As I mentioned earlier this month, this DVD was one of the gifts I received on my birthday. With a full moon hanging in the sky overnight, I thought it would be a good time to post a quick review.
This made-for-tv effort from the early 70's plays less like a horror movie than a Southern Gothic mystery. A young girl is brutally murdered in the Louisiana bayou, and now the hunt is on for the wild dogs or violent man believed responsible (despite one old Cajun's constant ravings about a loup garou, nobody seems capable of translating his warnings and making the werewolf connection). Secret affairs and clandestine activities are slowly exposed in the course of the investigation, casting suspicion on various characters. The identity of the werewolf is concealed until the end of the film, which in appropriately Gothic fashion, climaxes with a scene of an imperiled heroine inside an isolated family mansion.
Admittedly, the special effects here are laughable; when the werwolf finally shows his beastly face, you'll almost wish the filmmakers had kept him off-screen for the duration. A pre-Salem's Lot Geoffrey Lewis is wonderfully cast as a grotesque rustic, but David Janssen's acting (as the sheriff protagonist) is so wooden he ought to be stationed in front of the local cigar store. Nonetheless, the film's plot keeps the viewer engaged throughout the 75-minutes runtime, and Moon of the Wolf ultimately serves as an entertaining variation on Universal's The Wolf Man.
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