Howl (2015 film)

Howl is a direct-to-video 2015 British indie horror monster movie, directed by Paul Hyett and starring Ed Speleers.

Howl
Film poster
Directed byPaul Hyett
Produced byEd King
Martin Gentles
Written byMark Huckerby
Nick Ostler
StarringEd Speleers
Sean Pertwee
Holly Weston
Shauna Macdonald
Elliot Cowan
Rosie Day
Calvin Dean
Duncan Preston
Ross Mullan
Music byPaul E. Francis
CinematographyAdam Biddle
Edited byAgnieszka Liggett
Distributed byStarchild Pictures
Pathé
Release date
  • 5 August 2015 (2015-08-05) (Fantasy Filmfest)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Alpha Trax train guard Joe Griffin (Ed Speleers) arrives at Waterloo Station in time after completing his shift on one of the passenger trains. When he is getting ready to leave, he opens his locker and finds a note in it which says that he has not been yet promoted. He is then confronted by his rival David, who is the new supervisor now. David tells him that he has to do a shift on one of the overnight passenger trains, which is scheduled to depart London at midnight under a full moon. Joe at first refuses, saying that he has already completed his shift but David threatens to fire him unless he does the shift. Seeing no other option, Joe agrees to do the shift. When he gets in the train and the train starts moving, he starts collecting tickets from passengers, many of whom who despise him. While he is doing this, he meets his unrequited love, the tea-trolley girl, Ellen (Holly Weston), who consoles him for being turned down for a promotion.

After a lot of passengers have gotten off on the previous stations and the final station is Eastborough, A group of passengers is left, consisting of Kate (Shauna Macdonald), Adrian (Elliot Cowan), Matthew (Amit Shah), Billy (Sam Gittens), Nina (Rosie Day), Paul (Calvin Dean) and Ged (Duncan Preston) and his wife Jenny (Ania Marson). An hour after departure, the train is travelling through a remote and forested part of the English countryside (later revealed to be the fictitious "Thornton Forest"), in a mobile communication "dead zone". Here the train is forced to undergo an emergency brake to prevent a derailment when a deer runs onto the track line. Joe checks on the passengers and assures them to be calm. The train driver Tony (Sean Pertwee) goes outside to remove the body of the deer from the undercarriage. Whilst outside, Tony gets the deer's blood on him, which attracts the attention of an unknown humanoid creature, later revealed to be one of the werewolves, who suddenly attacks Tony from the trees. He is brutally eviscerated; discarded in the woods soon afterwards.

Meanwhile, the passengers inside the stranded Alpha Trax are all initially strangers, and demand that Joe get the train moving. The already strained situation is deepened when the train's fuel lines are severed and the radio antenna gets destroyed in a series of attacks, and subsequently the passengers are cut off from the rest of the world. After Joe discovers that Tony is missing, he tries to convince everyone to remain calm, but Adrian convinces everyone that the best choice is to disembark and walk towards the nearest station. Joe is reluctant at first, thinking that he might end up losing his job but agrees. Joe leads the group away from the train, telling everyone to stay together. None of them realize that they are being followed by someone.

While they are walking, Matthew senses that there is something nearby. Joe assures him that it must be a deer. But it starts to get nearer. Joe then goes a little far away and soon discovers the disemboweled body of Tony. When Ellen asks him what is it, he whispers to her to tell everyone to run back to the train. They all immediately rush as the howls begin. They all get inside but Jenny gets bitten by a werewolf (one of several) on her leg as they try to drag her into the safety of the train(which they are eventually able to do). The group try to help Jenny, who is in obvious and extreme pain, now having a very deep heavy wound on her leg which is cleaned with water and is bandaged. The group sits around debating what was the actual thing that attacked and wounded Jenny. Adrian thinks that it was a bear, but Nina tells him that bears don't howl. Billy tells them that a dog or a wolf couldn't bite that big. Jenny tells them that it felt like it was more like a man than an animal. Suddenly, the bathroom door bangs. Everyone think that the creature might have got inside the train. Joe goes with Adrian and Billy to kill it with a fire extinguisher, but it turns out to be Paul. When Paul sits with the rest in the cabin, Kate goes to check on Nina when the werewolf attempts to get in through the door. Nina's phone begins to ring, and just as she answers it much to the group's irritation, the werewolf smashes through a window, grabbing her and dragging her through much to Kate's horror. She tries to help, but Matt jumps in and stops her from doing so. Nina is heard screaming from the roof of the train and her blood begins to pour down a window.

