Asking anyone to watch “The Howling: New Moon Rising” should be punishable by jail time and some kind of psychological examination. “New Moon Rising” is so bad it’s inhuman. It’s so bad it makes the former “The Howling” entries seem watchable in comparison. There is no reason why “New Moon Rising” should exist. Near as I can figure, someone took a tourist board video for a small Western town, injected imagery depicting a view through the eyes of a werewolf stalking animals, spliced in footage from the past “The Howling” movies and called it a day.
How else can you rationalize the heavy feeling that the director for “New Moon Rising” simply walked in to his town’s saloon and filmed nothing but musical numbers and random palaver for ninety minutes? Did the director assume that featuring third rate country bands in a very loose sequel to a horror series would garner one of his friends a record contract? I’m trying to find a reason why “New Moon Rising” exists, but its mere presence is as senseless as getting shat on the shoulder by birds. It’s a terrible thing that happens just because. While “New Moon Rising” is clearly just a cash grab, why in the world is the film so poorly made, and poorly written? Its entire narrative is a clothesline for references to the first movie.
So if you want to re-watch moments from “The Marsupials” or “The Freaks,” than ready yourself. You’re going to see clips from those films, all over again. To make things worse, the characters are going to explain what happened in those movies, all over again. And the characters here don’t speak like normal people. Director Clive Turner tries so hard to be clever and funny that he falls on his face with embarrassing results. When random cop is showing the local priest pictures of mauled bodies, the priest asks “What kind of wolf killed these people?” the detective responds “A Big one.” Would a professional detective actually find humor in dead people and a possible wild animal on a killing spree in such a crude manner?
A werewolf is stalking the desert and local grounds near a saloon! So why do we need to know every single thing that’s happening in the saloon? Why do we spend obscene amounts of time watching bar patrons wiling the days away drinking, talking, and sitting outside? Director Turner is so convinced every character are fascinating locals, they’re all poorly performed by actual town locals, and they’re given sub-plots that lead nowhere, just because director Turner knows them. He seems to attempt a Robert Altman movie more than he does the Joe Dante original horror film. These people are quirky, eccentric, and line dance in the dark! “Well, maybe the bar patrons are all werewolves like the reservation in the first movie!” No.
No, that’s not even remotely close. Director Clive Turner actually seems convinced these people are charming and we have to know that by hearing them crack jokes and interact. And we’re subjected to full length performances by local musicians! What a werewolf movie this is! When character Ted does actually turn in to a werewolf, it’s nothing but a POV shot in a red tint, as well as some library wolf sounds. There’s never a look in any form that it’s a werewolf. Hell, I’d have settled for black and white cardboard cut out of a wolf, considering how unwatchable this movie is. But hey, at least we have a resolution to what happened to bar owner Pappy’s famous chili.
