Dead Howling Movie Review
Greetings Readers! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve dropped my two cents in. But I’m back with my take on a new offering just in time for your Halloween Hangover!! Oh boy, do I have a treat for you! And what could be better than a werewolf-versus-zombie flick, yeah?
So, I’m just going to jump in and tell you what I thought of a tale called Dead Howling brought to us from the minds of James Pickering and John V. Soto. This movie is a bloody romp about a lone werewolf and two teen-aged sidekicks battling their way through savage zombies in a post-apocalyptic, virus-ravaged world. They travel the Australian countryside to find a supposed safe haven. However, things aren’t as they appear. I mean…are they ever in these situations?
Dead Howling is an entertaining, engaging watch that takes werewolf tropes and gives them a spin. The full moon lore doesn’t play a part in how the wolf turns in this movie.
The wolf, Carter (Joel Jackson), is a loner who we learn has lost his family thanks to the horror of the virus. While Carter was working in a lab, he’d developed a serum that eventually turned him into a werewolf. He uses it in self-defense and keeps it in an Epi-pen type of system. More specifically, he uses it to help him survive against the other citizens who have been turned into zombies. So, he’s holed up and lives in isolation with enough supplies for himself, mainly weapons, canned beans and bottles of booze to keep him sated.
Uncle Tony (Temura Morrison) and two teens, Megan (Tea Heathcote-Marks) and Billy (Riley Stiles), are traveling toward a supposed safe haven. Their plans unravel when zombies attack and kill Tony.
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Carter witnesses the attack and uses his “superpower” to defeat the zombies, rescue the teens and take them back to his bunker. After secrets emerge and trust develops, Carter and the teens set out again for the safe haven being advertised on AM radio.
Dead Howling follows Carter, Megan and Billy as Carter takes on a protective role over the kids. He teaches them how to tell the signs of those who are transitioning from the state of being alive and infected and how to take them out, as well as how to take out the ones who are completely zombified. Essentially lessons taken from The Walking Dead.
They encounter obstacles along the way, and results are predictable yet satisfying. One such obstacle includes a fake “safe” haven scenario harboring something worse than zombies for the group to deal with.
They eventually make it to the actual safe place. However, they find out that it isn’t all they’d thought it would be.
Dead Howling is a satisfying watch, overall. The werewolf transformation and makeup aren’t An American Werewolf In London-tier, but they aren’t terribly hokey. The zombie makeups are effective. The level of gore is appropriate, not too over the top. It’s a solid offering from the company that brought us such fan favorites as Dog Soldiers and Terrifier. The characters are likeable and believable enough to root for, the result of decent performances all around.
If you want to watch DEAD HOWLING for yourself—and I suggest you do—it celebrated its UK premiere at Tubi FrightFest Halloween 2026 on October 31 and is now available on Digital, DVD and Blu-ray. So, add this to your post-Halloween watchlist and have a good time with it!
