lastliberal
This is a video nasty that was banned in Britain, and released with 1 minute and 20 seconds cut in 1993, and released uncut November 2008.The movie heavily influenced by Halloween, and there are elements of Friday the 13th, as well. In other words, a typical slasher film.Miguel (Alexander Waechter) was just released from a psychiatric facility following a brutal murder in the past. His sister Manuela (Nadja Gerganoff) works at the same boarding school where the murder took place. Of course, the relationship between brother and sister is definitely different from Halloween.It's a European (Spanish/German) film, so the girls sit around the pool topless. They also party a lot instead of studying.Angela (Olivia Pascal) just happens to occupy the same room where the murder took place, and gets the feeling of being stalked. Of course, Eva (Ann-Beate Engelke) drops in at the wrong time. However, the body disappears before anyone but Angela sees it.Next up is Inga (Jasmin Losensky), who yaks incessantly while she is being tied up thinking she is in for something kinky. What she is in for is the infamous scene on the DVD cover. I can imagine that was the scene cut in the British release.I just realized that I haven't seen the killer's face. can it be that Miguel is not the killer? Angela is a death-magnet as Laura (Corinna Drews) shows up and is soon dispatched.The plotters run their mouths off without paying attention and their plot is overheard. But there are many more surprises in store in this bizarre film.
Michael_Elliott
Bloody Moon (1981) ** (out of 4) Original title: Die Sage des TodesSpanish director Jess Franco wasn't shy from jumping into a genre, which was proving popular at the time he did his jumping. This time out the director jumps into the slasher genre after films like Halloween and Friday the 13th had proved to be money-making gold. As the film starts a deformed man kills a woman after she turns down his sexual advances. He's sent to a mental hospital but five years later he is released and soon afterwards more bodies begin to pile up. This film doesn't really work and it's certainly not on the level of the best slashers out there. While it would fall somewhere down by the middle-ground American movies, I'd rank this a little higher since it doesn't limit itself to the certain rules that were in American slashers. As with a lot of Franco's work from this period, it's budget allowed for some nice stuff including the cinematography, which manages to be pretty good here. Another bonus are the special effects, which while some are obviously fake, they still come off looking good. We have a wide range of murders here ranging from simple stabbings to the most famous one where a woman has her head chopped off by a industrial saw. The saw effect is somewhat hit and miss but the gore that pumps out makes for an interesting moment to say the least. It's also interesting at how Franco plays with not only the victim but even the viewer during the scene. The performances are about average for what you'd see in a movie like this but the main reason to view this is simply for Franco's eyes on the genre. The director also doesn't shy away from lifting stuff from other films and that includes the opening sequence of Halloween and Mario Bava's structure to Twitch of the Death Nerve also seems to have been an influence here. Those expecting an American slasher are going to be disappointed but if you're a fan of Spanish cinema or Franco then you'll certainly want to check this out just to see how Uncle Jess handled it differently than what we'd normally see.
slayrrr666
"Bloody Moon" is one of the Franco's more marketable films, and is certainly a worthwhile slasher as well.**SPOILERS**After being released from a mental asylum, Miguel, (Alexander Waechter) is moved with his sister Manuela, (Nadja Gerganoff) to the Boarding School for young women on the Spanish resort of Costa Del Sol where she works. While hanging around the school, he finds that she's involved in a scheme to gain control of the local Language School where she and boyfriend Alvaro, (Christoph Moosbrugger) work, and students Angela, (Olivia Pascal) Inga, (Jasmin Losensky) Laura, (Corinna Drews) and Eva, (Ann-Beate Engelke) get wind of it as well. When bodies start piling up at the school, the remaining people investigate and find a possible serial killer on campus and are forced to evade the maniac.The Good News: One of the weirder entries in the early 80s slasher films, this one certainly has a lot going for it. One of it's best features is the skillful mixture of the slasher clichés and Franco's typical sleaziness. The plot is a typical one to be found in the time, being simply an excuse to get a body count available for hacking by the main villain, who has the disheveled appearance in a secluded place with no help possible from the outside. There are the usual subjective shots of the killer watching and stalking the victims, and that the victims are the typical kinds of the genre. Mix these with the typical zooming shots and the large amount of nudity normally found in Franco's films are mixed in together with great ease. The sleaze found in the film also extends into the incestuous relationship found within, and that allows for some disturbing and erotic moments. The one where they're looking longingly at each other through the window naked is the best example of this. It goes as a reminder of the sleaze found in within that mixes with the slasher style. It's refreshing to see these two elements together that fit well together. This is also an exceptionally gory film with some great kills in it. One is set on fire while still sleeping in bed, there's a knife in the back that comes out through a body part in the front, a chainsaw slicing open the chest, several stranglings and a very brutal stabbing in the stomach with scissors. The real highlight, though, is the infamous band-saw decapitation, where a victim is strapped to table with a running band-saw that eventually saws their head off. This wins out for two special occasions. The first is the execution, since it's a quite show-stopping scene that's incredibly realistic and brutal, but the second is the very set-up for it. Truly original and quite sadistic while being pretty suspenseful and quite out of the ordinary. The climax has a real zing to it, where the final character finds their roommates' dead bodies meticulously strewn about her room. This wasn't a half-bad entry in the slasher genre.The Bad News: There is a couple things in here that don't work in the film. The biggest thing that hurts this film is that it really seems like a collection of scenes from other films put right into the film. The most obvious genre piracy is the reworking of an obvious masterpiece of revenge. The elaborate, knotty embezzlement plot closely resembles that film, with the school property replacing the bay. The film even begins with an identical opening sequence where a wheelchair-bound character is killed by an unidentified assailant. The film also steals liberally from another defining slasher by showing an initial kill from the point of view of a party mask. Even using the clichéd conclusion feels like a rip-off from other films. Finally, it's overly obvious that the school campus is a flimsy substitute for the more familiar and well-worn summer camp setting utilized in countless slashers. The other major big strike is the film really doesn't feature all the usual Franco features. That may not sound like a detriment, but the fact that the zoom seems like a contrivance more than a practical one, and it's not a major factor. That he also tones down on the sleaze is a departure. Rather than exploit the painfully obvious fact that it's at a women's center, there's no scenes that capitalize on this and it's quite shocking when that happens. While these are big factors against it, there's another one that harms it, and that's the slow pacing. It takes a long time to get to anything interesting, as most of the time is spent with the characters talking amongst themselves for a long period of time. The conversations here ramble on for long periods of time, and it mostly feels like they're there simply to pad out the time, and it's a really obvious one at that. The killings don't really begin in earnest until the hour mark, and it's a real sprint to the finish, but the journey to get there is a long one. These factors hurt the film in the long run.The Final Verdict: While it's a more-than-decent attempt to bridge the slasher cycle with Franco's sleazier side, the plodding pace and obvious genre cliché-borrowing strike this one down. It's still a perfectly capable film, so it's a very worthy look for slasher fans and Franco films, who will find a lot to like in this one.Rated R: Nudity, Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, themes of incest and animal violence
