Howling V: The Rebirth (1989)

A Count (Phil Davis) assembles a group of people from different walks of life to tour a Hungarian castle situated in Budapest which has been sealed off for 500 years, they bring with them a werewolf which slowly begins to cut their numbers down. This one which was filmed in Budapest and directed by Neal Sundstrom, whose largest directing credit was that he co-directed 1988's Space Mutiny with Reb Brown. This one contains the same writing team as the boring fourth entry and its nice to see that they stepped it up by giving it a cool as hell castle in Europe with lots of snow going on, it takes on a Agatha Christie feel and ultimately is pretty much a variation of "Ten Little Indians", in parts you almost fill like your drawn into the castle at some points, so the plot is good and unique and fits well. As for the characters they are mostly a little flat but some are likable my three favorites were Ray Price played by co-writer, screenplay writer, and producer Clive Turner (whose name will return again in this franchise!), David Gillespie who was played by Ben Cole and Jonathan Lane who was played by Mark Sivertsen. One thing however I didn't like and I guess its all about the budget, which Wikipedia says was about $2 million, but, I don't think the film used much of the castle, characters stumble into the same places and venture into the same areas several times, but, still its nothing to rant about. The special effects are decent I think they used the wolf costume from the previous installment here and you really don't see any of it nor the werewolf itself, in one scene it looks to be a man in a waist high costume and its in the shadows so you don't see nothing, a better shot of the werewolf's face is later seen towards the end, but, still its not really shown at all, also take note that this is the only film in the entire series to not feature a werewolf transformation so that sucks, what also sucks is that in the very beginning of the film a group of Hungarian people living in the castle commit suicide, I want say why! but, the movie then tries to convince use towards the end SPOILERS! that the group are actually decedents of these people even tho most of them are American and one is Australian so that's kinda hard to believe. Also the film towards the third act kinda gives up who the werewolf is if you pay attention, and I was right! The acting here is decent I got more out of the male characters then the female characters, but, other then the performance by Elizabeth She as Mary Lou Summers and I don't know if she was putting on the whole airhead girl character or if she was acting it out but either way it wasn't that good, everyone else is decent and does a OK job (Davis and Catlin being the two best here), the dialogue however gets pretty stupid in some scenes, but, isn't all bad. The only person here that really went on to do anything else was William Shockley who is mostly known for playing bartender Hank Lawson on "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman" and he serves as the only really familiar face, and Victoria Catlin who also played on "Twin Peaks". As for violence and nudity, there's some bloody throat ripping's, but, thats about it, and as for nudity Mary Stavin shows off her breasts in one scene while Elizabeth She despite her acting shows off her beautiful rump and body in another scene. If it wasn't for these two things the film could have probably past for a PG-13 rating. All in all I have to say "Howling V: The Rebirth" is the best of the sequels i have seen so far, its no masterpiece, it suffers from the usual problems here, bad acting, bad occasional dialogue, and also lacks a good soundtrack song like the previous three sequels had even tho the theme here is still good, but, to me it doesn't have to be great, it entertained me that's all that matters.

When a group of people from different walks of life converge in a Hungarian castle situated in Budapest which has been sealed for 500 years, they bring with them a werewolf which slowly begins to cut their numbers down.As I like to say, I would rather watch a bad 1980s horror film than a bad 2010s horror film. This is a prime example of that. While it has very little redeeming about it (trying to latch on the disreputable "Howling" franchise is its first mistake), I still like the general 1980s style of horror film better than many of the failures made today.Some have compared this to Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None", which is probably fair. But if you are going to do that, you may as well compare it to "The Beast Must Die", which was a werewolf film that followed a similar concept. And heck, "Beast" is a great film... much better than this one.

This is one of the better horror movies shot in the period right after the fall of the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. It's not a great by any means - in fact it borrows heavily from the 1970s film "The Beast Must Die" (itself a riff on the "Ten Little Indians" theme), but it is kind of fun in its way. It has nothing whatever to do with the previous "Howling films, which at least means you can see it without sitting through four previous movies for it to make sense. Basically, it's a slasher film in which a collection of fairly ill-defined characters are isolated in a lonely Hungarian castle and eliminated one by one by something that may or may not be a werewolf, and which is surely one of them (but which one?). My favorite Howling Movie is still #7, "New Moon Rising," but this is a respectable entry in the series.

With this one, I've finally watched all the HOWLING sequels. I can see why people actually like this 5th installment, as it does try to do something else with the werewolf concept. It plays out like a whodunit-slasher, set on one imaginative location (a Hungarian castle setting). Yet still, when you have to judge it on its own terms and nature, it falls short at the end of the ride. There's too little of the mystery-plot to enjoy (not enough red herrings, no twists worth mentioning and the killer/werewolf could just be anybody really - it's no fun to think along with the plot as there is not much to think about and no real puzzles to be solved). All the actual kills sadly happen off-screen (only ripped throats are shown after the events). We don't get to see much of the werewolf (only some brief glimpses during the attacks) and the film does not feature a transformation-scene (which I was so hoping for to happen during the conclusion). It's even lacking a decent climax of sorts. The acting is strictly so-so, provided by a cast compiled out of unfamiliar names (at least to me they were). The small bits of humor injected into some of the dialogues, didn't really pay off. Fortunately they weren't too distracting. As far as cinematography goes, I only found the special effect shots, of the exterior of the castle during a snow storm, to be enjoyable. The interior sets of the castle chambers, dungeons and corridors looked a little cheap. But that can be forgiven, due to the movie's low budget.It's an amusing watch and certainly not the worst or most idiotic HOWLING sequel, yes, but nothing more. HOWLING V might have drawn a lot of influences from that other 'guess the werewolf'-film THE BEAST MUST DIE (1974, starring Peter Cushing). Slightly more ridiculous but also a lot more fun, that film's at least worth checking out. I'm not too sure about HOWLING V, though. I probably should be flunking this film, but I'll be forgiving in my final rating. If only for the fact that HOWLING V: THE REBIRTH is infinitely better than the series final installment, (Part 7) NEW MOON RISING. Part 7 tries to tie up loose ends between part 4 (THE ORIGINAL NIGHTMARE) and part 5 (THE REBIRTH), but writer/director/producer/actor Clive Turner turned it into an insufferable mess of a movie.