If the people behind The Howling Reborn are to be believed, the reason why horror movies suck is because no one wants to see 40 year olds in the lead. Their solution was to hire a Harry Potter look alike and walk down the Twilight road instead of a Howling road. When someone thinks about The Howling, often fondly, placing it among the best werewolf movies (saying little, as most werewolf movies strangely blow), what comes to mind? A prolonged, awesome transformation scene a la An American Werewolf in London perhaps? Maybe 40 year old leads? Either way, you probably conjure up in your head, I don’t know, a giant werewolf? So if you were to make another installment in this franchise, you’d think at the very least there would be a cool transformation scene and a big, bad ass werewolf. I think I would have preferred that you made this film, as The Howling Reborn is satisfied with their dopey, emo werewolf narrating his sad story rather than turning into a werewolf. Rather than anyone turning into a werewolf. Okay, so that’s not entirely true. There are werewolves in this movie. For a few minutes anyways.

In the cinematic world, protagonists face a lot of challenges. It can be Sasquatch or Yeti, German thieves or vaguely ethnic terrorists, zombies, aliens, werewolves, or vampires, and that’s just the exotic list. Our heroes might face down against a redneck hillbilly, a couple of gangbangers, or some cracked out carjacker. Simply put – it’s hard out there for a pimp. To combat these varied dangers, a hero must go armed. The proper choice of weapon depends on the threat faced, availability, and the environment. I’m not sure anyone has ever fought a hillbilly without the aide of a bow or crossbow, stopped a robbery without a pistol, or put down a zombie apocalypse without the use of a shotgun. In the face of such great dangers, you’d think that the protagonist would make sure that he and his companions were always well equipped to face adversity. But you’d be wrong.

After viewing the premiere back in June, it seemed like MTV’s Teen Wolf had plenty of bark but lacked bite, but after seeing the season finale, I have a feeling that statement was made under a personal bias against the supernatural beings genre as a whole, because frankly, the finale was down right awesome. Part of my problem with media of this type – the CW, teen friendly, I-love-you-even-though-you’re-a-monstrous-killing-machine media – is that often times it lacks substance (I know, this coming from the dude with a hard on for Michael Bay). Usually it’s a cheesy, skin deep love story that revolves around a black hole of emotionless nothingness. There’s simply no reason to care about what happens to anyone. And in the first episode, Teen Wolf did have that problem. The very quickly forming romance between Scott and Allison was everything I can’t stand, and it just left a bad taste. But what made Teen Wolf eventually work is that the show grew beyond that romance. It offered more relationships that didn’t even revolve around its main character.

Another one of those teen monsters in a doomed relationship movies is in the works and has found a director. This one has the very utilitarian title Monster Love. It is written by comic book writer Greg Pak (of “World War Hulk” fame), and is the story of a young werewolf boy and a young vampire girl who fall into a doomed romance. Or as a hilariously on the nose press release puts it, “It’s Romeo and Juliet with fangs.” Well, I guess that makes sense. You can’t really describe it as being “Twilight with fangs” or even “Buffy and Angel with fangs”. But this one looks to have more to offer than just forbidden love. It seems like it will have a bit more action than the other monster melodramas. The same release goes on to say, “ … when some mangled bodies are discovered in the woods, Pete and Maggie must fight for their lives while grappling with the awful consequences of loving a monster.” Mysterious murders, fighting for your life, script written by a comic book guy; this might not be as bad as it sounds at first. Especially when you factor in that the director they got to put it together is living legend Joe Dante. Yes, that Joe Dante. The guy who did Piranha and The Howling. The genius behind Gremlins and The ‘burbs. Heck, he even did a few episodes of Eerie, Indiana. I would go as far as to call him the undisputed [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

There are few sentences in this world that I’ve wanted to write more than that one, and the chance to do so was created by Production Weekly claiming that: “Move over Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter here comes FDR: American Badass – Franklin Roosevelt vs. Werewolves – filming next month in LA.” Who in the? For a production that’s starting next month, there’s no other information about it anywhere, which means it might just be some sort of Asylum knock off. But that’s ridiculous. Asylum would never have an American icon in a wheelchair battling giant wolf-men. Oh, no wait. That’s exactly what they’d do. I’m only on board if it ends with him sending his wife to be ambassador to the Werewolf-led United Nations. Or if Polio somehow causes people to turn into werewolves. Either way.

