Track of the Moon Beast

Track of the Moon Beast has a simple story to tell you, a meteor falls turning a man into a lizard beast when the moon is full.

At the start some jokers make a howling noise in the hills to mildly surprise their friends. When they emerge after this merry jape they gobble up about ten minutes of screen time explaining the whys and wherefores of this little gag. But it doesn't end there, the entire film is littered with explanations of things you neither care about nor really need to know. Oh remember when you did this? What about the time this happened? Show it, or shut up about it! Most of it isn't relevant anyway.

The acting in this one is just horrible and the script is full of moments where they all laugh and share a warm moment that excludes the audience because what they are laughing about isn't funny and what's going on is really drab and boring. The monster is a joke, day turns to night and night to day randomly and the whole thing alternately looks like it was filmed about six inches from the sun or inside a black hole depending on whether or not they remembered to turn the lighting on before shooting a scene.

This is one boring pointless movie, so little happens that within fifteen minutes of it ending you'll be hard pressed to remember one significant scene. Even bad movie fans will struggle to find anything entertaining with this one.

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 ****

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.

It is awful, I agree, although arguably it does (sort of) come together near the end of the flick. The Track of the Moonbeast was an inclusion on a DVD trilogy I ordered for the movie Snowbeast, starring Bo Svenson, that's how I ran across it. What an unexpected bonus Moonbeast turned out to be! Assuming, of course that you are into making fun of the 70's. The movie plays like an episode of Barnaby Jones, with elements of the Brady Bunch and Chips and Star Trek and the Incredible Hulk mixed in. The girl is pretty hot, too, in a definite amateur way. The script is poor and forced, and the characters are highly cartoonesque. I love the scene where the Indian professor and the police chief investigate the scene of our first Moonbeast victim. Pure 70's, baby! Great fun! Enjoy!

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.