Moon of the Wolf (1972)

        “It wasn’t wild dogs that killed Ellie.”  Alright so this week, I’ve decided to check out a few werewolf films.  Because I recently became addicted to Hemlock Grove and have publicly stated that HG has the best werewolf transformation I’ve ever seen, I decided that it was time I view as many werewolf movies I can just to see if my public statements were accurate.  The first movie I selected was Daniel Petrie’s Moon of the Wolf (1972).  Being a TV movie from the 70s, I truly didn’t expect that the movie would have a lot of gore, or super fancy special effects. That being said, the movie was shot fairly well from a cinematography standpoint.  The sound was a little low-quality (my speakers were all the way up and I could barely hear), but the movie definitely had a southern charm to it that was really inviting and kept me interested.

            I truly dug the French ‘loup garou’ twist to the tale, it made the story more mystery than thriller, and enhanced the authenticity to the Louisiana setting.  The film is not very long, one can watch it in about an hour – which is very appealing to people that cannot dedicate three hours to a film.  The old, sprawling southern home reminded me of Tarantino’s Django Unchained, and further contributed to the bayou feel of the flick.  The costume and décor all made sense for the period and location.  David Janssen’s chest hair was a little wild, though – so much so that I had him pegged as the werewolf in the beginning of the film.  He smartly portrays Sheriff Aaron Whitaker, the man pursuing the killer with all his might, right up to the end.  Barbara Rush does a smashing job as Louise Rodanthe, opposite Janssen.   

I like that the ‘smell of sulfur’ can disorient the werewolf and rend him powerless for a bit.  That was a cool twist that I didn’t expect.  The makeup, I am sorry to say, was the worst aspect of the film.  The werewolf looked…well…all the cheese.  But at least the director seemed to know this because the camera selections a few times were purposely blurry or far away from him.  And I suppose that lends credibility to my statement about Hemlock Grove being wicked awesome concerning the transformation from man to wolf.  I still dug this film though, and recommend to anyone looking for something mysterious (‘whodunnit?’) to watch.  Body Count?  Four.  Killers?  Two.  Boob Count?  Zero (made for TV movie).  Cheap Thrills?  Zero.  Actual Spooks? Zero.  Though I was impressed to see some blood in the film, I must say.  Rating?  2 out of 5 stars.  Not a bad werewolf mystery film, but it didn’t quite have the teeth I look for in my werewolf flicks.