Dorathen Better Late Then Never

SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

lennietofft The three previous films had beautiful scenery, they were imaginative, unique. This one just appears dull and boring in comparison. There is almost no action, and no special effects until the very end, which makes it more like a drama than a horror film. Those who like mystery/drama may like this, but for those who enjoy horror films, there's too little out of the ordinary going on for the most of the time. The quality of the film as a whole, is more at a level you'd expect from an episode of a series, than you would from a film.

Rainey Dawn This film is terrible. I got more entertainment out of parts 2 and 3 - at least they were comical - this one is just flat out boring. I give them credit for trying to create a serious, non campy, werewolf flick but why so boring, so drab? I saw this one years ago and I couldn't recall anything about it, tried watching it again recently and now I know why the film didn't stand out in my mind - it's just bad.The lead male looks like David Copperfield's long lost illegitimate son. The lead female is rather bland - but then again so is the rest of the cast.I think I'll just leave this one in the past where it belongs. Not worth finishing the movie - leave it as a distant, fading memory.2/10

Wuchak Released in 1988, "Howling IV: The Original Nightmare" chronicles events in the Southern Cal desert town of Drago, where a writer (Romy Windsor) goes to heal after a mental breakdown, which is hard to do when she gets caught up in a mystery about demons and werewolves. Michael T. Weiss plays her husband while Antony Hamilton plays her hunky friend from Los Angeles. Susanne Severeid appears as a fan of the writer who becomes her assistant sleuth while Norman Anstey in on hand as the aloof sheriff. Lamya Derval plays a shop-owner with cat-like eyes and torpedo breasts (sorry). The movie's subtitled "The Original Nightmare" because it's more faithful to Gary Brandner's original novel, which doesn't mean it's better, not even close. The low-budget prevents it from being anything more than a decent sequel with a rushed, awkward ending. Unlike the classic "The Howling" (1981), werewolves are scarce, but it's superior to "Howling II" (1985) and "Howling III" (1987) in that it throws out Phillippe Mora's goofy camp and general eccentricities. I like the slow-build mystery and the cast. There's some quality full moon ambiance as well and Windsor & Severeid make for an effective female team. Moreover, Weiss is one of the few actors who could get away with a mullet. While the bulk of the movie was shot in the sticks of South Africa, and you can tell, it's not THAT bad of a substitute for the desert wilderness of Southern Cal. Actually, it makes for an interesting change of pace for the barely-connected series of stand-alone werewolf flicks. The film runs 94 minutes and was shot in South Africa with some parts in Fresno & Los Angeles, California. It was directed by John Hough from a script by Clive Turner and Freddie Rowe. Clive would continue serious work with the franchise on 1989's "Howling V: The Rebirth" and 1995's "Howling: New Moon Rising." GRADE: C+

b_kite An author (Romy Winsor) who was sent to the small town Drago, because of a nervous breakdown, gets wound up in a mysterious mystery about demons and werewolves. She starts seeing ghosts and dismisses them as her own imagination, but when they turn out to be real, she starts to get suspicious of the odd town and of its past. This one has some talent behind it, directed by John Hough who also directed such horror films as Twins of Evil (1971) and The Legend of Hell House (1973), one has to say that Howling IV: The Original Nightmare has to be one of the weaker films in the series, for starters it was the first in the series to get the direct-to-video treatment which is what the rest of the series would all be subject to, and second you can see they where operating on a shoe string budget as the sets are limited as are the variety of actors. It is a so so remake of Joe Dante's original film, and declares that it is closer to the source material to Gary Brandtner's novels, but, what this film tries to do is develop a slow burn concept just like in the original film, in that film you really didn't know you were dealing with werewolves until the middle of the story here you don't even here the word "werewolf" until about 1 hour into the film and then its just a passing occurrence, that would be fine but it doesn't help that this film is the fourth entry in a line of werewolf films, and doesn't help that you have a picture of one on your cover, so by this time the secret is up and there's no way in hell the slow burn concept is going to work and it winds up just killing the film and making it boring as everyone knows whats going on and what the main monster is in the film. That was one thing about the second and third sequels director Phillipe Mora never developed a slow burn effect nor was afraid to come out and say his films were about werewolves, that's the problem here. But, still when released this film won Fangoria's Golden Chainsaw award for best direct-to-video release of 1988, so I guess that's something.As for the acting its once again nothing to brag about, since it was filmed in South Africa to probably save costs most of the characters dialogue seems dubbed and i think it is, are main lead Romy Windsor is rather wooden in her performance as are main heroin, and her husband played by future "Pretender" star Michael T. Weiss isn't much better. The special effects are pretty good tho as we have a great creepy melt scene were a man melts and comes back to life as a werewolf which doesn't make any since but is cool as hell anyways, it looks to be what most of the films budget was probably used for, most of the wolves are obviously played by dogs, which isn't that bad and we have a werewolf costume which looks creepy as all hell and the townspeople all make partial transformations which once again goes back to the budget. As for violence and nudity, the melt scene is probably the worst and a man pulls his face off in one scene and a man is scratched by a werewolf, Lamya Derval shows off her breasts, in one scene, and also her very bad acting in several scenes, a Elisabeth Brooks she is not.All in all, Howling IV: The Original Nightmare winds up being a boring film mostly because of the fact that it tries to keep the fact its a werewolf movie a secret which by the fourth time is just plain stupid, other issues include bad acting, horrible dialogue , and very bad choppy editing, it could have been one of the better entries in the series, I manage to sit throw it mostly due to my liking and tolerance for b grade movies, but, I try to be straight about these types of films and other horror fans probably wont be as patient as me, so its worth the watch if you have the patients for it.