DEAD HOWLING (2026)

Indie horror sci-fi crossover Dead Howling pits zombies against werewolf in a post-apocalyptic Australia that introduces a new grisly Aussie hero.

Tina Turner once sang “We Don’t Need Another Hero”. Clearly director John V. Soto (Avarice) doesn’t agree. His sixth feature Dead Howling delivers an Australian-bred superhero in the form of a werewolf who munches his way through a zombie-plagued Western Australia, carving out a bloody niche in the local genre landscape.

Dead Howling stars Joel Jackson as Carter, a crusading scientist who inadvertently becomes a werewolf after a lab accident gone wrong. After his family is killed in the early stages of a global zombie outbreak, a vengeful Carter takes it upon himself to protect a pair of teen siblings (Téa Heathcote-Marks and Riley Stiles) on their quest for sanctuary, driven by a mix of guilt and grim purpose.

With its rare zombies-versus-werewolf setup, Dead Howling works better as a superhero exploitation film that heavily evokes the cult TV series The Incredible Hulk. Carter’s predicament is more science-based than supernatural, and the man-to-monster transformations signal the arrival of a grisly hero rather than a terrifying monster.

The practical creature effects by Russell Sharp and his Sharp FX team are effective, with the transformation scenes a good example of how Australia’s old-school special effects craftsmen still hold their own against bigger budgets. By contrast, the zombies themselves are of the slow, shuffling kind and very generic in look, lacking the personality or visual invention given to the lycanthrope.

Where Dead Howling loses its bite is in its generic plotting, which is very reminiscent of 28 Days Later in structure. Soto could also have injected a little more fun into the deathly serious proceedings. There is a feral beast in Dead Howling itching to be unleashed, yet it never quite gets the chance to fully run wild. Regardless, there is plenty of werewolf-to-zombie-to-human bloodshed to keep gorehounds happy.

Heathcote-Marks and Stiles are effective enough in their roles as vulnerable, at times know-it-all teens, giving the story a necessary human centre amid the mayhem. Dead Howling, however, is Joel Jackson’s movie all the way through, with his movie-star charisma and physicality used well.

Soto, for his part, knows how to make the most out of little, with Dead Howling another solid outing for the Perth filmmaker.