Directed, produced, starring and written by Clive Turner, this film attempts to unite Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, Howling V: The Rebirth and Howling VI: The Freaks.
Turner’s character arrives in a small western town and begins mingling with the people there at the very same time that a large animal is killing people. Meanwhile, a detective and a priest start connecting the past three films in this series, which allows plenty of stock footage to pad out the running time.
This is the worst of the Howling films, which really seems like a low bar to trip over. Everyone in the town where this was made used their real names in the film. That in itself is a crazy story, because Roger Nail (who made Hard Time and art directed Darkman) was the original director of this movie and he wanted to make a werewolf movie. Seeing as how this was called Howling 7, you have to applaud his creative vision. Instead, Turner wanted to make a character-driven take about the hillbilly community and less about furry monsters.
That’s why the credits say, “The events depicted in this town are fictitious. The characters depicted in Pioneer Town are real.”
I can’t tell you not to watch this. I will tell you that the scene with the song “Prescription Beer” is astounding and I also wonder why there ever needed to be a werewolf here, but again. I’m just writing about these movies, not making them.
