Bad Moon

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.

This is quite a unique movie because it's based on the book Thor which tells it's story from the perspective of a dog called Thor. The movie doesn't do this for the most part, but the dog Thor remains an important character in the story. So sometimes it feels almost like a horror movie interpretation of Lassie.

The cinematography, acting, directing is top notch for a 90s horror and I'd say those elements are actually superior to many newer, more recent, horror movies. One early birds eye view shot for example is just as good as the opening shot of the classic movie The Shining.

The monster, obviously a big werewolf, is at times quite menacing and horrific and not the predictable CGI that we often see in modern films but instead the old school animatronics/puppet type. I'm not sure how younger audiences will react to it since they're so accustomed to CGI these days. To me, CGI often looks fake and lacking substance, density and textural reality. But with a puppet of this nature, while you can easily tell it's fake, it just has more substance to it because it's made of real material, moving in real space, as opposed to CGI emptiness.

This movie is only let down by a slightly weak story. It starts off very well and carries on being fairly gripping up until the third act when certain plot holes and weaknesses in the script come into play. The final scenes unfortunately are probably the biggest let down and that's where this movie loses most of it's points for me. If it had a stronger third act and much better ending I think it would have possibly been regarded as an all-time horror classic instead of the cult classic that it still remains. But it's still very much worth watching for any horror movie fan and I'd definitely recommend it for some guaranteed horror movie fun.

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.

I was positively impressed with just how well done the transformation into the werewolf was done. I am very familiar with werewolf movies from the ones done by Lon Chaney Jr. to the present day and this one was pretty effective.

The plot was standard, but just how much can one change the werewolf saga? A good man is against his will unfortunately transformed into a murderous creature of the night, and even though he tries his best to control his urges, it is all to no avail, and in the end someone close to him has to end his bloody reign of terror.

The acting by the principles was reasonable, and yes the German Shepherd, Thor, did steal the show, but again, so what? I would even enjoy watching it again!

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.