The Howling: New Moon Rising is a 1995 direct-to-video horror film sequel to The Howling and the seventh film in the film series, directly succeeding Howling VI: The Freaks. Also known as Howling VII and Howling VII: Mystery Woman
The film was written, produced and directed by Clive Turner who also stars in the film. He also executive produced the Lawnmower Man films.
New Moon Rising incorporates footage from the previous three sequels in the Howling series, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, Howling V: The Rebirth, and Howling VI: The Freaks.
Plot:
An Australian named Ted, apparently intricately connected to the previous three Howling films, arrives in a small western town where he begins to mingle with the local townsfolk, secretly recording his own enigmatic agendas into a tape recorder in his hotel room.
At the same time, a number of mysterious slayings appearing to be the work of a large animal begin to occur in the area. A detective investigates the case, helped by a priest who is certain the killings are the work of a werewolf, leading the two of them to uncover several clues that connect events from the majority of the latter part of the series…
Our review:
If you try to watching Howling VII, doubtless slack-jawed by its awfulness, you may wonder how it was that this excuse for a movie was shot and subsequently sold by unscrupulous producers as another entry in the real franchise with footage from the previous weak Howling movies edited in. How insulting is that you may ponder? And yet, incredibly, ‘auteur’ Clive Turner actually had a creative hand in the previous three entries. Which makes this atrocity even more insulting.
There are numerous macho characters with beards that would put ZZ Top to shame, a Snoozeville small town paranoid vibe that grates rather than intrigues, and, worst of all, repeated scenes of good ole’ line dancing (with music that sometimes doesn’t even fit with line dancing!). Such second-rate western/musical incidentals make this a real endurance test for even the hardiest of need-to-seem-’em-all horror fans. As writer, producer, director and star, Aussie Clive Turner is the obvious culprit and, even now, should still be hanging his hat in shame. You have been forewarned.
Adrian J Smith, MOVIES & MANIA
PS. Perhaps even more bizarre than the notion of making such a bad moon movie, a certain Dr Winston O’Boogie spent eleven internet pages summarising it in detail, whilst still saying it’s awful. Why then waste your time detailing the tedious plot, Winston? Be further advised: if you read O’Boogie’s pointless prose, you’ll be even bored than watching the film itself!
Other reviews:
‘ … ranks right up there with Troll 2 as the most hilarious bad movie ever made. To prove how bad the acting is, all of the characters actually keep their own names!!! They play themselves!! What a concept, they even keep the name of the town. I bet it was to cut down on the people forgetting each others names because they had a hard enough time remembering their lines!!’ Bloody Disgusting
‘What of the werewolf? The poor fellow is mostly relegated to some hilariously ineffective werewolf POV shots (the film’s negative with a red tint job added), but he does get to partake in possibly the worst transformation scene in movie history: a quick morphing effect followed by ten seconds of someone wearing a wolf mask crashing through a door before it’s cut down by off-camera gunfire.’ Dread Central
‘The Howling: New Moon Rising is simply a pointless movie. It sucks, and it’s pointless and irritating with how horrible it is. All the actors, including writer-producer-director-actor Clive Turner, are terribly lifeless and boring, much like the rest of the movie. It’s not even funny though it tries very hard to be and those attempts just turn out to be really pathetic.’ The Girl Who Loves Horror
“Hard to say which is worse, that such a simple plot is over-explained, that the highlights are clips from previous entries, or that an actual werewolf doesn’t appear until the final 30-seconds. Shockingly bad in all avenues (even without the line dancing).” Splatter Critic
Choice dialogue:
“Elvis Costello sang country?”