Everyone begin to panic and argue but Ged tells them that they are all just baits stuck in a train and tells them that if they keep on fighting, that thing out there is going to get them, one by one. He motivates the remaining passengers to reinforce all the windows in the cabin to help prevent further entries by the werewolves. When Jenny's condition starts to get worse(such as coughing up blood and losing her human teeth), everyone checks on her but Joe realizes that Paul is missing. He realizes that he is in the bathroom which is through a door that they have heavily reinforced. Adrian tells them that he is gone but Joe still goes to check on him. When he checks on him, Paul is still in the bathroom but gets killed by the werewolf when it gets in the train through the bathroom. Joe gets back to the others and they reinforce the door again. Unfortunately, the werewolf breaks the door, enters the cabin and terrorizes everyone. It is eventually killed by all of the other passengers fighting together. After they have killed it, they sit around to look at and debate what the thing is. Matt tells them that it is indeed a werewolf; a hybrid between a man and a wolf. They notice a ring on the creature's finger, indicting that it was once a human. Matt theorizes that the werewolves possess a disease or suffered a mutation that caused them to become what they are. Adrian then says that it may be caught through a bite, and they all look suspiciously at Jenny and Ged. Ged recalls a similar event happening in exactly the same place - the Great Thornton Forest Rail Crash of 1963 - whereby all the passengers were found disemboweled and/or partially eaten the following morning. He says that he didn't knew what was the cause of it and didn't give it much attention afterwards. Now, he knows what really happened during that incident, connecting the pieces of the puzzle together.

Suddenly, the werewolf howls, showing that it is still alive. Joe kills it this time by bashing its head in with a fire extinguisher. But its cries manage to alert the rest of its nearby pack, who are now also drawn to the train. Jenny also starts to act strange such as beginning to growl. Adrian tells the group that she is becoming one of them and tries to kill her by strangling but gets punched in the face by Joe. He orders the others to tie both Adrian and Jenny up, also telling Kate to look after them. Billy offers to help repair the train, and is accompanied by Matthew to act as a lookout. However, he is distracted by calls for help, and wanders into the forest. There, he is confronted and killed by three werewolves just when he discovers the half eaten body of Nina(who is still barely alive and attempting to call for help) up in a tree in the process of still being eaten. Billy manages to repair the train enough so that Joe can start it. However, with the werewolves circling the train, Billy is forced to hide by pulling himself up into the undercarriage as the train starts moving. Kate is thrown out of the train by Adrian and killed by the werewolves even when she begs for mercy. While trying to hold on, Billy accidentally pulls on the fuel line, which disables the train again.

Meanwhile, Jenny has almost fully transformed into a werewolf, kills Ged who still thought that she was sick, and is about to attack Adrian when she is killed by Joe. Joe furiously confronts and attacks Adrian for causing's Kate's death, to which Adrian responds that if he hadn't been tied up, she would still be alive. As the other werewolves board the train, Adrian traps Joe and Ellen in the train and jumps off, leaving them to fight for themselves. Billy arrives to help fight off the werewolves, but is soon killed as Joe and Ellen escape into the forest. With the werewolves in pursuit, Joe tells Ellen to keep running while he fights the werewolves. Ellen reluctantly and tearfully does so. Joe manages to hold them off for a brief period with a weapon until he is overpowered and apparently killed. Ellen makes it to the nearest station; walking in a daze, covered in blood, and holding Joe's tag.

The final scene shows Adrian wandering through the forest the next morning looking for paths back to civilization, and then starts calling Joe's name once he finds his ruined and bloodied clothing. He finally finds his once friend in a clearing, but Joe has now nearly transformed into a full werewolf, having survived been bitten earlier. Joe then attacks Adrian off screen and presumably kills him while the original werewolves watch from within the nearby trees.

