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Mariel Hemingway, Mason Gamble, Michael Paré

Full moon, crescent moon, quarter moon...each is a Bad Moon for Ted Harrison. By day, he's a photojournalist enjoying a stay with family in the Pacific Northwest. By night, he transfigures into a horr...( read more  read more... )ific half-human--a werewolf. Writer/Director Eric Red (The Hitcher, Body Parts) delivers a new infusion of thrills with this roaring, red-blooded shocker. Michael Pare portrays Ted, hiding his accursed condition from his sister (Mariel Hemingway) and nephew (Dennis the Menace's Mason Gamble) Year: 1997 Director: Eric Red Starring: Mariel Hemingway, Michael Pare, Mason Gamble

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44% liked it

5,095 ratings

R, 79 min.

Directed by: Eric Red

Release Date: November 1, 1996

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DVD Release Date: October 3, 2000

Stats: 179 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (179)

  • ileo
    December 16, 2007
    ileo
    Fantastic movie with a great film setting! This is the best movie I've seen so far with Michael Pare in it.
  • dancingorange09
    October 15, 2009
    dancingorange09
    serammmm...cant even open me eyes
  • JazzytheRocker
    September 5, 2009
    JazzytheRocker
    it's my favoruite werewolf movie
  • syirahanamichi
    July 25, 2009
    syirahanamichi
    i love this movie!!i watch this movie since i was 3 years old..
  • jfvirey
    July 17, 2009
    jfvirey
    Having watched the trailer, I believed "Bad Moon" was some low budget direct-to-video stinker, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover it was shot in 2:35/1 by no less than Eric Red, who made a name for himself in the eighties by writing "The Hitcher" and co-writing "Near Dark"...( read more). Moreover, the opening titles told me the film was adapted from a novel, so I also expected some substance, and indeed the scene that established the lead female character suggested that this would not be some run-of-the-mill slasher.

    However, "Bad Moon" does have many flaws, which I'll begin by enumerating. First, the screenplay is not that great. That it is based on a book entitled "Thor" and that "Thor" is the name of the heroine's German shepherd tells you a lot about what direction the story will go: the dog is actually the focus of the film, resulting in poorly developed human characters, and a feeling that you are watching a fight between a Walt Disney movie and a video nasty. The dog has great presence, but I think he was given a little too much intelligence, even though at least one of his actions is counterproductive. As a vegan and an animal rightist, I am not prone to underestimating animal intelligence, quite the contrary. But I am not sure the cause of the animals is served by anthropomorphism, be it cognitive or affective.

    Much of the dialogue is trite and psychologically uninteresting or confusing. There is a real awkwardness to the brother / sister relationship between Pare and Hemingway, who are not at the top of their acting form (Pare even has his Joey Tribbiani moment when he pronounces "Delhi" "Delphi" in the opening scene!) As for the kid, he is cute, but is obviously not directed by a Spielberg or a Shyamalan.

    Also detracting from the movie are the many implausibilities of the plot. (SPOILERS AHEAD) For instance, how can the police be so convinced 105-pound Thor killed the con-artist, when they describe the beast that killed him as a "very, very big wolf" (which has been established to be about twice that weight)? How can they blame the park ranger's death on wolves or a grizzly when his body parts were found impaled several meters up on a tree? How can the dog survive the werewolf's claws with a few scratches when they have been shown to tear through flesh and thick wood with such devastating effects? And how much is Pare's human personality affected by what he calls his shadow? At some points he seems to be an innocent victim fighting a disease, at others, a wolf pretending to be friendly. Was there a progression in his condition? If so, that wasn't made at all clear...

    Finally, the special effects are decent at best. The animatronic suit for the werewolf is good, but the eyes lack mobility and the body is not lean enough, as if the creature was a bit too wooly or podgy. The transformation, unfortunately, is also not done with prosthetics (which was the craze in the eighties, with such milestones as "The Howling", "The Company of Wolves" and "An American Werewolf in London") but through morphing and image distortion, which gives it the unreality of CGI. The "werewolf" vision is also very disappointing (especially when compared to the imaginative effects in "Wolfen"), but it is inconsistently dropped after the opening scene to become the dog's vision.

    With all those flaws, why the 2.5-star rating? Well, there were two things I loved about this film. First, it reminded me of the kind of horror we used to have in the eighties, with Margaux Hemingway succeeding Dee Wallace as the resourceful single mom ("Cujo" is the obvious reference here.) It's very simple, it doesn't push the envelope, it's just a good old-fashioned monster film that does not try to revolutionise the genre, and as such it felt comfortable and homey. At 79 minutes, it also does not have time to be boring. And second, I loved the score. I had never heard of Daniel Licht before, and I don't think I've seen any of the films he's scored (I just had a look at "King Solomon's Mines" to see how Alison Doody had aged, but I don't remember paying attention to the music), but I feel I've discovered a major new composer, which is a consolation after the recent deaths of luminaries like Jerry Goldsmith and Michael Kamen. I don't think the film deserved such a beautiful score, but it is really enhanced by this asset (it added at least half a star to my rating.)

    Of course, if you are not a genre aficionado, just ignore my review and stay away from this film. But if you are looking for cheap, retro thrills, it will do the job.
  • SheWhoMustNotBeNamed934
    July 5, 2009
    SheWhoMustNotBeNamed934
    i remember this movie
  • jackhammerebm
    March 13, 2009
    jackhammerebm
    This was pretty good but moved a little too slow to put it over the top for me. Still worthy of a look!
  • phaedrus99
    December 21, 2008
    phaedrus99
    After being scratched by a werewolf (the result is that he, also, will become one), Ted (Michael Pare) moves to the Pacific Northwest and becomes the neighbor of his sister, Janet (Mariel Hemingway), and her young son Brett (Mason Gamble). Brutal murders soon are the order of the...( read more) day, and Brett's dog (not Ted) becomes the prime suspect.
  • iluvbam4lyfe
    August 13, 2008
    iluvbam4lyfe
    I liked this movie so much when I first seen it I had to go out and buy it. A very good werewolf movie. Maybe the best. Very f***ing gruesome. Ugh gross. But soo awesome!
  • hitandrunfacetofacedreams
    July 8, 2008
    hitandrunfacetofacedreams
    Mariel joue dans sa?

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