Bad Moon (1996)

In an identical situation, the following would take place: Our straight-up purebred Shepherd, being the pussy she is, would hide, while our fat ass fat fat fatty fat (did I mention he’s fat?) Shepherd Mix would attempt to fight and ideally, crush the mean giant no-no puppy under his gelatinous girth.

Perhaps it’s ironic that on our doggo walk last evening, I spied a full moon as twilight gave way. Delightful revisiting Eric Red’s zero frills werewolf sprint with my kiddo, who resisted watching but was, like me, won over by the presence of a most handsome boy GSD and a bare bones plot which asks the bare minimum of its audience. I’d even go so far as to say it doesn’t even ask that much. That’s the main issue with Red’s adaptation. Fact is, we’re given way too many blanks to fill in which aren’t necessary but certainly would enrich a story ripe with dramatic possibility. It’s never boring because it doesn’t have time to be. Thanks to grisly gore and the inherent beauty of capturing a doge protecting its family, Bad Moon works despite its oddly vacant plotline.

Unlike Good Boy, which also sported a ridiculously short runtime and couldn’t entirely commit to its full dog POV conceit, Red eschews the novel’s dog-centric tale and makes it more about a vague boop snoot battle between a loyal, intuitive K-9 and a wayward brother cursed with lycanthropic tendencies. Michael Pare’s almost-was career is typical and if his laidback persona perhaps lacks charisma, his eyes express a haunted sadness vital to the darkness he hides within. Hemingway and Gamble are pretty much forced to react to the weirdness sprouting around them so Primo (aka Thor, the movie’s hero) can track Pare’s beast of the night. That’s about it for the cast, save Hrothgar Mathews’ random conman; who predictably gets his bloody comeuppance quite handily.

Red introduces a couple intriguing, even revisionist concepts, like a full moon being unnecessary for transformation and conventional weaponry being equal to the task of killing a werewolf. I think we know what junior high badass Rudy of The Monster Squad would think of that. That, and the general idea of the doggo knowing something’s up works well for the plot. Yet the rest of the asides are ill-defined. We’re presented with Pare’s near-desperate attempts to restrain himself in the woods, lest he harm any humans including his family, yet his shift into almost cartoonish villainy isn’t explained. Yes, we get that the wolf side is perhaps distorting and tainting his personality, but it just happens with no warning or at least some sort of scientific preamble. Even some simple foreshadowing of cruel behavior would be something, but we get nada instead. Gamble doesn’t appear to have a reason to hate on Pare (guess maybe ‘cause his doggo gets taken away in a very upsetting animal control sequence), but again, it lacks dramatic meat.

Is the monstrous wolfie fake-looking? Yeah...but Steve Johnson’s work is still mighty impressive and at least it’s something ON CAMERA! That infamous CGI transformation is something I’d heard talk of even before watching this the first time and it is unfortunate, but it’s a minor element to an otherwise fine effort to make a mean-looking, vicious man-beast. Red’s direction isn’t anything special, but I’ll give him this. There are a couple jump scares, especially the last one, which are VERY effective. We almost jumped out of our chinos. The usual subjective camera beats and sweeping landscape shots lend scope and even if it’s incredibly stupid, the dog pound breakout is fun, as is the brutal final showdown. The intensity of the final third is not to be discounted and even if all the elements don’t fit together perfectly, it’s still an appropriate and earned ending for all involved.

Bad Moon doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It arguably snatches wheels from classier fare and lugnuts them to a wilder, weirder ride. Still, this is one of those forgotten horrors which deserve consideration and maybe even a nice treat for being such a good boy.