Warlock Moon

I think it was 1982 when I saw this on late night TV, Channel 2 KTVU from San Francisco Bay Area. I was living in Nevada at the time but thanks to (then) cable TV I was able to enjoy all the gems/classic horror movies that were featured on late night TV from the Bay Area. When one is up at midnight watching TV alone in the dark you tend to remember moments that shock the hell out of you and make you want to dive under your blanket and clutch your pillow for comfort...such as the very opening sequence of this film. The best that can be said about the Shriek Show DVD is that it retains the '70's luster, look and feel that I remember. The print used has not been offered in a flawless transfer and that's fine by me. I love seeing these films as if they were playing on the drive-in screen complete with lines, speckles and reel change 'jumps'. I'm not thrilled, however, upon finding out the Shriek Show DVD has some sort of "bug" where approx. 11 minutes of footage are skipped over and completely missing. I think you can somehow see the footage but you have to scan to it first and then let it play out. Very, very odd and the issue was never resolved with that company as far as I know. I'm sure they're still selling the flawed DVD right now without corrections for the fans of this film. Anyway - a shout out to the filmmakers of this film who posted here: whatever bad experiences you had making this film it was NOT all-for-not! You have some fans who really appreciate the effort and find this film almost essential '70's film viewing. The two lead actors are great, the opening is scary, the middle is intriguing and the ending is a downbeat humdinger. THANK YOU! - A fan forever

Future TV names Laurie Walters ('Eight is Enough') and Joe Spano ('Hill Street Blues') headline this obscure but reasonably amusing micro budget horror flick. Laurie plays Jenny, a college student aggressively courted by the theatrical John (Spano). After a picnic lunch in the boondocks, they end up at an isolated, run down former spa that has been closed down for four decades. They also meet a resident: affable old lady Mrs. Abercrombi (Edna MacAfee). Laurie must soon dodge attempts on her life and comes face to face with some sort of oddball ritual that must take place within a certain time frame.

Written, edited, produced & directed by Bill Herbert (his only credit as a filmmaker), this is no great shakes but it entertains in decent enough fashion. It is notable for a goofy sense of humor at times: Johns' idea of impressing Jenny is wearing Groucho glasses and doing a bad Inspector Clouseau imitation. He also launches into a re- enactment of a classic horror trope in a later part of the picture, just for *beep*s and giggles. Although it has no warlocks, and the moon doesn't play into the plot (the original title, "Bloody Spa", would have been more accurate), it's got enough weirdness & atmosphere, and fun moments of grisliness to make it mildly enjoyable. Although the cast largely consists of no-names, the acting is sincere, with Walters and Spano making for an engaging primary couple. Ms. MacAfee is a gas as the supposedly harmless old biddy who does have a secret to hide. Steve Solinsky and Richard Vielle are adequate as two axe wielding goons who scowl, stalk around, and commit bloody mayhem.

Before the movie / night is over, we'll also have been treated to some face painting, quail hunting, exposition, haunting, and, funnily enough, a lecture early in the picture on human "deviancy".

The closing credits actually begin before the story is really over, which was supposedly an attempt by Herbert & company to get people to actually READ the damn things.

Six out of 10.

"Warlock Moon" offered B-movie suspense, coupled with a small budget. The film was made in my hometown of Livermore, CA in 1972, but was held from release until 1975 because of reasons already commented upon by another poster.

The premiere was held at the Vine Cinema in Livermore. As I recall, the theater was packed with teens, mostly from the two high schools in town (Livermore and Granada). It was on a double bill with "The Other." Girls screamed in horror throughout the film, although in hindsight the film had little horror. One teen got tired of the screaming, and told the audience to shut up, which brought some laughs.

It was interesting to see scenes of Livermore on the screen...the public library, the abandoned TB center, the old Vineyard shopping center. If you grew up in Livermore in the 70s, you might remember this little film.

This appears to be the only film Bill Herbert made which is a great pity as it shows a lot of promise. He wrote, produced and directed this thriller about a naive young student Jenny (Laurie Walters) who allows herself to be picked up by journalist John (Joe Spano). On a picnic date they find themselves at an abandoned health spa where the only occupant is a kind grey haired old lady Agnes (Edna MaCafee). However, nothing is what it seems and soon Laurie is in mortal danger. The two leads are excellent in this hodgepodge of witchcraft, cannibalism and axe wielding maniacs. The photography helps along the spooky atmosphere immensely and the editing is excellent. Unfortunately the bad points outweigh the good ones, the script is muddled, the music score is all over the place and the actress playing the old lady over does it dreadfully. It is much to the credit of Bill Herbert that he manages to create an atmosphere of nightmarish uncertainty despite the obvious constraints of a very low budget.

My friend Rand Herbert (Bill's brother) and I were in charge of special effects, make-up, sets and general grunt work for this movie, which Bill financed by scraping up the 25K from family and friends (like me) when Bill was at Cal, Berkeley. Considering the budget we had to work with - even in 1972 when most of the movie was shot, I'd say we did a reasonably good job. Rand and I use a variety of aliases for our jobs - as did Bill. My favorites were Jeff D. Dodat and Don U. Dodat ("did you have to do that?" and "Dont you do that" - shades of the Car Guys)

We especially liked that we had a "false" ending (in 1972 - pre-Brian DePalma)- and that the movie continued through the credits. We were trying to get people to stay for the credits). We liked the scene where the axe-man looms behind the glass door then crashes through it.

It's true that Edna McAfee played the role a little over-the-top, buts just what we wanted - this wasn't Shakespeare after all. Did anyone recognize the "Hunter"? Harry Bauerr was also in Woody Allen's "Take the Money and Run".

We all had visions of eventually working in Hollywood, but after small company in LA "bought" the movie at interlock stage and invested another $75 grand to reshoot a few scenes, score it, blow it up to 35mm and (unfortunately) re title it, it went nowhere.

For REAL trivia buffs - one of the titles we originally wanted was (for a movie that depended on cannibalism as a theme) "The Last Supper". This - of course - was vetoed by the folks in LA.

As I understand it, the principal of that small company was murdered - there was talk of mob hits and all that. The company immediately went bankrupt and the negative for our film was held hostage as collateral for the company's debts by the film processing company.

It took several years of negotiation to "free" our film by which time we were all so disgusted with the whole deal we had each gone our separate ways. Bill sold the now completed film to a film syndicator, which is why you only see the film on late night TV. Other than the "premier" in Livermore where it was shot, and a few test runs in drive-ins in Spokane and somewhere in Georgia, thats the only place its ever been seen. It was "designed" as a drive-in" movie actually - somewhat scary scenes to have your girlfriend want to snuggle - no complicated plot to interfere with the smooching.

Bill went on to a career in real estate, I went to law school after having spent much of the 1970s in Africa and the Middle east and South Asia, some of it with Rand and his then girlfriend, now wife. Rand owns a historical research company in Davis.

Glad to see this film got some sort of cult status eventually.

My absolute favorite story about this film is, when i was working for Thelton Henderson at U.S. District Court in San Francisco, he pointed out a story in the SF Chronicle that two prisoners were suing a local TV station for cruel and unusual punishment for having switched their listed playing of "California Split" on late night TV for a showing of "Warlock Moon". I am conflicted about whether they should have won or lost that suit.

Enjoy the film folks.