DEAD HOWLING is an Australian indie zombie movie that pits a werewolf among the walking dead. The result? A cool concept overshadowed by a myriad of issues.

The story follows siblings Megan and Billy, who are forced to survive in a world overrun by zombies. Initially accompanied by their uncle (Temuera Morrison), the siblings are quickly left to fend for themselves when he's forced to sacrifice himself to save them. Luckily, the duo is immediately found by a lone wolf (literally) named Carter, who’s able to conveniently transform into a werewolf at will via a serum he concocted in an attempt to find a cure to this zombie plague.

Aside from the fact that there’s a werewolf in the group, the rest of the movie follows the standard tropes we normally see in these types of films: the survivors head towards a supposed safe zone and encounter enemies from both the living and dead variety along the way. Sadly, there are no surprises here.

As far as the cast goes, Carter is easily the most interesting and fleshed-out character, and not simply because he can transform into a werewolf. His tragic backstory, while hardly original, at least gives him a bit of emotional weight, especially in comparison to the siblings. And on the topic of the werewolf, the filmmakers luckily kept the look practical with a man in a suit, but due to budget restraints, the transformation itself was kept short and sadly with CG effects.

As for the zombies, they’re what you’d likely picture when you think of “zombies”—disheveled, white eyes, some blood around the mouth and slow moving. In other words, boring. And naturally they are only a threat when the plot conveniently calls for it. However, it is amusing to see the werewolf Carter completely destroy groups of zombies like some kind of boss in a video game.

Unfortunately, the action is few and far between, and even the scenes involving the werewolf shredding zombies are often cut short. The blood and gore are also surprisingly limited, which I suspect is another casualty of the film's modest budget. This leaves Carter and the siblings to carry the rest of the film, but the predictable writing and underdeveloped characters aren't nearly interesting enough to make up for the lack of action.

DEAD HOWLING is now available on Digital, DVD and Blu-ray in the UK.