Killer's Moon

source: Killer's Moon

Killer's Moon

A group of schoolgirls are terrorized by four crazed escaped mental patients who believe that they're dreaming in this sleazy little British film. This movie starts off fairly slow and keeps that leisurely pace throughout even when the action ramps up. That, along with the killers being a little on the pushover side, (one gets dispatched by a three-legged dog!!!!) kept me from getting that involved with the movie. For a similarly themed but MUCH better film, you'd do well to rent 1982's "Alone in the Dark" which is everything great that this film is not. My Grade: D DVD Extras: Commentary by Director Alan Birkinshaw & actress Joanne Good; Interviews with Birkenshaw & Good color & black and white stills galleries; original & original x-rated trailers for this film; and a trailer for "Nature Morte" (which features nudity)

Four criminal psychopaths undergoing LSD therapy (!) that escaped from a lunatic asylum. A group of stranded schoolgirls lodged in a mansion/castle. The four psychos will make their way to the girls through a string of murders. When they meet the girls, there will be a massacre - rape and murder. "Killer's Moon", story wise, is the exploitation buff's dream, but there's no real nudity (just some bits of flesh), sex is more suggested than shown, and there's violence (not very explicit) but no gore. But this isn't really important because the story is violent and sleazy. "Killer's Moon" may not be a great film but I've quite enjoyed it - besides having a good story, it's ironic, involuntarily funny and bizarre (suffice it to mention the three-legged dog!). Recommended for those who love the 70s exploitation films.

Four mental patients -- who, due to unauthorized experiments, believe they are living in a dream and have shed all moral imperatives -- escape and find their way to the nearest bus-load of stranded schoolgirls. What makes this film interesting for me, besides the ethical questions (can the killers be held accountable if they think they are dreaming), is the music. Along with a jazzy version of "Three Blind Mice", we have some music that is dreamlike (appropriately) and also quite moody and dark (also appropriate). It was, for me, the difference between the movie being bad and good. Due to its (fake) animal cruelty and dismissive attitude towards rape, the film has been called "the most tasteless movie in British cinema history." While that is surely an exaggeration, I do think these elements helped give it the cult following it apparently now has. I can see it being mocked by people in a loving way.