Moon of the Wolf

source: Moon of the Wolf

This made for TV movie, starring the late David Janssen and Barbara Rush is not bad. This movie was made in the early 1970's when the TV Movie of the Week was all the rage. Although this movie isn't as good as some of the other horror movies that were made for TV (such as Bad Ronald, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and When Michael Calls,) it is interesting enough to hold the viewer's interest. David Janssen was a good actor, and he's equally good here. My only complaint about this movie is that it drags in some spots. The werewolf make-up is ludicrous, but hey, what can you expect from an early 1970's t.v. movie? This movie reminded me a lot of The Night Stalker, starring the late, great Darren McGavin. If you are a fan of the Night Stalker, or Made for T.V. movies then you should enjoy this movie.

Moon Of The Wolf is a film about some really horrific killings in the Louisiana bayou country. Sheriff David Janssen has his hands full with three different killings, first a woman who looks like some wild animal gnawed at her for food. But the second two have the whole town scared. Janssen arrests Geoffrey Lewis for the first killing and someone ripped the iron bars off the cell door to get at him and killed a deputy sheriff guarding Lewis in the meantime. Nice atmosphere of the bayou country is achieved in this made for television film. Unfortunately the suspense is let out halfway through the film as we're given everything but an eyewitness testimony as to who the killer is. It's just that Janssen doesn't want to even conceive of the idea, much less the existence of a werewolf. Some of the rest of the cast includes Claudia McNeil who knows some home remedies to keep the wolf away, Barbara Rush and Bradford Dillman as a pair of rich descendants of the town's founding father and John Berardino as the town doctor. Fans of any and all of the players above will like Moon Of The Wolf.

Ah, the simple days before audiences demanded over-the-top, computerized effects and buckets of blood spewing from every corner of the screen... When a man in polyester slacks and a furry face was enough to send people grasping their throw pillows on a Tuesday night in front of the TV set. Janssen plays a laid-back, rather-beleagered sheriff in a small Louisiana town who finds himself investigating the mauled body of a young lady. His investigation includes contact with local yokel Dano, anguished brother of the victim Lewis, testy physician Beradino and town royalty Dillman and his sister Rush, who live in the biggest house on the biggest piece of land. As bits of evidence begin to surface, it becomes clear that no ordinary man could have committed the crime, nor could any known animal have done it. While sifting through the clues and fending off various outraged local citizens, Janssen finds time to flirt with Rush, his secret high school crush, who is back in town after several years in the big city. Soon, another victim is claimed and eventually Rush discovers that she may be next on the menu, so Janssen must try to protect her (a task he performs with a notable lack of effectiveness!) For a low-budget TV-movie, this has a nice amount of atmosphere (thanks to location filming) and sports a cast of familiar faces who generally do a fine job. Janssen is his normal weary, but amenable, self, attempting to make sense out of a confusing situation. Rush is attractive and dewy, floating around with a basket of flower cuttings, yet adding shades of dimension to her character. Dillman gets to act in some of the more embarrassing sequences of the film, but brings his customary commitment to the role. Beradino comes off as a stocky block of aged wood and looks tired. His subplot is a tad unbelievable. Lewis, always a quirky and unusual presence, is quite effective. It's a short, tight mystery with a reasonably hair-raising finale and is the type of film that seems lost forever amidst today's fare. A similar television film, but with a different type of denouement is "Scream of the Wolf" with Peter Graves and Clint Walker.

David Janssen gets to grumble-frumble his way through some lovely bayou locales as he searches for a werewolf in the TV quickie Moon of the Wolf. He looks puffy and sweaty and, more than anything, dangerously dyspeptic in his Deputy Dawg uniform and hat. Barbara Rush shows off a hairdo that could hide several lycanthropes, John Beradino consumes large portions of the scenery, and Bradford Dillman looks embarrassed. By the time the credits roll you'll have seen barns burning, Janssen running hither and thither, doors slammed with dramatic effect, and the werewolf ventilated by the handy revolver in the bedside drawer. It's enough to make you wish you had been an early snack by that nasty ol' woof-man!

