FULL MOON FEVER feels like a high school play or home movie. It has been shown regionally to family and friends and the first showing was called a "premiere" and while this sort of thing can have loopy charms, this simply wasn't very good. It was made independently on a shoestring.
The "film" is written by, directed and stars David Lee Madison. A big part of the trouble is he's not real good at any of those jobs. This is a standard werewolf tale with all the familiar cliches, borrowing a few bits and pieces from BAD MOON and other older films like THE BOY WHO CRIED WEREWOLF. It mostly resembles that last one which is a pretty cheesy werewolf flick us monster kids know from watching Dr. "There Will Be Fright" Shock on WPHL. The main character has the same sort of family as that last one, except he's got a daughter played by the Madison's real daughter. That sorta adds to the home movie feel about this thing.
Madison plays an average dude attacked by a werewolf who becomes one. That's really all there is to the story except for him trying to find out why and having ridiculous nightmares. The dreams stuff is all pretty cheesy and felt like a time filler. You've seen it all before and better, but that's not really fair since this really isn't a professional film with a bunch of no name actors in the cast. There are You Tube vlogs with amateurs pulling off better makeup effects than what is in here. The blood on screen looked fake and the dialogue is always super on the nose with a few clumsy lines that I would have laughed at but I was being polite. This film means no harm and was seemingly made by the people who made it to enjoy watching it with their friends and family who are in it.
There are a couple of actors with some actual pro credits in this, Marianne Hagan and Scott Schiaffo who also did the music. He plays an oddball shrink and if you close your eyes, he sounds like Dennis Hopper. He's pretty good and actually got some decent acting talent and worked with Kevin Smith a few times. I hope to see him working with Smith again or in better things. He deserves it and seems like a cool guy. Hagan delivers her lines believably which is made harder when she interacts with the non pros in the cast which includes David Madison, if that makes sense.
I don't know if this will play in theaters since it's a real cheap straight to video thing. It's pretty amateur and I'm guessing it'll show on Tubi on the screen that recommends other werewolf movies to watch if you watch one of the big ones like the one with Benecio Del Toro which is my fave and the GOAT. Seemed like some nice people got to feel like stars making these. One of the stars also runs a realty business and many of them work other jobs.
