Scarlet Moon

Obvious within seconds by the sound track, aspect ratio and film quality of the opening scene - of a women stripping off and pleasuring herself to a lightbulb of some sort - that this is a turkey. There are no redeeming features, every character is appalling and a child with a mobile telephone could have produced better quality sound and vision than this garbage. Public spirit means that I give this a 2 because the imdb scoring algorithm clearly discounts, in effect, the 1 and 10 scores and its present rating of over 4 is inflated over and beyond the worth of this irredeemable turd. Avoid, not even laughs over a beer here.

It is difficult to give a synopsis of this film. I don't give too much away when I way it is about Satanya, who got bitten by a vampire in the 1960's, gained the eternal life and still lives as if the sixties were not over yet. She meets vampire Andreas and his sidekick Smoke who form a pact with the leader of a satanic cult . To say more would give too much away from this highly original film in which too much is going on to know where to begin retelling the story. No expensive computer graphics here, but I always find it ridiculous when people demand things to look real when dealing with subjects that aren't . But if you care for an original story, with a unique view on vampires, look no further than Warren F. Disbrow's film. Vampires are no sinister characters that appear unexpectedly for shock value, but three dimensional characters, interacting with each other in such a way that there is much more to them than just being scary. The character of Professor Herz, who also had a leading role in Warren Disbrows previous two films (available on the "Warren Disbrow Double Feature) and is again played by the director's father, makes an appearance here as some sort of modern Van Helsing kind of person, reluctantly interrupting his interesting research in the South American jungle, this time not to destroy aliens, but to fight the undead menace. The film has very dark and disturbing moments, wonderfully comedic scenes and great acting. With the limited funds Warren Disbrow has to his use, it is amazing he keeps producing new films that are impossible to turn off. One might wonder what a unique talent like him would accomplish with a budget of even twenty or thirty thousand dollars. But then on the other hand, that would also mean a restriction of the artistic freedom he now has, and Disbrow is a real auteur in every sense of the word. Any interference from others could only lessen the final result. Warren Disbrow is a genius, his films are fantastic. And this is one of his very best. The DVD also has, amongst many others, a feature length behind-the-scenes documentary that gives us some insight in how he manages to bring us this wonderful film, and a highly informative audio-commentary. You can't afford not to get this one if you look further than just flashy FX. Michael Bruce, from Alice Cooper's band in the heydays, also makes an appearance.

After watching and enjoying this movie, and in response to the completely unprofessional, unnecessary, slam of this film by another reviewer I decided to do some research to see what other people though of NY Times Critic's Choice director Warren F. Disbrow's Scarlet Moon. I personal enjoyed this movie very much. It did suffer from budget and maybe not the best acting but those are not the only things that make a movie. The story is good: Satanist trying to get their hands on this ancient Egyptian jewel called "Scarlet Moon" in order to rule the world, with their will being carried out by extremely entertaining, though a little over the top, vampire, drug addict, hit men. People need to pay more attention to Warren F. Disbrow. He is one of those rare filmmakers in our presences who will be remembered, for better or for worse, in the future, but WILL be remembered never the less. This is what I found: "Headed by Warren F. Disbrow in the seat of the writer, director, all around do everything guy, you just can't go wrong!" Marc Patterson, Film Critic.

"Wildly, weirdly resourceful no budget director Warren F. Disbrow helms this deranged horror comedy of apocalyptic Proportions" Turner Classic Movies.

"If Warren Disbrow is comparable to a genre David Lynch, then Scarlet Moon is his Dune. Dripping with ambition, dense with ideas and attempting the idiosyncratic, this determined effort at a new modern mythology works...Warren F Disbrow represents the reason independent film continues to thrive. Outside the mindless mainstream of demographically determined movie-making, he is a man who plays by his own arcane rules and puts his own unique stamp on even the most tired of terror tenets. And if that's not the definition of 'auteur', it's hard to imagine what is. Imagine what he could do with an actual mainstream budget. Scarlet Moon is highly recommended" Bill Gibron DVDTALK.

"He is passionate about what he does, and that's what appeals to us. I'm not saying he is Ingmar Bergman, but he's a true artist" Lloyd Kaufman, President of Troma Entertainment, Inc. quoted in NY Times.

A broken storyline that falls short of any logical progression, and has the feel of something written as an 8th grade class project. It is very obviously extremely low budget (there are many you-tube videos that show more effort at most likely even lower budgets). However, budget alone is no excuse for total failure at making any attempt to "fit" the scenes, although it may be an excuse for the total lack of special effects and childish "filming" of a fight scene. It is introduced as the year 2030, and absolutely no effort was made to make any scenes anything other than circa 2000. On the positive side, the gratuitous nudity several times provided a reason to not stop watching. It would seem the writer was simply having fun, and some people may find it amusing as long as they didn't have to pay to see it.