Bad Moon

Bad Moon (1996)

*** (out of 4)

Highly entertaining film from writer-director Eric Red has Janet (Mariel Hemingway) allowing her brother Ted (Michael Pare) to move in with her and her young son Brett (Mason Gamble). Everyone is happy about the idea except for her German Shepard dog who seems to have something against Ted. What Janet doesn't realize is that her brother was attacked by a werewolf and is now one himself.

I didn't see BAD MOON when it was originally released even though I love werewolf movies. I finally caught up with it on DVD and really enjoyed the movie so I decided to revisit it yet again on Blu-ray and I think it has gotten even better. Is the movie flawless? Of course not but at the same time there's no question that it's an entertaining horror film.

What I enjoyed most about the film is that there's not a tremendous amount of dialogue as the main "action" takes place between the uncle and the dog. I really loved this aspect of the story and it was fascinating watching the dog and his reaction to the Uncle. I loved the way the dog could see the dnager that his owners were in and this aspect of the film brought an original touch to a genre that has had countless movies in it.

The werewolf effects were quite good and I'd consider them old-fashion, which certainly isn't a bad thing. Some of the violence is quite graphic for its time and there's no question that the three leads are a lot of fun and work well together. The real star has to be Primo the dog who plays THor. He is such a great dog actor and you can't help but say he's one of the best in the history of cinema. Yeah, that's high praise but he's really that great and his reactions to things going on around here was just flawless.

BAD MOON isn't going to win any major awards but there's no doubt that it's a very good and highly entertaining film.

Mariela Hemmingway is superv in this action thriller about werewolves. Very well done and as a dog lover , I really appreciated Thor. This is a film that is under valued.

Honestly, I don't know what some people expect from werewolf movies these days. -They can't be as good as "The Howling" or "An American Werewolf In London" all of them, you know. This one at least tries to give us a decent werewolf film, and I think it (largely) succeeds. Some reviewers complain about there being too much CGI in this movie, but as far as I can tell, there is only a tiny bit. When the werewolf is seen full body, hey, that's not CGI it's real hairy make-up !. -Isn't that what we're all screaming we want back in movies ?. Sure it is, and here it is. As werewolf movies go this is a pretty good little movie. "Little" actually being the keyword there, because if there's a problem with this movie it's the running time. -I mean, 79 minutes, come on !. That's way too short. It doesn't look to me like it was cut down though, I fear they just didn't shoot anymore than what's on screen otherwise the DVD would've included outtakes, I'm sure. I wonder why it's so short, it doesn't make any sense, afterall you want beastly action in a creature feature like this. What this movie needs to be really great, are some more werewolf attack scenes, alas, we get only a couple when just a single one more kill would've done the trick. Oh well, it's still a good werewolf movie and there's even a clip on a TV-screen from Universal's "Werewolf Of London" (1935) with Henry Hull. The beast itself in "Bad Moon" is great looking, a bit like the creature in "Silver Bullet". All in all a fine flick, we should be happy they even make werewolf movies anymore. I guess it's true what they say; legends never die, no matter how oldfashioned the subject. -Just stay away from CGI; a guy in a suit will do nicely, thank you.

Despite useless to say but somehow how I've really enjoy the Werewolf legendary tales, even it was been made recently, almost without any help from those graphic computers usually done on latest, this picture was saw in my early Cable TV experience and impact me deeply, mainly over such priceless sequence thru Dog's look, almost freeze, how it was done is quite insane, many hours shooting to catch a three seconds or something, what a gorgeous takes!!!

The storyline is another meaningful thing to expose, quite often has a romantic pair on the plot, in this it wasn't happened, Mariel Hemingway and Paré are brothers, offering a different plate to savour for a change, further the werewolf supply my taste in another point, as on golden days the Werewolf was made by animatronic process on the wolf's head, inside a stunts making all body moves, just in the mutation was used graphic computer, pretty bad by the way, but enough for me, this picture has just 5,7 from IMDB's users, very underrated !!!

Resume:

First watch: 1998 / How many: 2 / Source: Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5.

While researching in the jungle with his girlfriend Marjorie (Johanna Marlowe Lebovitz) and a group of natives, Ted (Michael Pare) and the group are attacked by a beast and only the wounded Ted survives. When his sister Janet (Mariel Hemingway) learns that Ted is back home, she invites him to bring his trailer to her real property and spend some time with his nephew Brett (Mason Gamble) and her. Ted accepts the invitation when the police find several corpses attacked by an animal nearby his trailer. Ted is welcomed by Janet and Brett but their dog Thor estranges him. Soon Janet suspects and finds evidences that Ted is a werewolf and her family is in danger.

"Bad Moon" is a decent werewolf film, with reasonable story. In this film, Ted turns into a werewolf every night, and not only in the full moon. He comes closer to his beloved sister and nephew expecting that the love of his family heals or at least help him to control the beast within as his last chance. The dog Thor (Primo) steals the movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Lua Negra" ("Black Moon")