Bad Moon

Werewolves have never really fared well on the big screen. Oh sure, they have had their moments (The Howling and An American Werewolf in London). But they also have provoked some mighty awful duds (Wolf and any of The Howling sequels). Unlike vampires, werewolves lack some special pull with the audience that might produce a heightened sense of engagement.

Which is a major problem with Bad Moon, a horror film that mistakes ponderous pacing for serious film making. Though some fans might be pleased by the movie's refusal to lampoon even some of the goofier traditions of the genre, the final effect is a film that is weak in both its bark and bite.

Janet (Mariel Hemingway) is an attorney and a single-mother who has moved to the Pacific Northwest in order to escape urban rot. Her ten-year-old son Brett (Mason Gamble) is a sweet if slightly vapid lad who seems totally devoted to his pet German Shepherd. His dog Thor (Primo), takes care of both of them as best he can.

But Janet's younger brother Ted (Michael Pare) suddenly decides to move in, trailer and all. Ted is a photojournalist whose last assignment was in the wilds of Nepal and he is a little shy on explaining why his girlfriend didn't come back with him. He is also a little reluctant in saying much about his newly acquired interest in ancient books on werewolves and his uncanny ability to understand the thought processes of domestic canines.

Nonetheless, the family thinks that Uncle Ted is great. Only Thor has enough sense to keep a wolf out of their deluxe hen house, especially after a few campers turn up half-devoured.

Like most werewolf movies, Bad Moon offers a slight variation on the dysfunctional family theme a la Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (which was sort of a werewolf tale in blood-soaked sheep clothing). But Janet's family is too well adjusted (in a dip-headed sort of way) to be of any interest. Even Uncle Ted is so blandly nice that you half expect him to get in touch with his inner wolf child. The whole movie only snaps to life on the rare occasion when someone gets their head bit off.

Which means that the writer-director of Bad Moon, Eric Red, didn't spend enough time studying the Stephen King movies that he keeps trying to rip-off in his film. Though he repeatedly "quotes" from such works as The Shining, Cujo, and Silver Bullet, he doesn't have any sense of the material. King's masterly of the contemporary American Gothic genre is rooted in his firm sense of the tensions lurking just beneath the surface of average life. Even at his worse, King can evoke a family structure riddled with enough suppressed fears and frustrations to fill a clinic.

The characters in Bad Moon could barely sustain a mediocre situation comedy. Even when Uncle Ted starts eyeing sis and Brett as his next meal, the effect is barely noticeable on the taboo-violation meter.

Besides, the real test of any werewolf movie is the transformation scene and Bad Moon even falters by that standard. Saved for late in the movie, it plays as a poor mix of old-school optical effects and good make-up design. Compared to the ground breaking work done in The Howling and An American Werewolf in London, the effect is hokey at best. But it is better than the cheap-Jack (pun intended) work done in Wolf.

But if you really want to see a great werewolf movie, why not rent a copy of Wolfen. It isn't exactly about werewolves, but Wolfen delivers enough wolves for any canine fan and it is the singular masterpiece of its own bizarre, self-made genre.

The only thing singular about Bad Moon is the strange way it turns a short running time into a long haul.