Summer's Moon

How weird it can go, I had never heard of Stephen McHattie before. But a few weeks ago I popped into "pontypool" and now I see him playing again in this flick, and he did well and believable again. But I must say that Ashley Greene best known for the Twilight saga did well too. And by hereby the best is said of this flick. The acting is well but it's all so low on gore or the red stuff. I guess that Lee Demarbre (the director) did better with the black comedy "smash cut" then with this here. It could have been so much messier but sadly, most of the killings are off-screen. I even saw the steady-cam reflecting in a car. Just a flick to watch and unfortunately to forget.

My girlfriend wanted to buy me a horror DVD. It was between the Orphan and Summer's moon...unfortunately she decided on Summer's moon, and boy didn't we both regret it that evening! It really is a waste of time. Sure the film was produced in a short amount of time, but so have some classic movies and without huge budgets also. I keep reading people's reviews that say how good the acting was and i had to check i was actually reviewing the same movie. Okay, maybe it wasn't the worst i have ever seen and to be fair Marlon Brando would have been hard pushed to produce any moment of clarity and substance with the script these poor actors and actresses were given! By far one of the poorest, most boring and stupid dialogues produced. The story was regurgitated trash, but not quality trash that has the honesty to realise its a bit crap and so consequently and refreshingly has a little laugh at the films expense too, but just drab nonsense with a typical big busted girl thrown in with half a recognizable name to try and help lift the films credentials and the size of the audience who may like it. Even by looking at the DVD cover art you can tell this is a bad movie. It kind of reminded me of the sort of film someone who really loved Buffy may enjoy, and there is nothing wrong with that but honestly if you like your horror/thrillers films with any element of grittyness, realism, with scary moments, honest fun, moving, violent, gory, blackly funny, unpredictable, with any original thought or seemingly any love for film making such as good photography, dialogue blah, blah, blah then this isn't going to ring your bells! Be scared...be very very scared, at how bored you may become! The movie should give away a free gift if you stay awake long enough to make it to the ending!

Some unadapted teen girl travels to some small town in search for her dad after she fought with her mom who told him that she had aborted the girl. Soon she meets what seems to be a normal young man. But the morning after she finds herself chained in the basement on a bed of dirt. Another half dead girl is sitting nearby and a bunch of skulls. He talks to her kindly, explaining that she's key to his garden and that loves his garden. Meanwhile the father of the other girl is just out of jail and looking for his daughter. As more people disappear things get complicated. But the highlight of the movie purports to be the return of the father of the young man, who isn't a whole lot better than his son.

Note that this is not a horror movie really. It's all about the psychological torture of the girls. The guy spends what seems like hours chatting with the girl trying to make her feel at home. Yet, it's never horrific let alone entertaining to watch a villain talk non-stop with his victims. There is a bit of violence, a tiny bit of blood. What's mostly of a more out-there nature is the theme of this movie, the family relationships, it's all very adult stuff. The language is very filthy throughout the movie. But there's little violence, no gore, no nudity, nothing. It's all very dull.

The rebellious teenager Summer Matthews (Ashley Greene) finds that her mother has hidden that her unknown father is alive and she decides to seek him out. She hitchhikes to the small village called Massey with an old picture of her daddy expecting that someone might identify him. When she arrives in the community, she shoplifts a store but the local sheriff sees and chases her. However the handsome Tom Hoxey (Peter Mooney) helps her to flee and they date during the night. Then Tom brings her home, where he lives with his mother Gaia (Barbara Niven), and they have one night stand. On the next morning, when Summer is ready to go, she is abducted by Tom that discloses that he is not Mr. Nice Guy but the deranged son of a dysfunctional family. Summer is chained in Tom's garden with another "angel", Amber (Dani Kind), whose father Darwin (Peter Michael Dillon) has just left prison and believes that his daughter is missing. When Tom's father Gant (Stephen McNatty) learns about Summer, he heads back home.

"Summer's Blood" is an underrated low-budget slash-movie with a predictable story that has some bold scenes of incest and an unexpected conclusion. I liked the story of a girl that decides to look for her missing father and finds a dysfunctional family of serial-killer. I am impressed how Ms. Barbara Niven is still a very beautiful and charming woman. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Maníacos" ("Maniacs")

Ashley Green (who Tweens and lonely middle-aged women know from Twilight and the rest of us don't know of at all) plays Summer, a rebellious teen trying to find the father that she's never met. Shortly ever finding herself in a small backwoods town, she meets up with a guy whom she goes home with. Only to find herself in over her head the next day when she finds herself chained up in the basement.

Aside from Green herself who doesn't appear to have any acting talent whatsoever, the movie isn't all THAT awful. Yea the marketing of it to attempt to capitalize off the success of the Twilight series is crass, tacky & wholly unneeded, but aside from all the BS there lays a somewhat well-thought out film.