Lune de sang

A very weak Australian slasher. I had also the chance to watch it on USA Network, in fact, it was played very often. For coming out in the late 80's BLOOD MOON doesn't offers anything you haven't seen. The box cover fooled me as it seemed to be a straight slasher. I consider this as a soap opera with slasher elements.

An unknown prowler wanders the territory of a private a school for women and the school next to it of men. This prowler kills people from both schools using a barb wire.

There's a subplot of romance and some conflicts between teachers. Nothing interesting from this movie to be saved.

Almost no gore, scary scenes, annoying characters, and a lame killer. Don't expect nothing from this movie. BLOODMOON is boring even for the gorehounds. Only die hard fans of the genre could watch it completely.

3/10.

Bloodmoon (1990)

* (out of 4)

Ozploitation about a serial killer going around an all girls Catholic school where he wraps a piece of barbed wire around the victim's necks. BLOODMOON is one of those films that seemed to build its reputation on hype and then when people actually saw the picture they realized that there really wasn't much to it. The idea of barbed wire being wrapped around someone's neck makes one think that you're about to view something graphic but that's certainly not the case. It almost seems as if the filmmakers watched a few American slashers and decided to copy them. It also seems like they read some negative reviews to stuff like Friday THE 13TH that put the films down for not having any sort of character development. It further seems that the filmmakers wanted to "get it right" so we're given non-stop scenes with so-called character development. There's no other way to put it but this movie is extremely bad from start to finish. There's an incredibly drawn out and downright boring dance sequence, which seems to run as long as the wedding sequence from THE GODFATHER. This scene just keeps going on and on and when it's over you realize that there wasn't a need for it. No need for it is something that most of these scenes here have going for them. The entire picture just drags along and at times you wonder if the filmmakers forgot they were making a horror film. The first hour drags by so poorly that most will probably hit the eject button. The majority of the death scenes take place off camera so we're not given too much there. What little blood there is comes from scenes showing the victim's missing their eyes. The film does offer up quite a bit of nudity but this here isn't enough to save the picture. Fans of the genre will probably be curious about this one due to its hyped reputation but sadly the film itself is quite poor and well worth skipping.

By reputation "Bloodmoon" doesn't seem to stand up so well, nonetheless it just seemed to draw me in (well captivating poster artwork helps a lot too) and since it just got a local DVD release (thanks to the 2008 documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!") it was easy to get a hold of. It turned out to be competently stylish, but a generically penned (if sexually charged) Aussie slasher that after the opening sequence it seems to find itself in soapy TV material. This aspect is rather distracting and stodgy, before it finally goes on to build a head of steam for the last half hour of outrageous acts and jarring suspense. While not particularly successful as a whole, as it can be sloppy it still kept me watching. Something about the choice of locations constructs an effective small coastal town atmosphere (very similar to that of 1981 quirky Australian slasher "Dead Kids") and it's lit with moody visual shadings by director Alec Mills. The stalk and slash scenes are actually well executed and framed, especially in the latter half with a couple twisted acts of uncontrollable violence… but when the focus (during some long periods) is on the dramas / antics of the locals and a group of neighbouring boarding schools (girls and boys -- who are on heat with constant flashes of female nudity) the suspense is truly forgotten about and its kept grounded with an authentic flavour but the cheesy handling doesn't help and so did the lack of any development of recurring characters / side-stories. The patchy story doesn't really offer any surprises (well maybe one moment --- a death towards the end) and the revelation of the killer midway though shouldn't really come as a surprise. Actually I thought it was better off unmasking the killer, because it was obvious but their choice of weapon a piece of barb wire would leave an unpleasant mark. The performances are surefooted with the likes of Christine Amor (immensely dominating), Leon Lissek (unusually picture-perfect), Ian Williams and Helen Thomson. Australian music composer Brian May has crafted out some stunning scores, but on this occasion it isn't one of his best in what is a vibrant, but heavy-handed arrangement. When it was being ominous it worked, but for those softer and playful cues it doesn't come off. It just lacked the fineness. Nothing sensational, but a better than labelled slasher.

Those were the days... Where this kind of slashers were a reason for staying home on a Friday night when being 12 or 13 years old.

I remember this movie airing on USA NETWORK almost every 6 months, but it wasn't until the 10th time it aired that I decided to watch it. The first 10 minutes are kind of creepy, then the movie gets boring until the expected end. The killer is no way scary, and even the plenty of gore and hot girls doesn't help "BLOODMOON" being a slasher to be remembered.

Just for die hard fans of the genre.

Basically this is a horror movie done Australian style. I can tell you it doesn't add up to Wolf Creek. It's your basic whodunit serial killer type story. There's naked Australian girls and an average, run of the mill storyline as well. I would recommend this only to completest of the genre. I give it a 4 which is high. I guess the naked Australian girls is what made me take it up a few notches... Since I'm a collector of 80s horror movies I ended up having to give this a viddie. Not that I regret it or anything but I don't see myself pulling this one off the shelf again anytime soon. But still not all that bad for a one time view...