Let’s deal with the lycanthropic-esque elephant in the room at the very beginning: the werewolf in Blood Moon is terrible. Not just unconvincing as a wolf, it is unconvincing as anything remotely resembling a creature. It has all the horrific conviction synonymous with a desperate search for a suitable outfit the night before Halloween, when all that was left in the shop was a moth-eaten, straggly haired costume that doesn’t fit right, smells distinctly overused and in which movement is impossible. With all that in mind, and ideally ignored, Blood Moon is good fun, never taking itself too seriously while playing on many familiar genre tropes.
With a random series of events conspiring to bring them together, a group of unlikely survivors find themselves holed up in an abandoned saloon and fighting off intermittent attacks by a werewolf. Reluctantly led by the mysterious Calhoun (Shaun Dooley) their numbers slowly dwindle until only a few remain.
The story, such as it is, is bookended by a telling of an ancient Native American myth surrounding shape shifters but apart from introducing a peripheral drunken character know as Black Deer (Eleanor Matsuura) it serves little purpose at all.
Little other knowledge of the plot is required, and to be honest we would discourage any thought at all, as Blood Moon is a film to be enjoyed with the least amount of cerebral interaction whatsoever. Lines of dialogue are ridiculously clichéd, characters veer in and out of stereotype with the changing of the camera angle and initially important plot points are either forgotten or intentionally ignored. And yet this is a film that if approached with the right frame of mind is hugely enjoyable. Dooley seems to be having a fantastic time as a brooding, gravel-voiced Van Helsing-like figure who you find yourself wanting to know much more about. There is also a comic-like feel to everything, as if nothing that you’re watching is really happening and there are never really going to be any consequences, and this detached viewpoint allows you to relax into what you are seeing. Full of observant symbolism this ain’t.
Stripped down, Blood Moon is a siege movie more about the characters within than the beastie without. Random acts and decisions by the characters aside it is a film that understands its genre roots, even if the filmmakers haven’t fully managed to imitate them. It is a film that will happily pass a couple of hours on a Friday night; top your drink up, grab another piece of pizza and relax… just ignore that werewolf.
BLOOD MOON / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JEREMY WOODING / SCREENPLAY: ALAN WIGHTMAN / STARRING: GEORGE BLAGDEN, TOM COTCHER, BARRINGTON DE LA ROCHE, SHAUN DOOLEY, ELEANOR MATSUURA / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 5TH
