Full Moon High

Larry Cohen's movie "Full Moon High" is one of the more obscure entries on the prolific filmmaker's resume, seldom shown on cable and taking forever to be released on videotape (and to this date has not gotten a DVD release.) It does not take long upon watching it to figure out why it doesn't have a cult following. Now, unlike some of the other IMDb users who have commented on this movie, I *did* find some of the gags in the movie to be amusing, and I thought that Adam Arkin was pretty good in the lead role - you can really see his father Alan in him from his looks to his comic timing. (Alan himself does also appear in the movie, and he's amusing as well.) However, the movie as a whole does not work. While there are some funny moments, most of the gags die upon arrival. The real problem with the movie is that it is really sloppily made. A number of scenes feel unfinished, missing punchlines or simple conclusions. A bigger problem with the script is that there isn't much plot here, with scene after scene with little to nothing advancing things. It does not take long for the movie to become tiring, even though Cohen jam- packs the movie with energy. I think a documentary on what went wrong with this movie would be a lot more entertaining than the movie itself.

"Full Moon High" is a werewolf horror/comedy that got released in the year 1981, meaning almost simultaneously with two of the greatest classics in the same sub genre, namely "The Howling" and "American Werewolf in London". No wonder practically nobody remembers this film. While certainly not as great as those two, "Full Moon High" nevertheless deserves a little more praise from the genre fans and a little more recognition in general. The film definitely hasn't got the same premise as the other werewolf classics and goes straight for laughs. Tony, a popular American high school student and fanatic football player travels to Romania with his sleazy businessman father. While the latter is talking about the promised land to a couple of prostitutes, Toney receives bad news from a local fortune teller and gets attacked by a red-eyed werewolf at night. He transforms for the first time on the plane back to the States, but nobody notices because hijackers blindfolded everyone on board of the flight. What an oddball sequence that was, actually. Once back at his school and surrounded by his obsessive girlfriend and football buddies, Tony can't resist to bite girls in the bums and decides to disappear. Twenty years later, he returns to his hometown and is mistaken for his own son. "Full Moon High" is, as said already, a straightforward comedy and I'm really not used to seeing that from writer/director Larry Cohen. True, his film always contain social mockery and black comedy (like "Q – The Winged Serpent" and "God Told Me To"), but this really feels like a liberating side project for him. There's too few horror for my liking, for example the transformation sequences are worthless, but I appreciated the film as a relaxing and occasionally very hilarious horror comedy.

Silly movie is really, really funny. Yes, it's got its dead moments, it can be a bit too obvious, it declines a bit in the second half and the story is an incoherent mess, but it's laugh out loud funny all the way. And it's worth seeing just for Ed McMahon as a right wing kook. This movie is in the same class as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, another incredibly funny, underappreciated film.

Yeah....this movie's bad but here's something you have to realize before watching it (and you probably should have while watching it): it's supposed to be. The thing about this movie I guess is that it seems to only be funny to the right people: a) huge werewolf fans and b)people with a really low-brow sense of humor, and I'm proud to say I'm both. Some of the best jokes in this movie were the worst ones, like some of the newspaper headlines ("Werewolf easts Chinese, hungry again 30 minutes later"...please tell me somebody got the double-meaning) or the Romanian woman who reads palms for entertainment (I read 14 last week, I couldn't put one down til I was finished!)

But if you watch it for no other reason, watch for Bob Saget; this is probably the best god damn thing you'll ever see him in.

Aiming at a blend of Airplane! style wackiness and Mel Brooks-a-like angsty spoof, this is almost good - the occasional inspired moment (Werewolf Annoys Community) keeps you watching through the massive swathes of so-so gags, occasional clunkers and habitual dragging out of jokes way beyond their peak. Part so-bad-it's-good, part nearly quite good, and with a typically intense, shouty performance from ace Alan Arkin, this just about scrapes into the Watchable category. Probably a gem to obscure B-horror fans.