Mad at the Moon

This movie starts and ends with a rather elegant-looking large music box. A large metal wheel with notches cut out moves up into place, and the backlighting makes it look like a sky full of stars. In the beginning, there's an opera performance in a well-lit tent that is painted fancifully.

There's some beautiful and interesting images in this movie like that, and the cinematography might be very good but it is hard to judge from the pan & scan job I watched. However, the movie didn't work for me as drama or horror.

A romantically-inclined and perhaps naive young woman is proposed to by a shy, polite, awkward man she's known since childhood. Her mother is pleased with him, even though he's much poorer than their family. The young woman is more interested in a "saintly sinner" who hangs out at a saloon playing cards. What sort of relationship they have, if any, isn't clear. She sends him a poem, and he comes out to meet her, but doesn't talk at all except to repeatedly say "don't touch me!" when she tries to, and he even puts a gun to his head to drive the point home!

So, she marries the awkward guy, but doesn't want to have sex with him. She writes her mother claiming he doesn't want to touch her. One morning she finds him boarding up the windows from the inside, and she doesn't seem surprised by this. That evening she gets scared as he tells her he'll be spending the night outside, and she's not to let him in.

I've got to say, I didn't understand this movie. The ending made no sense to me. It's not surreal, it just doesn't explain itself well. Another user praised a scene in which several characters have a meal together without talking. I thought it was ridiculous. Perhaps there's something more interesting about it when it is in widescreen.

Definitely not recommended to anyone expecting a horror movie. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone looking for a drama either, though.

My goodness, great cinematography, costumes and pretty good acting. That's the end of all the good stuff. The fake beard on the monster is pretty bad. Why you folks insist on 600 characters is beyond me. You know dang well one could review this movie with only two words, very bad. A house in the middle of a forty acre field is not a very scary place. All the props were too clean and pretty. Looks like everything had just been painted and all the actors had just came back from the dentist having their teeth whitened. I guess I'm just too old and have watched too many John Ford westerns to appreciate this poor attempt to make a scary movie.

The look of the film alone is worth the 90 minutes. The score is a masterpiece (where can I buy it?) Mary Stuart Masterson is a dream to behold. How is it possible I've never heard of this movie before? It's not for everybody, I agree. Slow paced, long silences, but the atmosphere is hypnotic. I bought the tape and sometimes I put it on, just to have it in the background. I can't pinpoint what it is, but there is something magic about this film. Unique. Like a western made by a child of Ingman Bergman. I don't want to spoil it for whoever sees it for the first time but there is a scene, a dinner in silence between the four leads just before the climax when a sudden wind storm comes to hurry the proceedings. It is wonderful!

I had it transfer from VHS - very dark copy - to DVD - Wow! Somebody mentioned the word "hypnotic" in a review. Well, yes, hypnotic applies but also moving, strange, gorgeous. Where is Mary Stuart Masterson? My God! She's sublime here. Hart Bochner is mysterious and heartbreaking. And who is Stephen Blake? He's compelling here but looking at his credits on IMDb, he hasn't done much. Great face. The score by Gerald Gouriet is sensational. A lyrical western with dark undertones. The aria at the beginning "La Notte Scotta" an unexpected stroke that takes you somewhere immediately. The ending feels a bit rushed - maybe because I wanted to go on. But I recently found out the film was shot in Simi Valley, California in 18 days for less than a million bucks. I don't know many people who've seen this movie. I sometimes introduce it in after dinner parties, always a success. Thank you.

Not worth watching. Not worth watching. Not worth watching. Complete waste of time. I need more characters to finish this review I have said enough. Still have to add characters to get this review published.