Bloodmoon (1990)

Powerful

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This Australian entry into the slasher canon is one of the more tedious. The movie lurches along as though its makers didn't bother with a script, squandering any interest the movie generates with its characters and plot points at the beginning, almost all of whom are forgotten by the end.I have seen many slasher movies in which the identity of the killer is a surprise kept secret until the end. Less common, but still significant, are those where the killer is known right from the beginning: the source of suspense is wondering when or if they'll get found out.This may be the first I've seen where the killer is revealed as if as an after thought somewhere in the middle of the movie. It feels like the movie trying to start over again with a different tack; the soap opera drama of the story is forgotten about and it becomes more about the killer, his weird, only-in-filmland relationship with his much more attractive wife, and who he's going to off next.Despite the title, the movie has very little violence and there's not much nudity or sex. There are, however, many impeccably groomed mullets, and the cast all look like rejects from Home and Away.

Basically this is a horror movie done Australian style. I can tell you it doesn't add up to Wolf Creek. It's your basic whodunit serial killer type story. There's naked Australian girls and an average, run of the mill storyline as well. I would recommend this only to completest of the genre. I give it a 4 which is high. I guess the naked Australian girls is what made me take it up a few notches... Since I'm a collector of 80s horror movies I ended up having to give this a viddie. Not that I regret it or anything but I don't see myself pulling this one off the shelf again anytime soon. But still not all that bad for a one time view...

By reputation "Bloodmoon" doesn't seem to stand up so well, nonetheless it just seemed to draw me in (well captivating poster artwork helps a lot too) and since it just got a local DVD release (thanks to the 2008 documentary "Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!") it was easy to get a hold of. It turned out to be competently stylish, but a generically penned (if sexually charged) Aussie slasher that after the opening sequence it seems to find itself in soapy TV material. This aspect is rather distracting and stodgy, before it finally goes on to build a head of steam for the last half hour of outrageous acts and jarring suspense. While not particularly successful as a whole, as it can be sloppy it still kept me watching. Something about the choice of locations constructs an effective small coastal town atmosphere (very similar to that of 1981 quirky Australian slasher "Dead Kids") and it's lit with moody visual shadings by director Alec Mills. The stalk and slash scenes are actually well executed and framed, especially in the latter half with a couple twisted acts of uncontrollable violence… but when the focus (during some long periods) is on the dramas / antics of the locals and a group of neighbouring boarding schools (girls and boys -- who are on heat with constant flashes of female nudity) the suspense is truly forgotten about and its kept grounded with an authentic flavour but the cheesy handling doesn't help and so did the lack of any development of recurring characters / side-stories. The patchy story doesn't really offer any surprises (well maybe one moment --- a death towards the end) and the revelation of the killer midway though shouldn't really come as a surprise. Actually I thought it was better off unmasking the killer, because it was obvious but their choice of weapon a piece of barb wire would leave an unpleasant mark. The performances are surefooted with the likes of Christine Amor (immensely dominating), Leon Lissek (unusually picture-perfect), Ian Williams and Helen Thomson. Australian music composer Brian May has crafted out some stunning scores, but on this occasion it isn't one of his best in what is a vibrant, but heavy-handed arrangement. When it was being ominous it worked, but for those softer and playful cues it doesn't come off. It just lacked the fineness. Nothing sensational, but a better than labelled slasher.

Not to be confused with Bloody Moon, Jesus Franco's gore feast of 1980; this Australian lensed slasher imitates the popular ‘killer on campus' plotline that's so frequently used by its US counterparts. It's fairly amusing just how much Alec Mills tries to make this as American as he possibly can, but thankfully he refrains from asking the cast to perform unconvincing accents. As a matter of fact, the characters that are actually supposed to be from the States still speak in flawless Aus! Hmmm!In the small town of Coopers Bay, there are two Hi-schools situated right next door to each other. There's Winchester, an all boys comprehensive and St Elizabeth's, a girl's only Catholic faculty. They are separated by woodland where pupils from both can meet and engage in things that they'd rather their teachers didn't witness! An unseen killer begins murdering the youngsters as they fornicate, strangling them with a length of barbed wire before removing their eyes and burying them under the soil. Mary, the daughter of a Hollywood movie actress, becomes involved when the killer targets her and Kevin, her boyfriend. But who is this twisted psychopath and why does he want to kill all the kids?Blood Moon opens with a terrific score courtesy of Brian May and some superb cinematography. The dense woods in which the kids are pursued is brilliantly lighted and I was immediately rather impressed by the general production. After a couple of murders, were introduced to a predictable troupe of troublesome teens and our obvious final girl. There's an interesting subplot that sprouts as one of the local poor kids falls for Mary, the daughter of an actress. The rich Winchester boys hate the local working class, so it's almost like a homage to Romeo and Juliet or West side story but without the Rock and Roll (Instead we get ‘reach for the earplugs' Heavy Metal!). Shakespeare and the slasher genre, what a combination! I bet the poor author would turn in his grave!There's one really gruesome – if not graphic – murder, involving a desk, a young girl's head and a deranged killer! But aside from that, there's hardly any gore and most of the killings are left to our imagination (boo!). The performances are fairly poor throughout, although Leon Lissek gives a decidedly nasty portrayal. Although it mostly keeps things directly by the book, there are a few twists that you probably won't guess and we also get some background on the reasons for the killer's insanity. British born Alec Mills' lackadaisical direction left a lot to be desired and he failed to generate as much suspense as was needed. He's better when he works as a camera man as he did on Return of the jedi and various James Bond movies through the seventies and eighties. It's a fairly slow-moving story, but when the killer is revealed things begin to perk up right up until it ends rather suddenly leaving one or two unanswered questions. Like what happened to Kevin? Did he survive? Even though the bodies start piling up toward the finale, the story certainly could have benefited from a few more excursions into the well-lighted woodland with the killer and his length of deadly barbed wire. As it stands, there was too little horror and an excessive amount of teen frolics that didn't really do the movie any favours. You can ignore most of the bad reviews that slate Blood Moon; it really isn't all that bad. Its just that its not particularly memorable, the sort of film that you'll watch once and forget about immediately after. Perfect for some late-night slicing shenanigans on the TV, but hardly worth the effort of hunting down. As far as Australian slashers go, it manages not to feel as cack-handed as Houseboat Horror, To Become One or the over-rated Cut, but then that's still not much of a worthy compliment. Oh and make sure to place them earplugs back in as soon as you see the end credits. The last songs a killer: `Blood moon is rising, stay home tonight' and `Blood Moon arising over building and over hill, take care if you will!' You get the picture!