At this point the movie series of "The Howling" had largely stopped bearing any resemblance to Gary Brandner's original series of novels (especially since the fourth installment was a remake of the first), and had very much taken on a life of it's own. Or even several entirely different lives, one could say. You have the first classic movie directed by Joe Dante, then the first two sequels which were both the beloved little wolf-babies of Philippe Mora and which bear absolutely no relation to each other, and part VI ("The Freaks") being a stand-alone movie produced by a first time director/screenwriter team.

Then you have parts IV, V and VII, which could really be refered to as the 'Turner Trilogy'. They were all produced and created to some degree by Clive Turner, as well as featuring him on screen in roles which differ greatly in prominence. We learn in "The Howling: New Moon Rising" that all three of these movies are connected in some way. That would make this particular movie the centerpiece of that trilogy, and probably the best installment out of the three (depending on how you feel about part four), though for a 'Howling' sequel that's not really saying much.

The story opens in a dark-ages castle where a gruesome slaughter has taken place, something to do with destroying a curse which relates to a small baby who, it turns out, is the lone survivor of the ordeal. This is a great melodramatic opening which sets the scene for a way over-the-top old-fashioned horror movie. The plot from this point on bears some resemblance to Amicus' "The Beast Must Die" (1974), which is all good since that was a fun little mystery movie itself. An eclectic group of strangers converge upon a creepy Romanian castle which has been closed to the public for five hundred years and is now having it's "grand opening". But there's more going on here than any of them suspect ... one of the group is, in fact, a werewolf. Will they uncover the identity of the beast before they all meet a grisly end? I sure hope not.

I can definitely see why a lot of people seem to rate this as their favourite of the 'Howling' sequels. At any rate it's probably the least terrible out of any of them, and the only one that really works as a movie. The script is hit-and-miss, the acting is pretty awful and the special effects aren't great, but that can all be forgiven since "Howling V: The Rebirth" knows exactly what it is; a cheesy b-movie. The other sequels try to be everything from epic adventures to surreal comedies, and fail at pretty much every turn. This one doesn't fail at every turn, and a spooky castle has an awful lot of corners. As a mystery I have to say it's actually better than "The Beast Must Die" in a lot of ways. I suppose the one thing that's really missing here is a familiar face; the mere presence of a Cushing or a Lee would have made this werewolf mystery a hell of a lot more fun.

Obviously none of these movies work as sequels, but this is the one that best stands on it's own as a half-decent werewolf movie.

The Wolf There's not a whole lot of 'werewolf' content in this movie as such. In fact I don't think the first mention of a werewolf comes until about an hour into the movie, and even then it's only a casual, passing reference. But that's kind of okay. I actually quite enjoyed the way the beast spends the majority of the movie stalking through the shadows, in the background, waiting for its moment to strike ... This of course means we don't get to see much of the werewolf effects, which on a low-budget project like this is usually for the best. The wolf attacks are shot in quite an effective way, relying on quick flashes of action and a very cool soundtrack. It turns out that everybody has been brought to the castle because they bear a certain mark, the mark of the werewolf, but only one of them is the beast. And this beast can only be killed by one of its own, somebody who bears the mark of the wolf which has been carried down for centuries through the generations, preserving the ancient bloodline. Kewl.

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