Sam Panico Four years before Teen Wolf (and 24 years after I Was a Teenage Werewolf), Larry Cohen wrote, produced and directed Full Moon High, a comedic take on what it'd be like to be a werewolf in high school. Ironically, it came out in the same year as An American Werewolf in London, covering some of the same ground, but from a very different perspective.The tie to Michael Landon's werewolf turn is that the opening of this film is in the 1950's. There, Tony Walker (Adam Arkin, Halloween H2O) is a high school football player whose dad, Colonel William Walker (Ed McMahon!), is in the CIA. He takes his son with him to Romania for a secret mission where he'll shove some microfilm up his own ass. Yes, if you ever wanted to see Johnny Carson's sidekick yell things like, "Did you get laid?" and act like he's being butt plugged, then this is the film for you!Tony gets his palm read by a gypsy while his dad is having sex with a prostitute - yes, this is a comedy - and finds out that he'll be an eternal doomed to wander the earth. Soon, he will return home to find his destiny and he shouldn't make any plans during the full moon. On his way back to the hotel, Tony is killed by a werewolf and returns from the dead the next morning.On their way back to the U.S., Cuban terrorists hijack their plane, but Tony transforms into a werewolf and takes them out. However, Tony's curse keeps him too distracted to play football, so he misses the big game and costs his school the championship. He also starts to hide from his girlfriend Jane (Roz Kelly, New Year's Evil) as he's worried that he will kill her. His dad is convinced that Tony is a neighbor's dog until he catches him transforming and tries to shoot his son. The bullet ricochets and kills the Colonel and Tony skips town after the funeral.The film descends into pathos here - not the last time it'll happen - as Tony wanders the earth for twenty-five years before returning home. It's just in time, as Tony's football team hasn't scored a touchdown since he left town.His old girlfriend, Jane, is married to his old friend Flynn and still calls out his name during sex. She figures out that Tony Jr., as he calls himself as he returns to town, is really Tony. And she's fine with having sex with a werewolf. There's also Ricky (Joanne Nail, The Visitor), a high school girl who falls for him. Oh yeah - and Tony also goes full werewolf and kills his principal before turning himself in. His court-appointed shrink, Dr. Brand (Adam Arkin's dad, Alan) really wants to conduct experiments on Tony, but acts like he's trying to help him.There are plenty of character actors and strange personalities in this strangely cast film. In addition to Ed McMahon, there's also Laurene Landon (Maniac Cop, ...All the Marbles, The Stuff), Sanford and Son's Demond Wilson, 1980's sitcom and Hollywood Squares star Jim J. Bullock, Bob Saget in an early role as a sportscaster and Pat Morita (The Karate Kid) as a silversmith.Cohen said of the film, "It has some interesting ideas about how life in America has changed sexually and politically since the early sixties. All of Arkin's friends have changed but he hasn't. And whereas he changes into a werewolf all of the time, his friends change into middle-aged people while he is gone, with different values and different ideas. They change as much as he does, actually."Where most of Larry Cohen's films succeed in spite of their high concept and low budget, Full Moon High was a bit of a struggle for me. That said, Alan Arkin is great in this and elevates every scene he's in.

