Of the two big studio werewolf movies I remember seeing from 1996-2006, Bad Moon was definitely the better one. Of course that could be because the other was Wes Craven's 2005 disaster, Cursed. What sets them apart is that where Craven's reteaming with Scream scribe Kevin Williamson to tackle the lycanthrope sub-genre was your typical smarmy "wink wink" at them starring the expected young cast, writer-director Eric Red (adapting the novel "Thor" by Wayne Smith) gives his flick a more serious and adult spin which, while not completely successful, makes this the more mature of the two - you're definitely not going to see a werewolf flipping somebody off here.

If there was any possible way the pre-credits sequence could have carried over to the entire flick it would be easy to proclaim Bad Moon as one of the best werewolf movies ever made. It has everything you could possibly want with a hearty dose of cowgirl sex, freaked out horses predicting everyone's doom, and the gory dispatch of some natives at the hands of a ruthless and vicious wolf man. Surviving the assault, only coming away with a clawed shoulder (ut oh!), is photographer Ted (Michael Pare).

From here the focus shifts to single mother lawyer Janet (Mariel Hemingway), her young son Brett (Mason Gamble), and their super smart German Sheppard, Thor. They're living a quiet life in the wooded Pacific Northwest but that's about to change when her brother, Ted, returns home. As we're well aware, he's trying to deal with changing into a werewolf by chaining himself to trees during a full moon and pushing his family away from him but that doesn't stop a series of murders from starting in the area. It leads to a struggle between man and beast with Thor trying to warn and protect his family while Ted tries to keep the animalistic urges inside - you know these two things are bound to collide in the finale which offers up some mild excitement, one really weak CG assisted transformation, and a few extremely ridiculous scenes involving Thor.

Running at a slight 80 minutes, Bad Moon is a mostly decent werewolf flick and gets some respect for trying to balance what amounts to a standard creature feature with angst-y drama and a fun moment where Red pokes fun at werewolf conventions by having Ted chuckling at footage of Werewolf of London as it plays on television and arguing werewolf lore with Brett. While it does benefit from the compact runtime, it also somewhat suffers because the scope does feel limited at times and I found that, apart from the aforementioned wink at the audience, this could have used a bit more humour. I also wasn't completely won over by the decision to make Thor the hero of the flick as I had a similar issue with the Watchers series doing the same thing - though this is certainly more classy than that franchise ever was.

Pare (Streets of Fire and way too many Uwe Boll movies) does a pretty good job in the lead and you really get the feeling he's a good guy who has to deal with an unfortunate affliction. He's a fairly charming Uncle but does nail a few sinister moments in the finale. Hemingway (Star 80, Superman IV) has never really done it for me and is mostly weak. Gamble, coming off John Hughes' Dennis the Menace, could have been worse but is just another mediocre child actor. It's Primo, playing Thor, who steals a number of scenes.

In the werewolf pantheon, Bad Moon is firmly in the middle. It makes for a watchable timewaster with fun creature effects and a few cool bloody moments but really offers nothing new. When you consider Red was responsible for making The Hitcher and the fun Body Parts as well as writing Near Dark you wouldn't be wrong to expect more than what you end up getting. (Chris Hartley, 1/12/15)

Directed By: Eric Red.
Written By: Eric Red.

Starring: Mariel Hemingway, Michael Pare, Mason Gamble, Ken Pogue.