Dead Howling follows Carter, a former scientist who developed a serum while attempting to stop a plague. The treatment turns him into a lycanthrope, allowing him to transform into a vicious canine as he fights through hordes of flesh-eating Zombies.
After briefly encountering Megan and Billy, two teenagers trying to reach a supposed safe zone within Perth, Carter becomes their reluctant protector. Their journey is shaped by his harsh survival methods, including forcing them to make their first unprotected kills in an abandoned school gymnasium.
The film’s central premise offers an unusual combination of werewolf and zombie horror, even introducing the term “wombie” when the possibility of a werewolf being bitten by a zombie is discussed. However, that idea is never explored, while the werewolf concept works against the film’s attempts at gritty realism.
Temuera Morrison appears briefly as the teenagers’ uncle before being overwhelmed by zombies. Joel Jackson plays Carter, a whiskey-drinking and emotionally damaged survivor still haunted by his failure to save his wife and child.
Beyond its central monster pairing, the film relies heavily on familiar apocalypse conventions, including a spreading virus, evolving zombies, survivor guilt, emotionally closed-off characters and painful decisions involving infected companions. Its final message of hope does little to counter the otherwise bleak and derivative tone.
Sources: The Guardian Film.