Full Moon Fever

Sure, I had never even heard about this 2023 horror movie titled "Full Moon Fever" prior to sitting down to watch it. I stumbled upon the movie by random chance, and with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, and given my love of all things horror, of course I opted o watch the movie. And the fact that it was a werewolf-themed horror movie just sweetened the deal.

However, this was a low budget horror movie, and not a particularly interesting or entertaining one at that. Writer David Lee Madison failed to pen down a script that provided me with much of any entertaining. And when the clown popped up in the movie and started to dance, that is when I called it quits; 40 minutes into the 74 minute runtime. I was just bored senseless by that point.

Needless to say that I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. And in all honesty, I will say that the acting performances were fair enough. Nothing outstanding or memorable, but not among the worst of performances I've seen in a movie.

Visually, well let's just say that the movie was low key. And points awarded for trying, at least. You're not in for a grand experience in horror cinema here, with the special effects used in "Full Moon Fever", let's just leave it at that.

Hardly a movie I would recommend to horror fans. Nor is it a movie that I will return to attempt finish watching.

My rating of writer and director David Lee Madison's 2023 movie "Full Moon Fever" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

There are filmmakers who are famous for being so inept people watch their movies with a mixture of astonishment and amusement since the movies these floppers make wind up being so unintentionally entertaining by being so completely awful!

Added to the list of goofball filmmakers that includes Ed Wood, Uwe Boll, Tommy Wiseau and James Nguyen is David L. Madison who may not only be the worst of the bunch but also the one with the biggest ego.

Madison's previous entry was an indie horror movie shot on digital called "Mister Hush" that somehow got limited theatrical showings. The reviews from critics and audiences were scathing. The Fandango page for the movie is filled with furious reviewers who thought they bought tickets for a horror film, but instead saw a horrible film. One reviewer took to You Tube screaming in rage, ending his review with a frantic warning to "stay away!"

Unfortunately, Mr. Madison hasn't learned from his mistake and went and made another movie.

And this time he stars in it.

For every classic werewolf movie like "An American Werewolf in London" there are terrible ones like "The Werewolf of Washington" but the makers of that stinker are now officially off the hook. Madison has most likely made the world's worst werewolf movie.

The plot of this thing is a mishmash of every werewolf story you've ever seen. Madison plays the main character Hunter (get it?) who gets the mark of the beast in the usual fashion and then proceeds to become irritable with all those around him and proceeds to have unintentionally hilarious hallucinations while whining about his fate and seeking answers to what happened.

Madison's performance makes Tommy Wiseau seem like Kenneth Branaugh. He tries in vain to look like a leading man but has a voice that sounds like Kermit the Frog. David Naughton in "An American Werewolf in London" was cast because he was a dancer in great shape. David Madison doesn't move well and looks pallid, almost like he's matching the pale of the moon.

The actual werewolf effects look like they were bought from a Halloween store in a lonely strip mall.

This is the sort of movie ready made for a comedy group like Riff Trax to perform against, mocking it at every incompetent turn. Without the riffs, this feels like a very long eighty minutes or so to sit through.

David Madison shares many of the same traits as a werewolf in that they unintentionally turn the people around them into victims. In this case, the victims are everybody that worked on "Full Moon Fever".

Went to see this in the Theater not really knowing what to expect. The movie clearly is low budget, but had some interesting people attached to it, so I gave it a chance. I am glad I did. The story follows a recently widowed man who lost his wife to Covid. As he is trying to adjust to this, his daughter leaves home to go to college. One fall night, as he is exercise walking, he is attacked by a huge wild animal who takes a chunk out of his arm. Over the next couple of weeks, the man starts to get sick, hallucinate, and have nightmares. None of this is reinventing the wheel, but where this movie really succeeds is in the claustrophobic feel it has. You feel like you are inside this guy's head. And the transformation seen though not high tech, is really disturbing for some reason. Scott Schiaffo (Clerks 1-3) does a particularly good job as the widowed man's psychiatrist Dr. Larry. For a small low budget movie, it is quit a formidable entry into Werewolf lore. Give it a look.

Sent down to watch this movie with my wife and mostly watched it in Fast Forward because after 20 minutes we could tell it was a total waste of time. The movie didn't even make sense in most parts. And the acting was terrible and the plot pretty much sucked. Do not waste your time on this movie. Thank goodness we watched it like we did and cut it down to just a few minutes stopping only now and again to make sure that the movie still sucked and it did.

This is the first time I've seen a movie by David Lee Madison. I thought it was cool to see something in a room with the guy who filmed it, and it was a fun movie.

The movie seemed to suffer from filming during covid, I wasn't told this, but you can kinda read between the lines for it. You don't see shots with a lot of people in it, and it creates a lonely feeling that does seem intentional when you consider the themes throughout the movie. It's definitely capturing the mindset of the creator from his experience during covid.

Where the film seemed most impacted though was that David Lee Madison was both the star and videographer, so shots with him in it were all on a tripod, without a lot of movement. Presumably, with this being filmed during quarantine, I believe a lot of these shots were done this way out of necessity though, and it is understandable. Though, there's a part of my brain conditioned to want far more cuts and camera angle changes, and camera movement. I do wish some establishing shots were cut a bit shorter though.

The film is acted mostly by David Lee Madison and his personal friends, and is kinda reminiscent of clerks. If you liked clerks, you'll probably enjoy this, if not, you probably won't. The pacing is similar and it too is about regular people living regular lives (except for the werewolf thing lol).

The scenes in the comic book shop are by far the best scenes, particularly the finale, because you have this movement and cutting you don't get when David is doing double duty. If you have a long shot from a tripod, your ability to edit is stunted, but the finale suffers none of these issues.

I see some one star reviews here, and I think they're not thinking of the film within the context of how it had to be filmed. For a film with very limited crew, David Lee Madison did pretty well. He filled most of the roles himself and told a unique werewolf story, which he executed in a time when most people weren't able to deliver anything at all.

Sure, I'd like to see a version of this made with more crew, cameras, and polish, but I'm happy with what I watched. Weirdly, seeing David make this under these constraints has motivated me to try and make something myself even. With helicopter footage and coreographers staging fights between actors that look like they were chiseled from stone, against CGI monsters that require teams of artists, it has always felt like making movies independently was just impossible.

All in all, it was a fun time watching this movie, and without the Hollywood polish, you can see the heart in this that's not in most movies. It's a guy with his family and friends, filming in an area far from the Hollywood sets, with the gear he had on hand from a career of making movies. It's a unique experience that's pretty good if seen through the propper lens. After watching it, you definitely feel like you know David Lee Madison a bit better, because it's clearly not filtered through the voice of some massive multimedia conglomerate.

I'm glad I saw it.