Blood Moon

• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Horror
• Movie Type: Creature Film, Coming-of-Age
• Themes: Unlikely Friendships, Experiments Gone Awry, Dangerous Friends
• Release Year: 2001
• Country: CA/US
• Run Time: 97 minutes

Plot

Local teens cruelly tease Tara (Victoria Sanchez), the intelligent but hairy wolf girl of Harley Dune's (Tim Curry) traveling freak show that has set up near a rural town. One of the young men is particularly vicious, throwing darts and feces at Tara during her performance, but Tara is helpless to defend herself as she spends much of her time isolated in a trailer or hanging out with the fat lady, dwarves, and other freaks. But she's befriended and taken into town by outcast teen Ryan (Dov Tiefenbach), whose mother (Lesley Ann Warren) happens to be a chemist working on an experimental depilatory treatment. Without telling anyone, Ryan begins injecting Tara with the chemical, and her hair gradually begins to fall out. But there are two side effects no one counted on -- the chemical makes Tara carnivorous and easily enraged. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

Review

The first scene, with its clichéd subjective point of view (presumably that of a wolf) and a gaggle of irritating teenagers, combined with the generic horror box art and title would have you think this is a teen take on the familiar wolfman saga. How wrong you would be, as Blood Moon and director Thom Fitzgerald have much, much more in mind. The film is actually a very well done, exceedingly thoughtful horror-laced meditation on adolescent acceptance. The briskly moving saga combines chilling elements of Tod Browning's Freaks (1932), several campy sideshow musical numbers, plentiful action, and superb makeup effects in telling an unsettling story that never ceases to fascinate (Grace Jones' half-man/half-woman act is worth a rental alone). Originally called Wolf Girl, this hidden gem, while not for everyone, could find acceptance with horror, drama, and thriller fans looking for something different. Cult status, in the manner of Santa Sangre, is not out of the question. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

Cast

Tim Curry - Harley Dune; Lesley Ann Warren; Victoria Sanchez - Tara; Dov Tiefenbach - Ryan

Similar Movies

An American Werewolf in London; Freaks; Ratboy; An American Werewolf in Paris; Ginger Snaps; Human Nature; No Such Thing; Darkwolf; Werewolf