Blu-ray Review: BAD MOON

Given some distance and the perspective of time, almost every horror film seems to look better and find its audience. Though the early to mid 1990s have long been considered a particularly bad period for American horror movies, recent years have seen a number of titles being reassessed and opinions on them revised to be much more favorable than they were 20 years ago. Titles like Disturbing Behavior and I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Rage: Carrie 2, largely written off by horror fans during their theatrical releases in the ’90s, are now being talked about as secretly good genre efforts not because the movies have actually improved, but because enough time has passed that the films can be removed from their historical context and taken for what they are.

Of course, some ’90s titles were always secretly good; they only needed some time to find their audience. More or less dumped into theaters with no fanfare just a few weeks before Wes Craven’s Scream would completely revitalize the horror genre in 1996, Eric Red’s Bad Moon never really got a fair shake. Though Red is a beloved figure in the genre, having been responsible for writing classics like The Hitcher and Near Dark as well as writing and directing the woefully underrated Body Parts, his werewolf film came at a time when monster movies were completely out of fashion. Audiences were much more interested in pseudo-slashers, psychological horror and serial killer movies like The Silence of the Lambs and Se7en when Bad Moon came out. There wasn’t much of a market for werewolf movies, especially considering there hadn’t really been a successful werewolf movie since The Howling and An American Werewolf in London 15 years earlier (though Mike Nichols’ Wolf was a box office hit, calling it a true werewolf movie is something of a stretch). But with truly impressive effects from Steve Johnson and a willingness to be really, really nasty, Bad Moon is one of those ’90s horror films that legitimately earns the “underrated” label.

Based on Wayne Smith’s novel Thor (which tells the entire story from the POV of the family dog), Bad Moon casts Michael Paré as Ted, a photographer attacked by a werewolf while working in Nepal. Upon returning home, Ted isolates himself in a trailer in the woods near his sister, a lawyer named Janet (Mariel Hemingway), who lives with her young son, Brett (Mason Gamble), and their German Shepherd, Thor. Ted reunites with his sister, but the dog senses something wrong with him almost immediately. At the same time, a series of murders take place in the woods, leaving torn-apart bodies in the wake of what appears to be some sort of animal. Surely these two things are completely unrelated, right?

As someone who has long considered the werewolf my favorite movie monster, I’m forever lamenting the lack of great werewolf movies—they can be counted on fewer than ten fingers. While Bad Moon never quite reaches the level of “great,” it’s certainly among the very best the ’90s had to offer in this very limited subgenre. While Thor the dog still plays a major role in the movie, Red’s film shifts away from the POV of the novel to become a film about a single mother and son dealing with outside threats. Always an exceptionally intelligent genre writer, Red understands that every great werewolf story is a tragedy, only here it’s not really the tragedy of the man doomed to become a monster (though he makes the choice to isolate himself early on, Ted’s switch to enjoying his new abilities seems to happen on a dime). Instead, it’s the tragedy of a family breaking down and being ripped apart.

But where Bad Moon really shines is in its effects. Steve Johnson’s hulking werewolf creation (worn by Ken Kirzinger, who later donned the hockey mask for Freddy vs. Jason) is one of my favorite of all movie werewolves, made all the better by Red’s choice to photograph it in long takes and in bright light—none of the usual tricks of trying to shoot around the monster or obscure it in darkness to cover the seams. Red also leans into the brutality of the werewolf myth; it is, after all, a killer animal, and every attack is spectacularly savage and bloody. This is a nasty movie, never more so than in an opening scene that combines sex and violence in a way that few horror films were willing to do after the MPAA crackdown of the mid-’80s. I’m not sure there’s a werewolf movie that opens stronger than Bad Moon.

Scream Factory’s new Blu-ray release of Bad Moon offers two cuts of the film: the original theatrical version and a “director’s cut” that, rather than reinstating gore that had to be trimmed for the R-rating, actually removes about 25 seconds of footage from the movie’s climax in which the big transformation scene is handled with some truly terrible CGI. Everyone agrees in the supplements that the sequence didn’t turn out the way they had hoped, so Red deleted it for his “director’s cut.” This is the version you should watch, and if you want to see how bad the removed transformation is, just check out the retrospective “making of” featurette and skip the theatrical cut altogether. The 1080p transfer on both cuts displays the film in its original 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio and looks excellent, offering strong detail, good contrast in the darker sequences, and no visible signs of age or artifacting despite the film being 20 years old.

For some of that trimmed NC-17 sex and violence, check out the unrated opening sequence included as part of the bonus features. It’s sourced from a VHS and, as such, it can be a little difficult to see exactly what’s going on, but it makes an already brutal scene that much more brutal. There are two commentary tracks offered, one featuring Eric Red by himself and a second on which he’s joined by star Michael Paré and genre journalist John Fallon from Arrow in the Head. Both tracks are of varying quality in terms of their recording, but the former is essential listening while the second can easily be skipped. Red is incredibly prepared for his solo track, offering a ton of information about the production and how he put the movie together. On the track with Paré and Fallon, the three mostly react to what’s happening onscreen or cover information that’s been addressed elsewhere in the supplements.

One such bonus feature that covers the same material is the fantastic “Nature of the Beast” featurette, which runs about 30 minutes and features reminiscences from Red, Paré, child star Mason Gamble all grown up, makeup effects designer Steve Johnson, and a few others. It’s a great overview of the movie, covering the shoot, the botched release, Red’s candid thoughts on star Mariel Hemingway and, yes, the terrible CGI transformation (which can be seen as part of this featurette, saving you the trouble of ever having to sit through the theatrical cut). Rounding out the special features is a gallery of storyboards for three key sequences and the film’s original trailer.

As much as I love Scream Factory’s deluxe edition releases of classic and well-loved horror titles, I like it even more when they pick out overlooked movies and expose them to a new audience. Bad Moon is one such title. Made in a time when not just werewolf movies, not just monster movies, but practically all horror movies were mostly out of fashion, it’s a film that delivers the goods when it comes to what we want out of stuff like this. A lean running time, gorgeous wilderness photography, fantastic gore effects, and one of the great movie werewolves add up to a nasty little sleeper that’s sure to finally find a lot of new fans.

Movie Score: 3/5, Disc Score 4/5