lennietofft
This whole film is barely watchable. It stinks of feminist propaganda, and takes every opportunity to make men in general look bad. It lacks the mystery, imagination and tension that you'd expect from a horror film. Instead, it has more of the feel of a drama film. It looks quite cartoonish, and only kids would probably enjoy this, simply because they wont see all the pc and all the propaganda. Any adult with enough selfrespect not to want a ton of feminist propaganda shoved down their throat will find this unwatchable.The werewolf is highly unrealistic and looks more like a character from a computer game, down to the way it attacks, with fists like some kind of martial arts fighter. I would recommend the howling series of films rather than this work of vomit-inducing political correctness and feel-good cute-dog-is-the-hero garbage.
joebyron
This movie is a wonderful example of 90s monster horror. had I seen this movie when it first came out, I would of been scared poop-less(granted I would of only been 8) but seeing it nearly 20 years later its comes in at pretty campy. The Acting: Out of the two stars I give for acting. it receives one 1. Convincing. Not award winning.Plot: Out of the three stars I give for plot, this earned 2. Believable. Entertaining. But not too original.Special Effects: The special effects are pretty good for 1996. No use of CGI gives the movie the feel that I think helps it stand the test of time. Even though I do not believe it meets my standard to get the star in SFX
Bonehead-XL
Whenever "Bad Moon" comes to mind, I always surprised to read it was made in 1996. The early nineties, maybe, the late eighties, more likely, I think. Yet, there is it. Release date: 1996. The film feels much older then that, a deliberate throwback to early eighties creature features, when Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, and Stan Winston redefined monster effects. The film was ignored upon release and remains somewhat obscure to this day. Open-minded horror fans who take a chance on it might find a likable, eccentric werewolf thriller.Based on the novel "Thor" by Wayne Smith, "Bad Moon" is a story about a boy and his dog… And a werewolf. Attorney Janet lives with preteen son Brett in a big house on the edge of the Pacific Northwest forest. Seems the only company the family of two has is Thor, their loyal German Shepherd. That is until Janet's brother Ted comes to stay. Unbeknownst to the family, Ted was bitten by a werewolf while in Nepal. Changing every night, he struggles with his animal tendencies, handcuffing himself to a tree when he transforms. Neither Janet nor Brett connect Ted's reappearance to the vicious mauling deaths in the area. Thor, on the other hand, senses something off about the uncle. The dog keeps a close eye on the man and his nightly rituals. It's not much longer until Ted realizes that Thor is on to his secret.Perhaps the reason the film has never been well-received, besides it generic title, is that "Bad Moon" seems to be a movie with two minds. The films open with a steamy sex scene that ends with a werewolf tearing a woman apart and then having its head blown off. The film then transitions to a little boy playing catch with his dog. The whole film slingshots between those two tones. The gore is fairly explicit, the werewolf crushing a construction worker's head in its jaws, strewing his body parts through a tree. Later, the wolf tears a con man apart with his claws, the blood spraying through the air. When the movie isn't focused on graphic werewolf violence, it's a film about family, including the beloved pet Thor. This schizophrenic tone is most obvious in the final act. While Ted confronts Janet about his lycanthropy, chasing her through the house, Brett sneaks off on his bike, rescuing Thor from the local pound. The hard horror content doesn't always co-exist easily with the Spielbergian family drama.Yet it almost doesn't matter because veteran genre screenwriter turned genre director Eric Red nails the heart of the story. The soul of the film rests behind Thor's vivid eyes and the love his family has for him. If they gave out Oscars to dogs, Primo, the shepherd who plays the part, would have won. I'm only being partially facetious when I say he's the best actor in the film. Any animal lover is bound to have their heart-strings tugged by the scene where Thor is separated from his boy. The last act, where Thor and the werewolf fight, would have been ridiculous if the audience didn't care about Thor as much as the characters do. The movie successfully endears the dog to the viewer, investing "Bad Moon" with far more emotion then it otherwise would have had.The human cast is a bit more mixed. Mariel Hemingway does very well as the single mom, never reduced to a screaming female. She's strong in the face of a petty con men and remains strong when being chased by a werewolf. Mason Gamble as the young boy is less impressive. It's a good thing that the kid is pushed towards the sideline for most of the film because he's not quite convincing. Michael Pare's performance is a bit harder to read. He conveys a threatening attitude subtly, especially when only a blink frightens Thor into attacking. However, moments of bigger emotions seem unconvincing coming out of Pare's mouth. A brief voice-over narration especially doesn't work, Pare given melodramatic dialogue about "the restorative power of love," for goodness' sake.The center piece of any werewolf movie is its werewolf. "Bad Moon" doesn't feature the most original design, your standard up-right dire wolf. However, the effects are convincing. Some might consider them cheesy but I like the close-ups of the drooling, snarling face. The film's relatively small cast keeps the body count low but gore hounds might still find effects of note here. The dismembered body mentioned earlier is especially gruesome. The only effect in the movie that doesn't work is a nightmare sequence featuring a were-dog. It's a silly moment and luckily one the film doesn't focus on. "Werewolf of London" is briefly seen and the film outright pays homage too, with its werewolf vulnerable to regular bullets and Nepal-set opening.Red's direction is handsome and makes good use of its lush shooting location. The score balances frights and lovely orchestral nicely. I'm not surprised that "Bad Moon" bombed in theaters as a post-"Scream" audience probably didn't have much interest in an eighties-style creature feature. The movie's unlikely to blow anyone's socks off but it's a solid werewolf flick nevertheless.
Rodrigo Amaro
I remember seeing the trailer of this movie when I was a kid and it seemed very frightening and interesting to see. Never had the chance to see until the day that an cultural event happened in my city and there was one cinema showing horror movies with werewolves and this was one of these films. After a long time in line I watched and at the end I must say that I felt that something was missing and that "Bad Moon" could be a better movie than it is.Ted (Michael Paré) was bitten by a wolf and now he's a cursed werewolf whose seems to lose control easily. After the visit of his sister Janet (Mariel Hemingway) and her son Brett (Mason Gamble well known for playing Dennis the Menace) into his house and fearing that he may attack some people of the area where he lives (he did that) he moves with them. But there's a surprise for him: The family has a dog named Thor (played by Primo) and they don't seem to like each other. The rest of the movie is Ted's transformations into a werewolf and it's attacks; the dog's always barking and the family's always worried with everything that happens.The visual effects are kind of funny; many of the attacks scenes are strangely cut, looks like the director was afraid to make an too much shocking horror movie, it's not much scary as it looks like (the beginning is very scary but the rest runs too slow). The sound effects are interesting but sometimes this is not enough. Why this was an interesting film? Because of the dog. Yes. Thor (the name of the book which this film is based on) is very interesting, and very well played by Primo. The dog is the main reason of why this movie works, the only one who actually knows more about Ted than his family and he's very underrated, always pushed away from everyone. Why this movie didn't worked? Lack of characters and eventually lack of situations. It didn't had anything special, original about it and many times it gets very boring (but the ending is great). Mariel Hemingway's great, Mason Gamble was better as Dennis (in the last minutes he saved the movie to sink to the bottom, don't ask me how he did that), Michael Paré is...well, he's okay. If you want to see something of him go watch "Streets of Fire". That's a helluva of a movie. Direction? Good effort but could've be better.Entertaining, not much scary and I give 6 stars.
