Bad Moon
Starring: Michael Pare, Mariel Hemingway, Mason Gamble, Primo
Writer: Eric Red (Screenplay) & Wayne Smith (Novel)
Director: Eric Red
****Spoilers****
While on expedition in the jungles of Nepal, Ted (a photojournalist) and his girlfriend are attacked by a hulky, pissed off werewolf. This hairy jerk has seriously bad timing, too... ripping through their tent while homeboy is Peter North-in' it, snatches the lady up and uses her as a human scratch pad. Of course, she doesn't survive; poor Ted aint so lucky. He manages to blow its damn head off, but after taking a severe claw slash across the chest. A fate worse than death.
Fast Forward three months.
Ted is back in America living like a recluse out of his little trailer, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Well, bodies start turning up in the woods lookin' like human hamburger meat, so Ted (knowing that he is a lycanthrope) decides to go stay with Janet (his big sis) and Brett (her son) as a last ditch effort to save himself. However, Thor the family dog isn't too keen on sharing the yard with a werewolf, and the two of them quickly build a rivalry.
Bad Moon is based on a novel titled Thor by Wayne Smith; the book is told completely from the pet German Shepherd's point of view. While that idea sounds more than amazing, I can understand how difficult it would be to translate to film. Though, Eric Red does keep it in the screenplay as much as he can. There's quite a few POV scenes from Thor's perspective, as well as some from the werewolf. Their eyesight is that of a full screen DVD stretched to fit an HDTV... kinda crappy. A large chunk of the film is still about the dog, whether you're living vicariously through him or not. And trust me, Thor being a lead character is what puts Bad Moon above average.
We're not going by the more common stories of werewolves here, either. It doesn't take silver to kill one, nor does the moon need to be full for a transformation. With that being said, the movie sure as hell goes out of its way to show a full moon up in the sky every damn night, which makes no sense anyway, unless this is some town nobody knows about where there's ALWAYS a full moon. Anyway, if you're not going to use this myth as a reason for the change, why even show a full moon at all? Kinda disappointing.
Eric Red was the writer for fantastic films like Near Dark, The Hitcher and did the screenplay for the sadly underrated Body Parts (which, like Bad Moon, Red also directed). While the story here isn't horrible, it does struggle from not knowing whether to have Ted as a sympathetic character or as someone you can't wait to see perish. The opening had me feeling bad for the guy; he loses his girlfriend and the werewolf curse is passed onto him. Even when he goes to stay with Janet and Brett I continued to feel bad for him, at first. He's going out into the woods every night and chaining himself to a tree so that when he transforms no one will be harmed. Okay, cool, he doesn't WANT to hurt people...
WAIT, why in the shit wasn't he doing this in the first place? While he's living on his own, people are dying nightly because Wolf-Ted is out roaming the forests... That's fucked up. When I thought about all of this for a while, it was impossible for me to pity the character any longer... not to mention he quickly becomes an asshole once he gets to his sister's house. It's obviously an indication that Ted is losing his humanity due to the curse, but it jumps back and forth too sporadically.
Michael Pare (Streets of Fire) isn't exactly an amazing actor, but he does alright as a photojournalist with a hair problem and a taste for human meat. And while I previously mentioned having issues with Ted's character walking a thin line between likable and unlikable, he manages to pull off both perspectives. I mean, it was a believable performance when he acted as if he wanted help, as it was when he seemed to be saying “fuck it, it's hopeless”. Mariel Hemingway (Superman IV) kinda gets better as she goes along, as Janet; she's rather annoying in her first scene where she's bad-assing a conman off her property, but once the story gets going I was alright with her. Mason Gamble (Dennis the Menace) as Brett is just a warm body (save for a key scene towards the finale), but that's all he needs to be.
Best acting in the film comes from Primo, as Thor. This dog is so boss that it's almost impossible to ever once worry about the well being of Janet and her son. But aside from how tough his K-9 character is, Primo himself had obviously been well trained; he's on point for all his parts. Not only does he work extremely well with Pare, Hemingway and Gamble, but he basically schools them. Thor is who you'll root the most for, the one you'll want to see the most, and the one you'll cry for if he gets hurt... he's a great protagonist.
Bad Moon was threatened with an NC-17 rating, so unfortunately gore, and the opening sex scene had to be cut down... dammit! While I'm not positive, in many of the scenes I get the feeling a whole lot more nasty shit was going on. The opening in Nepal is still pretty damn graphic, as is a moment later on in the backyard of the house, but that's actually one of the segments that I felt was cut. Steve Johnson's (Return of the Living Dead III, Howling II) XFX, Inc. did the werewolf effects, and the beast itself is awesome. It's fucking gigantic and brutal with beady eyes and dagger teeth. Visual effects to transform Ted into a werewolf were done by VIFX, and I didn't care for it. I guess a complete practical effects transformation couldn't be done due to budget restraints, but the CGI used to blend it all together looks really bad. Like I said, the werewolf itself is awesome, but I kinda wish the transformation had just taken place off screen.
Despite everything I called out against Bad Moon, I still find it highly enjoyable, but more as no-brainer entertainment. It moves at a great pace, the scenery is beautiful and the camera shots and lighting are used in a manner to make the werewolf look as real as it can. With an 80 minute runtime, this flick is over before you know it, and I really wish there had been more. Be that as it may, it's a fun ride with some definite faults, but the incredible lycanthrope and one bad ass heroic German Shepherd make up for that.
