Moonstalker

It's a shame that this film is not currently available on any video format because it is actually an enjoyable piece of '80's horror. The night winter forest locations look great and the cast appears to be having a fun time making the film. The females in the cast are all attractive and fine actresses, and some of the men (specifically detective Taylor and Harry, the father) are just plain hilarious. The gore effects are primitive but serviceable, and there are moments of genuine emotional connection between the characters that was rare for the genre at that post-"Halloween" time. Watching this film brings one back to a more innocent time when real effort was put into the exploitation genre.

Flawed but fun typical 80s slasher. The film started out with a family and then we are introduced to "Pop". The family ends up hanging out with Pop the night they met him and Pop tells us the story of what happened with his son - but not the full story. Pop acts weird, the family leaves him, Pop goes inside his camper and we meet his son Bernie. Bernie is tied down with a chain, in a straight-jacket and special mask. Pop lets Bernie go to kill the people so they can steal their stuff. Bernie kills the family, Pop falls over and dies of ? (fright they said in the film but I thought maybe a heart-attack?) -- anyway Pop is dead and the killer Bernie is on the loose.

Next we are introduced to the main characters of the film. The main characters are part of some wilderness camp thing going on. Bernie makes his way to them and kills most all of them. Cops are also in the campgrounds investigating the murder of the family and Pop. And that's about it - minus the ending where the killer Bernie stole the cop's jacket and vehicle then drives way leaving it open for a part 2 or to simply show viewers he's still alive.

It's an okay time waster film, not grand but a watchable slasher. It has a few story flaws that most viewers will notice quickly but is a "B" slasher - and we all know what to expect of most of them.

Another reviewer mentioned the music of the film is similar to that of the classic Halloween 1978 - and that is true!! This film is not nearly as good as Halloween '78 but an alright watch.

5/10

Not to be confused with MOONSTRUCK (1988), I was yelling "Snap out of it" and slapping myself in the face by the time this regional horror flick was done. An old man keeps his mentally unstable son Bernie (Blake Gibbons) locked up in a trailer, only unleashing him when pop wants some tourists killed for new appliances. Unfortunately, hauling the newly acquired microwave causes ol' dad to die of a heart attack and Bernie is on his own. Naturally, he heads home and begins offing winter camp counselors in training that are near his abode. You won't get much from this Nevada lensed slasher from writer-director Michael O'Rourke until the last half hour, where it turns surprisingly bloody as Bernie chops everyone with an ax. There is a pretty cool looking image of Bernie chained up in a straight jacket with a hood on, but that gets abandoned early on when he removes it and dresses in a cowboy hat (making him look like Powers Boothe for some odd reason). Surprisingly, Gibbons survived this mess and went on to be a featured played on GENERAL HOSPITAL. Helmer O'Rourke wasn't as lucky, disappearing from directing after this one (although he did script the truly bizarre HELLGATE [1990] the next year).

"Moonstalker" aptly illustrates how and why the teen slasher ingloriously died at the end of the 1980s. Although always watchable and sometimes even reasonably amusing, it's a thoroughly uninspired and derivative effort. It starts with the opening credits music being yet another blatant rip-off of John Carpenter's iconic score for "Halloween". By the time "Moonstalker" got released, "Halloween" was more than a decade old, and literally the entire world had seen it, so find something new already! The next 10-15 minutes are hilarious, but mainly because the plot is so cliched and the performances are so atrociously bad. A middle-aged father (and heavy beer can consumer) insists on spending a primitive "back-to-nature" vacation with his reluctant family in a rusty old camper, so they install themselves at the edge of a wide backwoods area. The bickering family runs into an ogre named Pop, and he's hiding his psychopathic and bloodthirsty son Bernie in a caravan, tied up with chains and wearing a bag over his head. Pop occasionally lets Bernie out, for example to feast on dim-witted camper families, but then Pop unexpectedly dies from a heart-attack and Bernie suddenly finds himself unchained with the world at his feet! From then onward "Moonstalker" plays on familiar slasher turf, as Bernie heads straight towards a nearby camping site where a bunch of young summer camp counselors are having their annual initiation weekend. Freed from his dominant father, Bernie makes the terrible (albeit understandable) mistake of switching his strait-jacket and potato bag mask for a lumberjack shirt, a cowboy hat and a shiny pair of sunglasses. I reckon it's a far more comfortable outfit for him, but he does instantly lose all the charisma and scary effect of a savage backwoods killer, especially because the mask made him somewhat a look-alike of Jason Voorhees in "Friday the 13th part 2". Luckily his appetite for nasty killings is still there. The first few murders are dull and bloodless, but "Moonstalker" eventually meets the 80s gore quota thanks to several amputations, axe-murders and even a knife in someone's forehead. The sadistic campfire moment near the finale (you'll know it when you see it) is a delightful little horror detail, but it sadly doesn't rescue the film from sheer mediocrity.

In MOONSTALKER, a group of young, partying campers are slaughtered by an ax-wielding maniac.

Some time later, a family arrives in their camper. Soon, an old man arrives in a gigantic Cadillac, pulling a trailer / camper. Is it any wonder why the alternate name of this movie is "CAMPER STAMPER"?

Horror erupts, when the oldster tells the unwary family about his "nervous" son, Bernie. Let's just say that the family vacation is over! Add in a nearby team of camp counselors, and the mayhem continues.

In all honesty, this movie is far more enjoyable than one might expect. The characters range from goofy to zany. The killer is ludicrous, yet entertaining. The plot is typical slasher fare, but doesn't take itself too seriously.

GOREHOUNDS TAKE NOTE: The gore / blood level is minimal, with the deaths occurring mostly off-camera. Although, there is the occasional arm or leg thrown around.

EXTRA POINTS FOR: The Sheriff's office, full of ten-gallon hats on half-gallon heads!

P. S.- You'll never hear "She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain" in quite the same way again. Ever!...