Welcome to the Scream Factory Crypt! In this binge series I will be watching all my Scream Factory titles I own alphabetically! Scream Factory is my favorite imprint of Blu-Ray’s because they take movies that studios and the public might not adore but have fans and deserve to be given respect. This will take a long time as I have over 120(!) titles and counting, I know I will have more before I finish, so stay tuned! Not only will I talk about them on the podcast but I will review them here as well so you can see how I feel about aspects of each release. Part 6 is, Bad Moon!
Bad Moon is one of my favorite werewolf movies. It’s lean, mean and gory. Plus the werewolf effects are awesome (except for the last transformation that reveals the movies late 90’s vibe). That Scream Factory has released this on blu-ray has truly been a surprise of the best possible kind. Based on the novel, Thor, Bad Moon takes place in the rural mountains of Washington, where a photojournalist Ted returns from a trip in Nepal to see his sister, Janet. What his sister doesn’t know is that Ted and his girlfriend were attacked by a werewolf, his girlfriend was killed and Ted received the curse of lycanthropy. Janet lives alone with her son, Brett, and his loyal German Shepard Thor. Thor senses there is something wrong with Ted, but do Janet and her son realize too late?
Bad Moon is such a fun ride. The opening is super sexy, and super violent. Blood flows, the werewolf chomps. I like my werewolf movies with a sense of the werewolf being almost super human. I also like how lean the movie is. It howls by in 79 minutes. The disc has two cuts of the film, and they both run about the same. The director’s cut is the way to go, it features a smidge more gore, nudity and it ditches some of the silly CGI werewolf transformation. Michael Pare plays Ted with a great amount of sympathy and menace, he was a great casting choice.
Bad Moon arrives on blu-ray looking amazing. I have seen this movie many times on DVD and watching it in high definition is like watching a new movie. The lush forest sprayed with gooey red looks amazing. No crushed blacks and the grain is kept at a minimum. This transfer looks stunning.
The howls on Bad Moon sound great as well. Dialogue is crisp and clear. The sound effects are bone crunching, teeth gnawingly awesome. No issues here.
The disc is not a Collector’s Edition but it packs some pretty great extras. The commentary by director Eric Red is informative and very well thought out, however you can tell he is reading from notes which makes listening to it somewhat of a chore as Red does not sound organic in his observations. Informative but a little dull. The best feature is Nature of the Beast: Making Bad Moon that features interviews with the cast and crew. I always admire Scream Factory’s ability to get some of these actors and crew to talk about a lost horror gem. Also included are a theatrical trailer and some really cool animated storyboards.
Another Scream Factory release that has me drooling, if you are a fan of werewolf movies you owe it to yourself to pick up, Bad Moon!
Movie: A-
Video: A
Audio: A
Extras: B+
Overall: A