Track of the Moon Beast

An Okay idea for a low-budget horror movie. Some mediocre, but adequate, acting. A neat monster (especially for the budget). Still, almost nothing happens. A lot is talked about or alluded to, but the film is mainly pure tedium.

This is a delightful mess. I enjoyed the premise of it. The characters were all relatively bad actors, but it had kind of an interesting sense about it. People were likable. The outdoor scenes were good. The poor guy just wants to get it on with the blonde with the long legs, but he turns into a lizard. That puts the blight on it pretty well. I wonder how long these movies would be if the characters didn't speak in long drawling sentences. There are pauses between each of their speeches, as they wait for the next line. The sheriff is nonplussed in this whole thing. He isn't one of those horror show sheriffs who won't believe people till it's too late. This reminded me a little of the Giant Gila Monster, an equally bad movie. There's even one of them in the film. There's the folky music, a signature song which has nothing to do with anything, and that dramatic music as the characters made their ways through the plot. If you just want to have fun, this is OK.

Fragment of meteorite gets lodged in young man's head, causing him to turn into a monstrous lizard-man when the moon rises.

Track of the Moon Beast is a fine example of drive-in B movie schlock! The movie consists of a thin story line, hokey dialog, less than impressive cast, and an all around look of 'we filmed this scene in my back yard'. It's a wonder the movie managed to hide from the people at Mystery Science Theater 3000 for ten years.

Yet despite all its campy trappings, I can't really say that I dislike this movie! Being a lover of B cinema it's rather enjoyable in a non-serious kind of way. I do give the film kudos for its surprisingly decent horror makeup, it's not surprising that this was early work from Rick Baker. The moon beast should have gotten more screen time though. Star Chase Cordell makes for an OK hero/victim and Gregorio Sala is memorable as a long-winded native American expert. Alas the rest of the cast is pretty weak, especially the wooden Donna Leigh Drake who doesn't have a believable line in the whole film! Still the tongue-in-cheek qualities keep it entertaining.

So, for those who enjoy their horror on the cheesy B movie side, you just might like this amusing monster flick.

** 1/2 out of ****

I didn't realise when I put this on that at time of writing it's presently down as IMDB's 60th worst movie ever and that's quite a feat.

This 1970's b-movie sci-fi tells the story of a man hit in the head by a moon rock, this causes him to become the titular moon beast when the moon rises. Once changed he each time goes off on a killing spree and it's up to the authorities to stop him.

As you can imagine this is deeply cheesy stuff and the monster looks like it was made by the crew of Blue Peter, the effects are naff and the whole thing couldn't be anymore hammy.

I can confidently say that this isn't in my bottom 100 movies, likely wouldn't be in my bottom 250. Yes it's bad, but there is a lot worse out there.

This creature feature is one for big fans of the genre only.

The Good:

Neat cover art

The Bad:

Monster looks dire

Daft premise

SFX at the end are laughable

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

People need to see more movies if they think this is one of the worst, want bad? Watch Zombinator (2012)

Track of the Moon Beast (1976), aww, this movie brings back memories of watching movies late at night when I was a child. I would stay up late watching horrible movies on UHF channels on an old black and white TV. Curiosity killed the cat they say. These movies are like car wrecks. You know they're bad but something compels you to watch them.

Track of the Moon Beast is one of those. Everything about this movie is bad. The acting, budget and script. The low budget f/x wasn't bad.But there's absolutely nothing to recommend about this film. A young man is bonked in the head by a space rock. Soon he turns into a space creature who maims innocent night owls. His Indian buddy knows all about the curse because it happened to his tribe many moons ago. Can the Indian help his buddy before it's too late? I don't know and don't ask. But if you must, catch it on a re-run of MST3k.

No fun.