Moon of the Blood Beast

The cover for Moon of the Blood Beast shows an impressively nasty looking monster, with huge fangs, a chitinous body, massive claws, wicked spikes on its back and evil glowing eyes; the actual monster in the film is a guy in a cheap rubber mask that looks like it was bought from the half-price, post-Halloween bargain bin at a fancy dress shop. Such blatant false promotion is just one of the reasons to hate this film.

Directed by the incredibly prolific Dustin Ferguson, the film appears to be an unofficial sequel of sorts to the 1976 turkey Track of the Moon Beast (current IMDb rating:2.3/10), which explains use of footage from that film to pad out the runtime. I haven't seen Track of the Moon Beast, but I can't see how it can be any worse than Ferguson's film, which is dreadful in almost every way: the cast comprises of heavily tattooed people, porn stars, friends of the director, and a walking, talking advertisement for the perils of plastic surgery; a large percentage of the film is shot in horrible day-glo 'monster vision'; and there are numerous totally pointless shots of scenery that add absolutely nothing.

Ferguson keeps his crappy creature hidden for most of the film (which is for the best), delivers a smattering of totally unconvincing gore, and wraps his film up in a very strange and completely abrupt manner after just 53 minutes. Maybe he figured that his audience had suffered enough.

Needless to say that I had never heard about this 2019 horror movie titled "Moon of the Blood Beast", from writer and director Dustin Ferguson, prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2025. And not even with my big interest in all things horror had I even remotely heard about this movie. But my love of all things horror did compel me to sit down and watch the movie, as I had the opportunity to do so.

First of all, I have to say that the movie's cover looked and felt like it was probably overselling the movie by a landslide. Not that the cover was bad or anything, it was actually a good cover, but it just permeated a front for a low budget movie.

Lo and behold, not even ten minutes into the movie and it was painstakingly obvious that this was indeed a low budget movie. But I still opted to carry on and give the movie the benefit of the doubt.

Writer Dustin Ferguson put together a rather dull script and storyline, and I started to zone out a mere 30 minutes into the 53 minute runtime. Not a great sign for the movie, I have to say.

There wasn't a single familiar actor or actress on the cast list, and that was actually something that spoke in favor of the movie, as I do enjoy watching new and unfamiliar talents on the screen when I watch a movie. The acting performances in the movie were bland, let's just leave it at that.

As for the special effects in the movie, well, it wasn't exactly stellar effects. In fact, there wasn't much of anything noteworthy in the effects department.

The movie's cover was actually the best thing about the entire ordeal.

My rating of writer and director Dustin Ferguson's 2019 movie "Moon of the Blood Beast" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

Veteran Film-Maker Dustin Ferguson's Camera Work is especially Proficient here . He captures the Beauty of Nature & of the Fabulous Female Cast Members & Contrasts it with the Hatred & Evil as seen through the Eyes of the Dreaded Beast & the Carnage of the Beast's Exploits . The Film begins with Beautiful Iconic Blue-Movie-Star Alana Evans portraying a 'HitchHiker' Taking a Leisurely jaunt through the Woods until She's Rudely Interrupted ; & Look for a Tantalizing Crotch-Shot that You Won't Soon Forget ! The Stars are the Deadly Serious D. T. Carney as 'Sheriff Frank Nash' , who's trying to keep a Lid-On-Things & Down-Play the Butchery ; Big & Brawny Mike Ferguson is 'Ricky' , who decides to Tangle with the Beast alone ; & the Winsome & Talented Vida Ghaffari Shines as The Police Dispatcher "Noelle Johnson' , who's as Helpful & Dutiful as Possible to the Sheriff , when She's Not Reading the Periodicals . Keep Your Eye on Ms. Ghaffari . She's swiftly Rising in the Entertainment Field & I'm Hoping that Mr. Ferguson Continues to Employ Her Talents ! Legendary Beauty Dawna Lee Heising plays the Far-From-Frumpy Loving Mom 'Bernadette' who likes Cooking , Cleaning , & Watching Old Blood Beast Movies ; & Her Son 'Clifford' is the Dexterous Dustin Wonch . All the Actors are Top-Shelf & the Actresses are not just Eye-Candy . They All put in the Work ; & the Result is Admirable . Among the Beast's Victims are Julie Anne Prescott , Chelsey Newman , Alexys Paonessa , & Valerie Mulligan ; & Alan Maxson Skillfully Mans the persona of the Abominable 'Blood Beast' like a Highly Trained Tacticion ! Quality is Assured when it's a Dustin Ferguson Film ; & " MOON OF THE BLOOD BEAST " is No Exception . He Brings the "A" to "B-Films" !

Following a series of strange accidents, the sheriff of a small-town community brushes off reports that a legendary beast has returned to the area to wreak havoc on the residents, but when the attacks start to point in the direction of the legendary creature being true he teams with the residents to stop it.

Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable creature feature. Among the more likable features here is the initial setup and premise to be had here with the legendary curse that prowls the area. Taking the idea of the creatures' presence as the evidence of a curse falling over the town regarding it being alive in hibernation until a blood-red moon arises bringing it out to stalk and kill victims as sacrifices only to return back into hibernation and protect the town afterward, it adds a fun old-school dynamic to the storyline involving ancestral curses and protection spells gone awry. The normal structural points here with the outcast who knows everything to stop it, the disbelieving authorities who are slow on the take until it's too late and the big confrontation at the end, this one comes off quite nicely. As well, the film also manages to get a lot of fun from the creature attacks which are rather entertaining indie-style ambushes. Focusing on the blood-red tint on the camera for the creatures' movements through the area during the stalking scenes, the fact that it comes out of nowhere and brings about either a brief sudden shock ambush where it graphically tears victims apart or engages in a short but frantic chase through the community, these are both in abundance throughout here. With the second half bringing about more attacks with the creature getting more ambitious and bold, it all leads into the final confrontation in the woods where the unconventional ending has a lot to like. Combined with the fun gore and some cheesy indie charm to the creature itself, there are some enjoyable factors here. There are some minor issues at play with the film. The main issue is the films' inability to play off the aspects of the curse as something that the viewer is already aware of. Although the characters in the film are already well-aware of its impact over town and what it details, the fact that they treat everything like it's all common knowledge before it's spelled out to the audience means their conversations go in circles rather cryptically without spelling out what's happening. Although it gets fixed eventually, this is a surprisingly distracting aspect of the film early on. The other factor here is the obvious budgetary limitations that arise which include stock footage of a different movie for no reason, limited locations, and special effects which all highlight this feature but don't drag it down that badly.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.