David Jansen, who also played Dr. Richard Kimbell, on The Fugitive this time was a Sheriff. I saw this movie when it first came out. The only way to kill the Werewolf, was to shoot him, with a silver bullet. The sister had to do it. In self defense. Yet she had to do it, for her own safety. A lot of people were murdered. This compares with The silver Bullet, that Corey Haim was in. I've seen better. Wrewolves are only fiction. Just like Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy. This was a low rate budget movie. I taped it on my first VCR, however I really don't care to have it nor The Silver Bullet with Corey Haim. I don't like Corey Haim. He has played in bad pictures like Blown Away. I give this movie and The Silver Bullet a D-.

"Moon of the Wolf" was an ABC movie of the week that came out a year after "The Night Stalker". This is a movie that has great acting in it but not a lot of thrills or special effects. The werewolf make-up isn't that convincing either-the werewolf looks more like a rapid poodle! However,David Jansen, Barbara Rush and Bradford Dillman do a wonderful job with their roles. The plot is original but the pace slows down in some spots. Most of the action takes place during the last 10 minutes of the film. I purchased this for $1.00 thinking it would be an OK movie but it was much better than I expected. This is a movie that may grow on you.

MOON OF THE WOLF (1972) is an OK-at-best, made-for-TV werewolf flick that has one outstanding quality: the setting in the Louisiana Bayou. I tend to love Horror films set in the Deep South and the setting in this one seems very genuine. After several locals turn up murdered, the sheriff (David Janson) of a rural Louisiana Bayou community suspects a werewolf to be responsible... MOON OF THE WOLF offers no real surprises, to me personally the identity of the Werewolf was clear pretty soon (actually, it was too obvious, which gave me a lick of doubt). A romance between the sheriff and his high-school sweetheart is thrown in as a filler. The film occasionally becomes somewhat boring, which, regarding the screen time of 75 minutes, is quite an accomplishment. Yet, the film has its qualities. As mentioned above, the setting is awesome. The Bayou landscapes all look very genuine, as does the small-town, and a vital part of the movie takes place in a Colonial mansion. Some of the bit-part players make a genuine redneck impression, one of them the prolific Geoffrey Lewis, a great supporting actor whose filmography includes great films of many genres, including MY NAME IS NOBODY, Clint Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, DILLINGER and Tobe Hoopers SALEM'S LOT. MOON OF THE WOLF may be enjoyed for the Deep Southern atmosphere, but overall nobody who hasn't seen it has missed anything.

Marsh Island, a small Louisiana bayou town, is plagued by mysterious mutilation murders committed whenever there's a full moon. They're blamed on rabid dogs, but local good ole boy Sheriff Aaron Whitaker (David Janssen) thinks otherwise. He investigates the crimes, while getting romantically involved with a wealthy chatterbox named Louise (Barbara Rush), who is from "The First Family of Louisiana" and has just moved back into the family mansion with her overly-protective brother Andrew (Bradford Dillman). Hmmm. As the bodies start to pile up and it is determined that whoever is committing the crimes is strong enough to tear iron bars out of cement to murder someone else in a jail cell, the authorities are lead to believe that the culprit is not entirely human. Couldn't be a werewolf, could it? The backwoods country folk include Tom (Royal Dano), a senile old coot who rants about the dreaded "lugaloo" and Lawrence (Geoffrey Lewis), the grumpy chief murder suspect whose brother was one of the victims. Super-tame made-for-TV effort; so tame that it takes an entire hour until we get our first on-screen murder scene… which the camera cuts away from at the last minute. Even more elusive than the blood-n-gore is the monster, who is not seen until the very end. When it finally does show up, you see why it took so long; the minimal make-up (designed by Tom and William Tuttle) is pretty awful. Thankfully, Janssen makes an engaging lead and makes it bearable. Based on the novel by Leslie H. Whitton. Goodtimes and WorldVision both released it to video in the 1980s. It slipped into obscurity for a little while, but became a fixture on those cheap 20 horror DVD packs and is now very easy to find.

I was pretty surprised by this backwoods bayou shocker. Murders start occurring in a little Louisiana town, and the sheriff's investigation points to signs of a werewolf on the loose. If you can suspend the fact that it's pretty obvious who the wolf is, this is a fun mystery. And in addition to the werewolf plot, we've got ideas of class-consciousness, romance, unwanted pregnancies, and small-town sleaze to ponder. The performances were decent and it moves along quickly. Werewolf completists, fans of David Jansen or Bradford Dillman (he was in EVERYTHING in the 70s), and Cajun-Gothic fans can all find something here. Although I can't believe NOBODY in a bayou town knew the world loup-garou, there are worse ways to spend an afternoon than watching "Moon of the Wolf."