Cast

Production

Howl was directed by Paul Hyett, previously known for his effects collaborations with fellow British horror film director Neil Marshall.[1] Hyett had previously been a special effects, creature, prosthetic and make-up designer for Marshall's earlier films such as Doomsday, The Descent, Centurion, and Dog Soldiers; the latter 2002 film also a werewolf movie. Actress Shauna Macdonald played the lead role Sarah in The Descent, and also has a starring role in Howl. Sean Pertwee starred in Dog Soldiers and also has a role in Howl. Paul Hyett also worked on the effects for the British horror films The Woman in Black and Attack the Block.

The interior train shots were filmed in Croydon, London, and London Waterloo station in Lambeth. Exterior shots were filmed in the Black Park Country Park adjacent to Pinewood Studios.[2]

Marketing and Release

Marketing

The Horror Addict channel on YouTube premiered the official trailer for Howl on 13 May 2015. The video currently has almost two and a half million views.[3] A total of three different official trailers for the film were released over the summer.

Four different film posters have been released; one showing a bloodied, inhuman claw in sky, hovering over the train, and variations of; one of glowing eyes looking through a window over bloodstained seats; and the final poster is a bloodied human hand on the window, with a full moon outside.[4][5]

Release

The film had no theatrical release, but was shown at a number of international film festivals before its release on home video. Howl first premiered at Fantasy Filmfest which was held in Germany on 5 August 2015. It was subsequently shown at Film4 FrightFest in the United Kingdom on 31 August, and Popcorn Frights Film Festival in the United States on 3 October.

The DVD release date was initially set for 16 October,[6] but has been pushed back closer to Halloween at 26 October. In the UK market the DVD will be age rated 18, due to disturbing imagery, and graphic and bloody violence.

Reception

The film was met with a generally positive response and currently has a rating of 62% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 13 reviews.[7]

Kate Muir of The Times negatively likened the film to Snakes on a Plane, giving it two out of five stars. "Soon it all gets bloody as the (somewhat unconvincing) lycanthrope goes loco on the locomotive."[8]

Luiz H. C., one of the critics of horror film magazine and website Bloody Disgusting, gave the film a positive review with three-and-a-half out of five stars, saying that: "Howl is a fun and frightening romp".[9] Pat Torfe, also of Bloody Disgusting, gave the film four out of five stars, saying that: "Howl lives up to its title in many ways."[10]

Kim Newman of Empire Magazine gave the film three out of five stars, and said of the film: "An unashamed B-movie, but unashamed fun."[11] Mark Kermode of The Observer: "Engagingly sympathetic portrayals of stoical working women and harassed railway guards keep us on side as the action rattles through familiar generic junctions."[12] Hannah McGill of The List: "The black humour hits home without breaking the tension, while the gore - as one might expect given Hyett's background in makeup effects - is grimly convincing."[13] Garry McConnachie of The Daily Record: "There's still much to admire and enjoy."[14]

Mark McConnell of paranormal magazine Fortean Times gave the movie 8 out of 10, saying: "The film's climax made me wonder if it wasn't the director's exploration of interpersonal relationships between men and women that made me want to watch it a second time. Hats off to Hyett, who has taken the mundane British Rail journey and turned it into a feast of bloody horror."[15]

gollark: Would anyone be interested in a Chorus City mall with preprovided basic shop equipment?
gollark: Or learn weird exotic ones like Haskell.
gollark: .
gollark: Anyway. Find ones which look nice/useful, try to learn
gollark: Scripting languages is an arbitrary distinction.

References
  1. Bloody Disgusting
  2. "Howl (2015)". Internet Movie Database.
  3. Howl (2015) Official Trailer. YouTube. 13 May 2015.
  4. "UHM - Upcoming Horror Movies - Movie - Howl". upcominghorrormovies.com.
  5. "Howl (2015)". Internet Movie Database.
  6. Internet Movie Database
  7. "Howl". rottentomatoes.com. 13 April 2019.
  8. "Howl". The Times.
  9. Bloody Disgusting
  10. Bloody Disgusting
  11. "Empire's Howl Movie Review". empireonline.com.
  12. Kermode, Mark (18 October 2015). "Howl review – blood on the tracks in a low-budget railway horror". The Guardian.
  13. "Howl". The List.
  14. Garry McConnachie (7 September 2015). "Movie review: Howl (15)". dailyrecord.
  15. Fortean Times, Issue 333 November 2015, p.63
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