The Howling (2017) by Steven M. Smith

Director: Steven M. Smith

Year: 2017

Country: United Kingdom

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Creature Feature

Plot:

Curious about a special story, a group of friends decide to investigate the truth about a series of rumors involving a mad doctor’s experiments and genetic mutations taking place in the area, and when they stumble upon his whereabouts realize that they’re intended to be the next experiments.

Review:

This was a solid and enjoyable, effective indie outing. One of the finer features with this one is the old-school setup in its approach to the storyline, which is a fun way of paying homage to the previous outings in the genre while offering something unique and different. Not only is this strikingly well accomplished on a technical level with the old-school black-and-white photography capturing everything in that kind of environment, but there's also a way of bringing about the urban legend of the doctors’ experiments that have affected the locals. With his work becoming quite prominent in the area, under the numerous reports and investigations into his history of cruelty towards others, which all become enjoyable enough for what’s at stake.

By the time they get to the special laboratory and are exposed to what’s going on, there’s a lot of fun to be had with the slow realization about the horrific experiments conducted by the doctor. Featuring the maniacal doctor looking to genetically mutate and transform others into bizarre, grotesque monstrosities, which is what gets paid off here with the deformed outcasts of the experiments. Seeing the malformed, inhuman beasts with animal traits including fur, fangs, unnatural appendages, or other signs of clear-cut animalistic outcomes gives this a solid touch that’s decidedly playing into the formula found in those old-school genre classics, leading to a series of impressive images throughout here. These are all enough to make for some positive factors here.

There are some factors keeping this down. The main issue here is that there’s such a disappointing tempo and pacing on display that the film is severely difficult to get into. The opening stretches on forever with the group going around the countryside enjoying sexual shenanigans, trying to investigate the past, or wandering around the forest looking for something that it takes a while to get going, even with all of this material preparing everything for what’s to come. It all brings the storyline together rather nicely, but it does so at the expense of ensuring the film gets off to a fine start, much like the finale, where it doesn’t feature a big brawl or battle with the doctor or his creation to leave. It just tends to meander around on several long-winded dialogue scenes that end up slowing this to a crawl. Alongside the cheap look of everything, these all bring this one down overall.

Overview: **.5/5

An enjoyable if somewhat slow-going creature feature, there’s enough here to be likable for what it is, while still having some big flaws that manage to bring it down overall. Those with an interest in this style of indie fare or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there might want to heed caution.