A mysterious British drifter named Ian Richards (Brendan Hughes) wanders into the small desolate town of Canton Bluff in Southern California. After a run in with the local Sheriff named Fuller (Gary Cervantes as Carlos Cervantes) he finds work with the towns Reverend named Dewey (Jered Barclay) fixing up his run-down church. Soon after Ian's arrival, a carnival called 'Harker's world of wonder' rolls into town. The owner R.B. Harker (Bruce Payne) collects freaks and shows them off to the paying public, along with various other lame fairground attractions that try to please any potential customer. Harker's latest freak is a man named Winston (Sean Gregory Sullivan) who has a deformity that makes his skin look like lizard scales, Harker decides to call him 'Alligator Boy'. At first the locals of Canton Bluff seem to enjoy Harker's carnival. Ian decides to take Dewey's daughter Elizabeth (Michele Matheson) to the opening night. They meet Harker. Harker feels he knows Ian but cannot remember from where or when. Harker tells one of his workers, Bellamey (Antonio Fargas) to spy on Ian. That night the full moon causes Ian to change into a werewolf which Bellamey sees and reports back to Harker. Harker captures Ian and puts him in his freak-show. Also that night Miss Eddington (Carol Lynley) who owns the town's bank, disappears. The town's mayor Roger Pruitt (Randy Pelish) and the locals believe Ian is responsible. But it seems that Harker himself isn't quite what he appears to be at first and is in Canton Bluff for rather more sinister reasons than he leads everyone to thinks. Who is Harker? Who is Ian? Why are they both in Canton Bluff? What secrets do they hide? Who will be able to halt the sudden and somewhat startling decline in the town's population? Watch it if you want to find out.
Directed by Hope Perello this is the fifth very loosely connected sequel to the Howling (1981) and was made between Howling V:The Rebirth (1989) and Howling:New Moon Rising (1995). As it stands Howling VI:The Freaks ain't actually that bad a film, it's just that it's not a particularly good one either. The script by Kevin Rock supposedly based on the novels by Gary Brandner (the film gives him a 'based on' credit at the beginning) is just too slow. The story definitely has potential which, in my opinion, has not been fulfilled or realised for the most part. The filmmakers should have had more confidence in their abilities and should have been more adventurous as this film could have been really good, there are good parts here and there but their too few and far between, which is a shame. If this had been cut down by around 10 or 15 minutes it would have flowed a lot better and kept my interest more. Or, alternatively the filmmakers could have written in a few more horror sequences. It's over half and hour into the film before any horror of any description happens. Prior to this it's character development and exposition, like letting the viewer know that the town is holding mayoral elections which in the eventual context of the film as a whole means absolutely nothing and past the opening few minutes it's never mentioned again. The special make-up effects are surprisingly impressive, especially Winston's lizard make-up and Harker's cool vampire make-up. There isn't much blood or gore, a chicken has it's head bitten off and a torture scene where someone is poked with a spike. Vampire Harker's final death sequence is also quite cool and impressive looking. The acting is OK with Bruce Payne's performance as the main villain Harker being quite enjoyable. The film is generally well made, not outstanding but perfectly acceptable under the low-budget circumstance's. Having said that the low-budget comes through when Harker captures Ian and locks him in a cage. The cage is supposed to be made from iron bars but whenever someone touches one they wobble, shake or bend rather easily considering their supposed to be solid iron. Don't lose any sleep if you haven't seen it as it's not that good but you could do a lot worse. Worth watching if you can catch it on T.V. for free or buy it on DVD cheap. I will give it a respectable but unspectacular 5 out of 10.
Directed by Hope Perello this is the fifth very loosely connected sequel to the Howling (1981) and was made between Howling V:The Rebirth (1989) and Howling:New Moon Rising (1995). As it stands Howling VI:The Freaks ain't actually that bad a film, it's just that it's not a particularly good one either. The script by Kevin Rock supposedly based on the novels by Gary Brandner (the film gives him a 'based on' credit at the beginning) is just too slow. The story definitely has potential which, in my opinion, has not been fulfilled or realised for the most part. The filmmakers should have had more confidence in their abilities and should have been more adventurous as this film could have been really good, there are good parts here and there but their too few and far between, which is a shame. If this had been cut down by around 10 or 15 minutes it would have flowed a lot better and kept my interest more. Or, alternatively the filmmakers could have written in a few more horror sequences. It's over half and hour into the film before any horror of any description happens. Prior to this it's character development and exposition, like letting the viewer know that the town is holding mayoral elections which in the eventual context of the film as a whole means absolutely nothing and past the opening few minutes it's never mentioned again. The special make-up effects are surprisingly impressive, especially Winston's lizard make-up and Harker's cool vampire make-up. There isn't much blood or gore, a chicken has it's head bitten off and a torture scene where someone is poked with a spike. Vampire Harker's final death sequence is also quite cool and impressive looking. The acting is OK with Bruce Payne's performance as the main villain Harker being quite enjoyable. The film is generally well made, not outstanding but perfectly acceptable under the low-budget circumstance's. Having said that the low-budget comes through when Harker captures Ian and locks him in a cage. The cage is supposed to be made from iron bars but whenever someone touches one they wobble, shake or bend rather easily considering their supposed to be solid iron. Don't lose any sleep if you haven't seen it as it's not that good but you could do a lot worse. Worth watching if you can catch it on T.V. for free or buy it on DVD cheap. I will give it a respectable but unspectacular 5 out of 10.