Episode: “Evil is Going On” (Season 3, Episode 12) Synopsis: Season 3 comes to a close as Eric’s plan against Russell moves into its final act. In the middle of that, Sookie finds out the truth about both her vampire suitors. Elsewhere, Jason and Sam each face up to the new challenges in their lives. Review: My first reaction to the third season finale of True Blood is “meh.” Not because it was bad, just because when you compare it to previous season finale’s it doesn’t really stack up. There weren’t any real shocking moments, there were no spectacular deaths, and, secure in the knowledge of a fourth season, few things were wrapped up and a few storylines were left wide upon.

Episode: “Night on the Sun” (Season 3, Episode 8) Synopsis: Sookie reevaluates her relationship with Bill while Jason takes the next step forward with Crystal. King Russell makes a move on Sookie while Alcide is away and Eric plays two gambits with bloody results. Review: Finally! A fantastic episode. While season 3 has been good, it was far from great in my opinion, until tonight. Sure the werewolves are still pussies (I have to say that every review, contractually) but there was a lot going on this week that was very engaging.

Episode: “Hitting the Ground” (Season 3, Episode 7) Synopsis: Sookie manages to free Bill, who remains at death’s door. Meanwhile, Sam confronts the Mickens’ over their dog fighting activities while Eric and the King of Mississippi advance on their goals. Review: This episode was 50/50 for me. I really dug the subplots of Sam, Jason, and Eric, who got pretty decent screen time, but I wasn’t a fan at all of the Sookie stuff, though it reveals, presumably, something about who or what she really is.

Episode: “I Got a Right to Sing the Blues” (Season 3, Episode 6) Synopsis: Tara attempts to mount a rescue of Sookie and Bill when all are being held at the King of Louisiana’s residence. Meanwhile, Eric and the King head off to ‘negotiate’ with the Queen of Mississippi while Sam finds out disturbing news about his families income source. Review: If you’d thought that True Blood was lacking in blood so far, then tonight was for you. With dead vampires, torture, skull cave-ins, and plenty of the red stuff soaking into the floors, this was possibly the bloodiest episode of the entire series. But does all that blood mean it’s good?

Episode: “Trouble” (Season 3, Episode 5) Synopsis: Multiple storylines careen towards each other as the psychotic vampire detective Franklin brings Tara to the Vampire King of Mississippi, which brings Tara and Bill face to face. If that weren’t enough, Sookie’s search takes pause when the Mississippi vampires decide to look for her, instead.

Episode: “9 Crimes” (Season 3, Episode 4) Synopsis: Bill reaches out to Sookie in an unexpected way while she continues her search with the aide of the werewolf Alcide.  In Bon Temps, Andy is promoted to Sheriff, causing a jealous and misguided Jason to demand a job on the police force. Things with Eric go south when the Magistrate shows up at Fangtasia on the trail of some vampire blood peddlers. Review: The first really great episode of the third season has arrived.  Yes, the last two were good, but felt rushed and awkward for the most part.  With things settled down considerably, we get more meat and less teasing throughout all the storylines.

Struggling in what feels like a horror dry-spell, for this week’s report I turned to others to help direct me towards a film to review. Fellow horror hound Rob Hunter bravely stepped forward and recommended I check out Animals, currently streaming on Netflix. Now, when I say bravely, I mean cowardly, because this film has been tied up in development hell for years, faced all sorts of troubles in getting made, and was dumped straight into the video world. Hunter, perhaps in an attempt to dodge a bad bullet, set me on the case.

With a thousand plot lines concurrent and no signs of slowing, we weigh in on the third episode of True Blood Season 3.

Bill faces off with his werewolf captors, only to discover the supernatural being commanding them is the last one he’d expect. Back in Bon Temps, things aren’t much saner as Sookie continues her search.

The sexed up, violent and ever-unpredictable world of True Blood is back in business. And we’re back in Bon Temps with all the supernatural citizens of Louisiana and we’d like you to come along. We promise plenty of nudity and a smattering of werewolves.

Contrary to popular belief, I not only can read, but occasionally acquire books and enjoy them. In my travels, when I come across an especially interesting or cool book, I like to pass it on to you fellow horrorhounds. This go round the mulberry bush I’ve come across a neat little book from Peter Pauper Press.

Veteran horror comic book writer Tim Seeley is switching gears from serial killers to vicious mandogs. Or werewolves, something like that.

We hand pick 10 of the deadliest, most badass monsters to ever grace the silver screen, then toss those out and substitute our favorites.

The first teaser trailer for New Moon is out and negates any need of really seeing the first twenty or so minutes of the film. So, that’s good.