Deathmoon

In the 1970s, Robert Foxworth made a mini-career out of starring in such horror films as Prophecy, Incident at Lakewood Manor, The Omen II, and Invisible Strangler. Death Moon was his foray into classic monster film territory, and the film represents most of the elements that make made-for-TV 70's horror flicks so darn much fun.

Foxworth plays an overworked man who begins to have unsettling dreams. Taking a vacation to a Hawaiian resort, he discovers that the sins of his ancestors have been passed down to him as a blood curse. Under the full moon, he turns into a werewolf who chews his way through the resort's guests before a final confrontation in a lonely jungle hideaway.

Death Moon might not be great cinema, but it certainly is enjoyable for fans of 70's monster flicks. The werewolf effects are quite laughable, but that's part of the fun. This film will certainly disappoint fans of splatter and gore, as well as folks with high expectations of state-of-the-art special effects. But with its emphasis on character development and some winning supporting performances, this is a perfect film for a late-night, a bowl of popcorn, and a group of friends who grew up in the era of disco and leisure suits.

Oh my God, this movie stars Joe Penny!! I thought he never did anything apart from that horrendous cop show "Jake and the Fatman" and maybe some other cheesy TV-crap! Even in the late 70's already, he was a lousy and stupid-looking actor who exclusively portrayed womanizing macho men with limited brain capacity. And "Deathmoon" is everything you expect from a cheap and anonymous 70's TV-production! It's really boring with an incoherent plot and a complete lack of excitement! The basic given is perhaps original – werewolves in Hawaï – but the elaboration is truly poor and amateurish. Robert Foxworth (another antipathetic TV-actor) plays a overstressed businessman on vacation in Hawaï, but there he transforms into a hungry werewolf and kills fellow hotel guests. Apparently the reasons for all this is that his ancestor the missionary upset some of the aboriginals back in 1870 and they placed a werewolf curse upon his bloodline. Joe 'Jake' Penny plays the hunky hotel security guard who seduces stewardesses and wears idiotic shirts. The wolf make-up effects are miserable and there's absolutely no action on screen. Everyone always talks about horribly torn apart corpses, yet we don't get to see a single drop of blood. That's just unforgivably weak, even for a TV-movie. There's too much tedious exotic dancing going on and the dialogs are dreadful! Pure crap, avoid it like the plague.

Deathmoon recycles that hoary old horror cliché, the cursed descendant; in this case it's work-weary property developer Jason Palmer (Robert Foxworth) who pays for the sins of his great grandfather, a missionary who destroyed the sacred altar of a Polynesian tribe. When Jason takes a well-earned vacation to Hawaii, he finds himself cursed by Hawaiian witch Tapulua (France Nuyen) and changes into a werewolf whenever there is a full moon. Numerous guests at the resort are killed, and it is up to hotel detective Rick Bladen (Joe Penny) to try and solve the case.

A made-for-TV movie, Deathmoon is clearly restricted in what it can show in terms of gore and nudity (there's a very coy shower scene and the supposedly gruesome killings occur off-camera), while the meagre budget allows for just the one dreadful transformation scene, which uses clumsy dissolves between the different stages of werewolf make-up (and is no better than Lon Chaney's transformation in The Wolf Man decades earlier).

With limited sex and violence, director Bruce Kessler pads out his film with travelogue style scenery, pointless songs courtesy of a hotel singer, and a boring subplot about a room thief at large. Eye-candy is provided by Barbara Trentham as Jason's holiday romance partner Dianne, who naturally becomes the woman-in-peril in the film's predictable climax.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

CURSE OF THE HAWAIIAN WEREWOLF. Terror and horror under a Hawaiian full moon... Jaahaa, sounds cool, doesn't it? Think again...

While technically I remember this to be the very first werewolf film - or one of the first - I saw as a tiny little kid on a late night TV channel, I actually remembered little else of it (aside from the ending terrifying me). Probably because of the complete film being, uh, well, pretty much ballocks. What we got here, is a werewolf in Hawaii, in a motion picture flavored with ancient native sorcery (a curse, always scary stuff!), horribly colored shirts and dangerously short sporting shorts. All this could work, but it doesn't.

So what did I get out of this film? Well,... a lot of muzak (seriously, will you listen to all those hideous tunes on the soundtrack) and some great textbook examples of experimental cross-cutting. Sergej Eisenstein should see this - he'd be proud. And then there's Robert Foxworth running around in werewolf make-up. I imagine this film to be a very tedious watch for the regular viewer, but if you manage to place yourself in the minds of the people who made this, you'll have a hard time wiping that grin off your face. It's just so ridiculous how they put this movie together. Especially the "cleverly planned" romantic interludes between Foxworth and Barbara Trentham are always a hoot to which you can set a timer. But the most painful thing about this film, is that Foxworth is the actual werewolf. The viewer knows this from the start, but Foxworth's character doesn't (It's you, Foxworth! Wake up, man, it's YOU! ...aw, Christ!). He always wakes up every morning, but has no clue about what he'd been up to all night ("Hmmm, must have been too much sun and alcohol..."). Now, any film in which the viewer knows everything from the first minute, but all the other characters are running around trying to figure things out, is just a plain bore to sit through. In this case, an often funny bore, yes, but you'll be glad to see the credits roll after that final "shocking" surprise end-shot.

Finally, I can imagine one of the very first production meetings of this film having went a little as follows. Throw in a producer (P), director (D) and writer (W):

P: "Let's make a film about a guy going to Hawaii on a holiday and have him change into a werewolf every night."

D: "Great! I love werewolf movies. I want to direct one."

P: "Fine! Writer, figure something out to make the guy a werewolf."

W: "Okay, we could put a curse on him, because his ancestors were evil missionaries... or something."

P: "Wonderful angle! I like it! Anything else?"

W: "I could throw in a redundant subplot about a thief, robbing rooms. So the police can run around clueless."

P: "Excellent! Who's going to play the leading guy?"

W: "I suggest Robert Foxworth. He usually doesn't have a clue about the characters he's playing."

D: "Uh, could I direct some romantic interludes too? I like those."

P: "Yeah sure. Romance always works."

D: "What about tits? I want to shoot some naked breasts too."

W: "I could write a gratuitous shower-scene into the script"

P: "Okay for the shower-scene. But no tits. Remember, this is going to be shown on television. And put Foxworth in a shower somewhere too, for the ladies. But don't show his butt, D."

D: "Aw, darn. I like Foxworth's butt."

P: "Okay, all set then. W, you get your script ready in a week. I'll book us some tickets to Hawaii. I could use a holiday myself."

D: "Yipii! We're gonna make a werewolf movie in Hawaii!"

P: "Shut up, D. Go shoot this movie or you're not getting paid."

Sure they got away with this. It was the 70's. They got this movie made.

This TV horror movie from 1978 is about Robert "Falcon Crest" Foxworth playing a burnt out business man spending a week of vacation on Hawaii. As he is suffering from weird nightmares he's trying to find enough relaxation on the beautiful tiki island, but once he has arrived a series of cruel slayers started... He is shocked to find out that a witch has put a curse on him who is turning him to a werewolf at night as his ancestor was a brutal missionary who has violently tried to convert the native Hawaiians some hundred years ago.

For a TV flick, it's a well-done scary movie with a cool setting (cheap werewolf costumes in seventies Hawaii cocktail lounge locations), a weird electronic sound track and a stunning witch queen played by France Nuyen. Though the story and the thrills are a bit weak it's worth to watch!