Full Moon High (1981)

Really Surprised!

Fresh and Exciting

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Underrated horror comedy from Larry Cohen about a teenage boy (Adam Arkin) in the 1950s whose bitten by a werewolf on a trip to Transylvania. Back home he struggles in vain to control his werewolf urges, which include nipping at the bottoms of young women. Eventually he leaves town but returns twenty years later, posing as his own son, in an attempt to finish high school.Man, this movie is trashed just about everywhere you look but I thought it was a riot. It's completely silly and irreverent, which I guess doesn't appeal to everyone. I thought it was fun from start to finish and, while I love Teen Wolf, I have to agree with another reviewer that this is actually a better movie. A better comedy, at least. Adam Arkin does a fine job but the supporting cast frequently steals the spotlight. Ed McMahon, Roz Kelly (Pinky Tuscadero!), and Joanne Nail are all hilarious. Alan Arkin shows up late in the movie and owns every scene he's in. Demond Wilson (Lamont from Sanford & Son) is funny in a tiny part as a bus driver.The '80s was a great decade for werewolf movies. While most people know and appreciate many of these, like the aforementioned Teen Wolf, The Howling, and An American Werewolf in London, this one doesn't seem to get a lot of respect. I mean, look at that IMDb score -- it's pathetic! Hopefully, as time goes by, Full Moon High will be appreciated more but it's been over thirty years so I won't be holding my breath on that. See it for yourself and decide. Maybe you'll get as much of a kick out of it as I do.

Larry Cohen is one of the big horror names and I've been meaning to get to his movies for quite some time. Never caught his "It's Alive" trilogy, nor "Q" or "God Told Me To" but as a horror nut; I'll get to them eventually. Perhaps "Full Moon High" isn't the best introduction into Larry Cohen the director. Adam Arkin gives his all as a teenager who's bitten by a wolf in Romania and his life falls apart soon after. Father dies (quite a funny scene though) and he fulfills his destiny; roaming the earth for a great deal of time before tiring of it eventually and then return home. He does just that but a lot has changed. Perhaps aiming for the heights of screwball comedy gold "Airplane"; "Full Moon High" is just a plain old misfire. Maybe some quality inside jokes flew by me but the flick is spoofing Werewolf oldie's left and right while trying to be somewhat topical of changing times and values in the old US of A. There are scattered laughs here and there in 93 minutes (mostly with Ed McMahon and Kenneth Mars - the shower scene early on is pretty funny) but on the whole this is a pretty painful sit-through. Certainly a one of a kind movie and not surprisingly it has a small cult following; I'm all for that (mostly in the horror department myself though) but I can't honestly recommend this movie for comedy buffs. Adam Arkin is likable here but like most others he looks a little lost and no wonder. I'll give the movie one thing; it's anything but predictable as I never knew what direction it was going to turn to next. Halfway through I thought I had it pegged but was I dead wrong! Weird flick and not in the good way.

I've seen better teenage werewolf movies in my time, this one however, takes the cake. More comedy than horror, "Full Moon High" puts the "c" in cheese-fest. The star quality in this movie is not bad. Just the way it was made just sends in rolling downhill. Adam Arkin plays Tony, an all-American high school football player of the 50's who ends up not aging due to a werewolf bite in Transylvania. The most annoying part of the movie was the violin player. He drove everyone batty! Ed McMahon plays his ultra-conservative father who met his end of his own bullet. Adam's father Alan plays a shrink who seems to be not top of his game. After all these years Tony seems to be very out of place due to the attack, and then he'll get the chance to catch in his state. More laugh than blood shed, this movie is just a start in the 80's, "Teen Wolf" was an improvement from this! 1 out of 5 stars.

Yeah....this movie's bad but here's something you have to realize before watching it (and you probably should have while watching it): it's supposed to be. The thing about this movie I guess is that it seems to only be funny to the right people: a) huge werewolf fans and b)people with a really low-brow sense of humor, and I'm proud to say I'm both. Some of the best jokes in this movie were the worst ones, like some of the newspaper headlines ("Werewolf easts Chinese, hungry again 30 minutes later"...please tell me somebody got the double-meaning) or the Romanian woman who reads palms for entertainment (I read 14 last week, I couldn't put one down til I was finished!)But if you watch it for no other reason, watch for Bob Saget; this is probably the best god damn thing you'll ever see him in.