Moon of the Wolf (1972)

Moon of the Wolf (1972) ** (out of 4) After several locals are brutally murdered, a Louisiana sheriff (David Janssen) starts to wonder if there might be a werewolf at work. I guess I'm being a tad bit unfair when I say that's the "story" to this movie because the werewolf stuff really doesn't happen until the hour mark, which is an extremely long time considering this made-for-TV flick only clocks in at 73-minutes. Even at just 73-minutes this thing seems to run on and on and it really gets to the point where you're asking yourself what the filmmakers were thinking by making a movie like this. I've always had a love/hate relationship with this movie because on certain levels I enjoy it but at the same time had certain things been done better then the end result could have been so much better. One of the things that do work is the Louisiana swamp settings and this creates a certain atmosphere, which is just perfect for a werewolf movie. A werewolf running around in a redneck swamp could have been used so much better but at least the atmosphere is here. This atmosphere really reminded me of the Gothic horror films because they were more centered on the mood more than anything else. The problem with the picture is that the first hour pretty much just has the sheriff going around talking to people, asking various questions and the werewolf stuff doesn't come up till late. We don't even see the creature until the final portion of the film and even then we don't ever get any clear, good looks at it. I'm not sure if the filmmakers were afraid that they were going to scare kids that might be watching but whatever the reason for this decision it's a bad one. Janssen is good in the lead role of the sheriff and the supporting cast all fit their roles nicely as well. It's just really too bad that the film didn't take advantage of the locations and atmosphere and deliver a monster.

This TV movie is set in the wilds of Louisiana, yet oddly aside from a few actors (such Royal Dano and Geoffrey Lewis), most of the cast spoke without a hint of a Cajun accent. In particular, David Janssen, Barbara Rush and Bradford Dillman (the leads) didn't sound the least bit convincing and I assume they were cast mostly because they were all prolific in TV movies. For example, Dillman appeared in such fare as "The Swarm", "Bug", "Piranha", "Demon, Demon", "Deliver Us From Evil" and "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home". So much for in-depth and complex casting decisions! The film is a werewolf film and while the audience can guess this from the beginning (hey, the title alone is a giveaway), it sure takes most of the folks in the film to realize that a series of brutal murders are the work of a lycanthrope. In the meantime, the Sheriff (Janssen) investigates and folks in the film start blaming wild dogs for the deaths.For the most part, there is nothing too surprising in the film. It's neither particularly bad nor particularly good---just the sort of cheap production you'd expect for a made for TV film. Competent acting, rather poor makeup and a story that occasionally violates the wolf-man cannon established in previous films. It's a decent time-passer but not all that much more.

It's a cheaply made television movie with mostly over-the-hill stars who can still deliver. The story is mildly interesting without originality, imagination, or much suspense for that matter. Fortunately some of the filming was done on location in Louisiana, which adds a sense of place to the images. Too often, even in more lavishly funded productions, the Deep South looks suspiciously like the dry rolling hills and scattered live oaks of California, with perhaps an man-made mud puddle standing in for a swamp. The movie uses the famous Houmas Plantation to good effect, and that's fine because the story is as weak as it is. I don't mean the novel, which I haven't read, but the screenplay. In some ways it resembles "The Night Stalker" but it meanders a good deal and there is no humor.A pregnant young lady is found ripped to death outside the small town of Marsh Island, Louisiana. Who would do such a thing? Well, the sheriff is David Janssen who growls his way into the investigation until his attention is focused on the girl's slightly loopy brother (Lewis), the town doctor who got her pregnant (Beradino), and the young equestrian who runs the Big House (Dillman) that is never visited by the townspeople except by invitation. Dillman's sister (Rush) has recently returned from a longish stay in New York City, that capitol of depravity, where she was living in sin (gasp) with another man. But Janssen and Rush have had a crush on each other since Junior High School and it's rekindled when they meet again. It's understandable. Barbara Rush is no longer the spring chicken of "It Came From Outer Space" but she looks fine and sexy.Well, there's an old rustic, the victim's father, who babbles on in Cajun French about a lookarook. And then two more men fall victim to whoever or whatever is doing the murders, ripped to shreds and bitten all over. The perp, by the way, is able to rip the bars of a jail cell out of the wall, so that pretty much eliminates most of the brooding townsmen. The astute and experienced viewer already knows who or what the murderer is, namely the loup garou of Cajun folklore. I won't give away the human identity of the monster although you'll find out about two-thirds of the way through.I can imagine that the original novel was interesting. Small Southern towns are always fascinating in their own enclosed ways. Dillman and Rush belong to the aristocratic Rodanthe family who live by themselves on the plantation their forebears built, except for the necessary servants. Below them on the status ziggurat are the ordinary inhabitants of the town, the people who run the shops and serve in the cafés that the Rodanthes never visit. And below THEM, there is Frenchtown. The less said about them, the better. Alongside this layer cake of white folks are the blacks, of whom we see little. A savvy black woman (McNeil) is nursing the old Cajun who carries on about lookarooks and sulfur and asefetida and so forth. But there no overt racism at all. McNeil is treated off-handedly but with respect.That's in the nature of caste systems. You can have two castes side by side, one lower than the other, and within each cast there's a status ladder. No discomfort necessary -- jest as long as we uns agree that this be the way it allus was and ain't nobody gonna tell us no different. Lemme have another Dr. Pepper, will ye? A novelist could have gotten into the fertile earth here -- the dialog has some felicities -- but the movie chooses to be a regular monster flick padded out with some romance and some red herring, blackened Cajun style. The direction doesn't help the screenplay. There is a typical monster's POV shot with heavy breathing and muttered growls as the camera slouches towards a terrified man. I liked those shots better when they were still fresh in the early 50s.

"Moon of the Wolf" is a good example of a an early 70's made for TV horror film. This werewolf saga succeeds admirably due to the efforts of the cast, some good location shooting and a better than average screenplay (for TV at least). Actors like David Jansenn,Bradford Dillman and Barbara Rush do their professional best to put this story of lycanthropy in the south across and it manages to be both interesting and somewhat exciting despite some cheesy make up effects. It is a good way to pass an hour or so, and for my money is just as captivating as the kind of PG-13 horror fare that is ground out today to entice teenagers to go out to the multiplex.