tomgillespie2002 In the 1950's, high school jock Tony (Adam Arkin) travels to Transylvania with his father, and gets bitten by a werewolf. After attacking some high-jackers on the plane ride back, Tony starts to terrorise his home town by attacking the locals, choosing to nip girls on their arses rather than actually eating them. Fearing he will be discovered, he leaves town and starts a trip across America for the next few decades (he's immortal too, see) only to return to his home town, pretending to be Tony's son. Caught between his old flame Jane (Roz Kelly), now married to his old friend, and lusty, mousy teacher Miss Montgomery (Elizabeth Hartman), he struggles to hide his affliction as the attacks re-surface.'Written, produced and directed by Larry Cohen' is something that would normally delight me whilst watching the opening credits of a film, but although Cohen's trademark wit is their occasionally in the script, Full Moon High ultimately fails on all levels, never reaching anywhere near the level of quirk, or containing the endearing oddball characters, as the likes of It's Alive (1974), Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) or The Stuff (1985). Although he is annoyingly whiny at times, Arkin does give a game performance, and has the chance to spout lines such as "I don't believe in vampires or werewolves or virgins," (it made me laugh anyway). And the film did make me laugh a number of times throughout, with spinning newspapers giving headlines such as 'Werewolf Annoys Community', and a pretty talented comedy support cast (Ed McMahon, Kenneth Mars, Pat Morita and Alan Arkin) - Mars is a particular stand- out, playing the once-sexually repressed gay gym teacher who, decades on, is a full-blown queen.But the mix of spoof, childish visual gags, Benny Hill-esque sped-up smutty humour, and outright farce doesn't quite blend, and ultimately, the film is an absolute mess. One scene near the end sees a cop shooting a bullet at the POV werewolf, only to hit the cameraman. The screen goes black as Alan Arkin and the crew rush the get the film going again. It could have been a moment of offbeat self-reflexive surreality, but its poorly-handled, and the film's budget constraints seem to get the better of it. It tries to homage the comedy of the Zucker brothers and Mel Brooks, but you'd be better off watching them instead of his lame effort, because although the film did amuse me at rare occasions, when I wasn't laughing I was generally cringing. Full Moon High is not something that will exactly tarnish Larry Cohen's CV, but it is certainly a massive disappointment from the man behind some of my favourite B-movie guilty pleasures.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

Mikelito Being a fan of movies like "Fire Sale", "Where's Poppa", "Airplane" I saw this because it was mentioned favorably in the context of real comedies and satires like the aforementioned. Well, WRONG CONCLUSION!Not only is this not funny, it makes you angry because it isn't bad in a schlocky, likable way but in a really bad way. It's bad-bad. The script does not contain a single funny line which is rather in the way when you're trying to entertain your audience with humour.Adam Arkin's speech impediment is probably the single most annoying thing in this movie. Still this cruelty of nature doesn't prevent him from being smug throughout the movie and he has a hard time not looking into the camera. This amateur without charisma fits in nicely with the constant continuity errors and bumbling along of the story - if you can find one.Ed McMahon - I had to think of Jay Leno, another late night talk show person, who always refuses to call himself an actor. Well, I've seen a few Leno movies and he's Laurence Olivier compared to McMahon.Kenneth Mars is good, though. In the few lines that he's given. I'm not easily frightened by bad comedies so I kept watching and looking for all the quasi-jokes every 5 minutes or so.The movie actually becomes sort of a comedy as soon as Alan Arkin takes over - he literally does: Starting 75 minutes into the movie he's in every scene. But it's too little, too late.When movies try to fool you into believing their lack of professionalism is the reason you're supposed to like them because they have the right intentions they remind me of pupils that haven't prepared for an exam. In those cases you have to remain strict and the grade has to be an 'F'. (But please don't assume I'm a teacher. That is a profession with a respectability somewhere between politician and child molester).If you actually look for a likable schlocky horror/scifi movie that is fun to watch and does contain jokes try "Man with the Screaming Brain" by Bruce Campbell. Or watch Sunshine/Core if you prefer modern loud shallow SciFi Schlock. Those are equally funny, albeit involuntarily.

sugar-bear Whack!!! I got this movie because Elizabeth Hartman was in it. I was disappointed to find out she was in like two short scenes towards the end. Other than that I was basically hitting the fast forward button the entire time. Some teenager goes on a trip to Romania with his Dad and gets bitten by a wolf and turns into a werewolf if there's a full moon. He kills his father and friends. About 30 years past but he doesn't age a bit and enrolls in a high school. There he meets a shy teacher whom he ends up biting and then has kids with her. This movie sucked and I don't recommend it to anyone. Read War and Peace instead. Only Ms. Hartman did a great job. Check out a very young Bob Saget in this one!!