Dead Howling
It went from the first cases, lockdown unsuccessfully attempted in hopes of containing the virus in quarantine, to the full collapse of civilisation in six months, humanity now on the edge of extinction with no formal government remaining, the survivors who cling on doing so with no support or hope of rescue, Megan and Billy travelling with their uncle Tony across southwest Australia to what they hope may be a sanctuary in Kalamunda just outside Perth.
Hopping from car to car as each runs out petrol, no infrastructure meaning no way to refuel, they are caught short and surrounded, the kids making a run for shelter while Tony fights off the infected, but happenstance brings them unexpected salvation, at least for a moment, the arrival of Carter from his nearby shelter, a research scientist who before the epidemic was working with canids to extend their lifespans and took a wild chance on his experimental serum.
Directed by John V Soto from a script co-written with James Pickering, Dead Howling plays like the idea was conceived while astonishingly drunk and inexplicably they never reconsidered when they sobered up, Carter (Joel Jackson) perhaps best explaining the failings of the premise when he tells his new friends that, making no progress, he fed his unsuccessful results into an artificial intelligence engine he had designed which turned out the formula that transforms him into a generic videogame werewolf.
With Téa Heathcote-Marks and Riley Stiles as Megan and Billy, despite the film being sold on the broad muscular backs of The Mandalorian‘s Temuera Morrison and True Blood‘s Ryan Kwanten as Uncle Tony and Corporal Reynolds, both are only supporting roles, the only other character of semi-significance Laura Maitland’s Sandra, another survivor picked up on the road who looks to God to guide her, though how any of them have lasted this long is unclear.
Without adequate plans or preparations, leaving doors open, failing to keep watch, sitting with the car window rolled down, more concerned about the heat than the possibility of a zombie leaning in and delivering an infected bite, with no self-awareness and no hint they are going to learn any Dead Howling barely supports any logic, Carter extending his protection to the kids but leading them straight into a trap in a dog-eat-dog world without any precautions.
Stake Land having done the horror road movie better, Wyrmwood having twisted zombies into something more original and WolfCop head and hairy shoulders above this, Australian horror has produced many classics influenced by that unique culture of isolation and endurance, but this is not one of them, wandering cluelessly around darkened corridors in search of an original idea, Carter positing that the zombies are evolving intelligence when it is more likely it is the company he keeps which is screamingly dumb.
Following its UK premiere at FrightFest, Dead Howling will be available on digital download, DVD and Blu-ray from Monday 2nd November
