Bad Moon Rating: Release Date: 02 September, 2003 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $13.48 You SAVE: $1.50! Cast: Mariel Hemingway Michael Paré Ken Kirzinger Mason Gamble Complete Cast (5 total)

Bad Moon Reviews

---

Bad Moon (1996)
Director: Eric Red
Cast: Mariel Hemingway, Michael Pare.
Running Time: 83 minutes.
Rated R for violence, gore, language, and sexual situations.

What begins as a fairly cheesy take on "The Howling" premise develops into a scary, enjoyable horror film that is quick, taut, and surprisingly atmospheric. Mariel Hemingway stars as a single-mom who realizes that something is happening to her distant brother (Michael Pare). Although he as always been a little different, Hemingway decides that the best thing she can do is support him--so she allows him to stay in his trailer park on her property--bad idea. Her brother is a flesh-eating werewolf.

Michael Pare is adequate as the mysterious man-turned-werewolf, showing that haunting despair of knowing that he is inflicting horror on those he loves. The special effects are adequate and the acting is solid; director Eric Red does a nice job of slimming the film down and taking out the useless material to reveal a good horror film with the bare essentials. "Bad Moon" received no critical acclaim or publicity, but it is a much better motion picture than expected. Not quite "The Howling", but not far off.

This moon aint so bad . .
Okay, this movie has had it's fair share knocks and bad reviews. I admit it's not the best werewolf movie in the world, but it's certainly not the worst (Just take a look at some of those HOWLING sequels). Director Eric Red has had a great genre career, what with screenwriting such 80s gems as THE HITCHER and NEAR DARK and directing the underrated BODY PARTS, he knows how to craft a decent horror movie. This movie however, suffers from what seems to be a low budget and quite surprisingly from Eric Red, an underwritten script. Lead actors Mariel Hemingway and Michael Pare equip themselves fine with the stilted dialogue and try to bring the movie out of the B movie realm. Jan Kiessers' cinematography is atmospheric and Steve Johnson's animatronic werewolf suit is great (it's just a pity the rushed CGI doesn't come up to scratch - the painful scene where Pare transforms into the creature using CGI is terrible and quite frankly, needed to be cut from the film, especially when the non-digital work in the movie is largely excellent).

Warner Bros. dumped this movie straight to tape in the UK, and we never got the chance to see the movie at the theatres. Now, with DVD I can view the movie as it was meant to be seen. It benefits greatly from the digital format, what with a bright sharp picture (highlighting that cool, autumnal look of the cinematography) and the chance to see Steve Johnson's great creature effects. Reviewers moaned about this movie when it came out, and to a point I can see why, but when other dull "horror" movies like AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS and the latest SCREAM rip-off are released at the cinema, this low-budget flick doesn't seem so bad after all. Granted, it's not a great film by any means, but it's not a bad one either . . . I look forward to whatever Eric Red puts out in the future, at least his horror heart is in the right place.

More Customer Reviews (7 total)

You like Bad Moon? Then You'll Love This Booty! An American Werewolf in London Ginger Snaps Ginger Snaps 2 - Unleashed Man's Best Friend Dog Soldiers Find more DVD's in: Horror Horror > Things That Go Bump Horror > Things That Go Bump > Monsters Horror > Things That Go Bump > Occult All Categories (16 total)