SeveredNitrate Presents Bad Moon (1996)

Salutations Severedheads. 🧟

I am your hostess Necrosecta and this is SeveredNitrate where we review horror flicks. This week's flick is Bad Moon (1996) 

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Duh...

TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Death 

-Animal injury 

-Werewolf Death

-Blood

-Gore

-Sex Scene (just the 1 though) = Boobs

-Profanity 

-Some bad CGI during the werewolf transformation, others I think the effects are great

-This is based on a book, so if you've read that first, you might be biased. I've read both and I like both very much. 

Let's start with the lovely cast: 

Mariel Hemingway as Janet Harrison (Mom)

Michael Pare as Uncle Ted Harrison 

Mason Gamble as Brett Harrison (Son)

Primo as (the bestest boy ever) Thor

PLOT:

We start off in Nepal with Ted Harrison on a photo shoot with his then (alive) girlfriend. She isn't alive that much longer as their camp is attacked by a werewolf. Ted is scratched in the pandemonium before he can shoot the werewolf's head off and he isn't fast enough to save his girlfriend. 

We jump to 3 months later where we're introduced to Ted's older sister, Janet, nephew Brett, and their loyal German doggo Thor. She's doing pretty good as a single mom and lawyer. One day, Ted calls them up, wanting to see them. 

So, Janet, Brett, and Thor all drive up to his Silverstream trailer by a really pretty-looking lake. They spend the day together and Thor is starting to suspect Uncle Ted of something but he isn't sure of what. Ted feels at peace when he's around his sister and nephew and eventually does come to visit them at their house. 

We learn that there had been killings around the area Uncle Ted was staying and that's why he'd agreed to visit. The longer that Ted hangs around Thor's family the more suspicious he becomes until one night he follows Ted on a night jog, where he sees Ted transform into a werewolf. 

Thor knows he must protect his family at all costs. This heel turn against the tragic character that is Ted, leads to some erratic behavior. Janet starts to worry about Thor but also about Ted. She knows he's lying to her about his girlfriend and Brett finds an old book filled with werewolf lore. 

What could this all mean though? 

Thor senses one day that Ted has fully descended into the darkness living inside him and attacks. This makes Janet send him away but her lawyer instincts alert her to Ted acting sinister so she decides to follow him on one of his jogs. 

This puts her right in the path of Ted the werewolf. Before he transforms he admits to Janet that he thought the power of familial love would cure his curse but when it didn't he basically lost all hope. Then chastises her for sending Thor away...the only protection they had...against him. 

Brett, however, had snuck out to free Thor. Brett doesn't even know what he's in for when he follows Thor into his bedroom and finds a werewolf. Thor and Ted viciously fight each other until they both fall out of Brett's bedroom window. 

Ted crawls away severally injured and Thor tracks him down. Before he can heal though, Ted begs for Thor to kill him. Which Thor graciously does. Nothing and no one is going to hurt Thor's family. Not even if it's family. 

THOUGHTS: 

Bad Moon was written and directed by Eric Red, who also wrote Near Dark, another underrated horror movie. Sadly, Bad Moon is in a place where it'll never reach cult status or become a classic, in its own right. Which I find rather irritating, this movie is good. Not perfect but the acting is enjoyable, the effects (besides the CG) are believable, and watching Ted as a tragic figure spiral is compelling. 

Most of the things people complain about are just hogwash. As I mentioned earlier there is a scene with bad CGI, which is barely on screen for six minutes, near the very end of the movie. The blood and gore, while there isn't much of it, are awesome. 

There are two really great shots that have always stuck in my mind; there is one near the beginning of the movie with Janet, she's confronting a con man and there is a below dolly zoom in making Janet seem like a giant, looming over the man that thought he could threaten her. 

This perfectly sets up the character Janet. She's larger than life and doesn't take shit. She may not be the one that takes the werewolf down, but she does shoot her own brother when the time comes for it. 

The second one is near the end when Janet is confronting Ted and Ted is starting to change. He's staring at the moon, his teeth are sharp, eyes are this beautiful yellow-green, which stands out amazingly against the actor's face. Smiling. Happy to finally have the charade over. This shows just how far Ted is from his human self and is the wolf now. Which is heartwrenching because we see Ted struggling against himself. He knows he's a danger to his family and he tries to warn them about the kinds of things that can lurk in someone's shadow. Even someone you thought you knew. 

I think the only thing in this movie I don't really like is, Brett. He cannot take a hint. He finds Uncle Ted's laboratory, where he's trying to stir up a cure, and the book of werewolf lore. Then the talk about werewolves that Ted and Brett have. He's telling the kid not to go by the movies because it may not be that way. Explaining that a werewolf can change on any moon and that werewolves aren't indestructible. Brett, with a child's imagination, should have easily put these clues together before halftime. Especially, with his faith in Thor, and how Thor starts to act around Ted. All of the red flags! But Brett got none of it. 

A thing I like about the book better, that we don't get in the movie, is Thor's sense that Uncle Ted is wrong. There is something wrong inside of him. And when Thor meets the werewolf, he can smell how ancient and foul it is. The wolf is twisted. I wish we could have gotten more of a sense of this in the movie. 

However, I like how the family is just cut down to Janet, Brett, Ted, and Thor. This keeps it small so we can see more of an effect that this stressful situation takes on them. In the book, there was the dad, mom, I think three kids, Ted, and Thor. That many members would have muddled things. Janet was a good decision to make because a mother's sense to protect her child should overcome anything, even the love for a brother. 

I know this has been a long time coming. What, three months? Phew! That's a long hiatus. My deepest and sincerest apologies darlings. I'll do better to post regularly. 

Have you seen Bad Moon? What do you think? What did you like or dislike? Do you have a request? I'm happy to watch something new, feel free to ask. Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed the review! 

'Til next time, stay twisted, darlings! 

Lapshi! 

-Necrosecta

Next time on SeveredNitrate: TBD

P.S.

READ THE BOOK!!!