, certainly, but also a fairly original and enjoyable one, in a way that many of the other movies in this series are not. What's that? A watchable 'Howling' sequel? Crikey.

The concept was interesting but the film tries too hard to be fun. Is this film supposed to follow the original story line? The marsupial werewolves are too creepy and the plot is pretty far fetched (even for a werewolf film) and the low budget production values are prominently on display.

Rob of Necrodemon's Review

This installment of The Howling series is a joke.

The acting is terrible. The whole feel of this film is lame and cheeseball. I was totally disappointed and disgusted. Why would anyone want to try and blaspheme and make cute, cudly baby wolves?

I am not usually so negative towards any horror film as I can always try to gather something from them, but in this case, it was a total disaster.

More of a comedy from the 80's than anything else.

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The Wolf Well you certainly won't be complaining about a lack of werewolf content here. You might have some justifiable complaints about the nature of said werewolf content ... Anyway, marsupial werewolves. This notion alone gives you a pretty good idea of the kind of movie you're dealing with. I do have to say that "The Howling VII: New Moon Rising" does make slightly more sense now, in the context of this movie, but only slightly. The idea here is that this particular tribe of werewolves evolved from an instinct species of canine, and have developed a pouch in which to protect their newborn young. Our first exposure to werewolves in this movie actually comes on the film set where the main character has been hired to appear in a monster movie. The problem is, these cheesey monster movie effects look just about as convincing as the actual effects in this movie. There are an awful lot of effects here, though, so you won't be bored. You might just feel a little nauseous. There are quite a lot of interesting scenes, really ... we get to see multiple werewolf birth scenes (which are obviously a rarity in themselves), an amusing scene in which a ballerina turns into a werewolf mid-act, some werewolf nuns, a skeletal werewolf attacking an unsuspecting soldier ... all of this was achieved by a special effects department headed by Bob McCarron, who also makes a cameo as 'werewolf in park' (his only credited movie appearance). They're pretty bad for the most part, but since this movie is intended as a comedy then I'll let them off. I did think the werewolf baby effects were pretty neat at least. Since we're dealing with a different breed of werewolves here, they operate according to slightly different rules. Full moons don't work at all, the werewolves simply change at moments of emotional stress, or it can also be triggered by flashing lights. They can be killed by normal bullets, not just silver ones. The disease is not spread through biting, but possibly through an exchange of bodily fluids. It kinds of makes sense that the disease wouldn't be passed that way, since these werewolves can give birth anyhoo. Overall I think I actually prefer this portrayl of werewolves than the one in "The Howling II". You have to give them points for originality at least ...

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