Dark Moon Rising

Dark Moon Rising

The first thing you notice while watching DARK MOON RISING, a would-be werewolf-themed horror film made on a very low budget, is that it's an open rip-off of TWILIGHT that favours romance over horror content. It's a trailer trash-style film that features rubbish lead actors and poor writing throughout. The horror content is virtually nil and the direction is bad with lots of close-up shots and little varying to break up the tedium. Only the virtue of various slumming-it stars keeps it watchable: in support we get THE RUNNING MAN'S Maria Conchita Alonso as the town sheriff; Max Ryan as a heavy; Billy Drago as his usual sinister character; Sid Haig in a one-scene cameo; plus a minor role for the reliable interesting Chris Mulkey, who appeared in FIRST BLOOD. A shame it's such a dud.

Slated between fantasy/sci-fi/moderately horror this film lays an egg in pretty much all counts. It's a laughable love story between a woman and a man/wolf, a father and son curse and eventual showdown. The screenplay is mediocre at best with a lot of cussing in the dialogue. I was shocked well known actor Chris Mulkey and actress/singer Maria Conchita Alonso signed on for this. Alonso's character as Sherriff is poorly acted and makes no real sense for her being there. Throw in Sid Haig who is known for non-conforming roles and he was fun to see. The music score was slightly misplaced in some scenes but not overly bad. Now the actual werewolves creature is poorly designed, contrasting in how they transform is laughable. No true CGI involvement. I give it a 4 based on scenery alone.

After a mysterious drifter arrives in town, a woman's burgeoning romance with him becomes threatened when he reveals the deadly curse he falls under and must try to protect her from more of his own kind ravaging the town. This one wasn't as bad as it could've been as it turned out quite enjoyable. One of the biggest pluses here is the fact that this one manages to really overwhelm with how brutal and vicious the werewolves really are here with this one really getting the most out of it's scenes. Attacking with ferocity and remorselessness, the way a true werewolf should attack in such situations, that leaves this with plenty of vicious and brutal attacks that have people with their faces and chests clawed to pieces, hands bitten off, flesh torn into and devoured and even claw impalings that are quite gruesome and bloody which works quite well here. This also causes many of the attacks to come off as rather chilling and suspenseful with the usage of the werewolf to really toy with his victims here and then go in for the kill so the ambush at the father's house, the police station encounter and the encounter at the car-lot all come off as quite chilling and enjoyable. The big action scene, which is the town's shootout with the werewolf in the desert which devolves into the main brawl between the two werewolves in a brutal, vicious and bloody sequence that eschews spectacle to go for pure carnal brutality as would be the case in such a fight causes this to really become a true highlight that comes off incredibly well here with the amount of action supplementing the brutality. That's really all that works here, as otherwise this one tends to come off with a couple flaws in the fact that this one mainly centers around a romance angle that's highly derivative and ripped off from plenty of other movies. Granted, it never humanizes their bestial modes and keeps them as something to be feared throughout, but the fact remains that it still rips off other movies with the inter-species romance that tends to take up the first hour or so between the two and really causing this one to grind to a halt with it's more intense happenings occurring in such brief snippets it loses it's horror tag at times. This also causes the film to go on way too long for something as simplistic as this plot is because it has to wrap the romance into the proceedings so that it can fully tell that story specifically rather than anything else so that the rest of the movie is stretched out as a result. By using the Wolf-Man style of werewolf make-up rather than the Werewolf style which basically just gives the creatures fangs and fur around the face, it makes the creatures look somewhat laughable at times by not really trying to do anything special with their make-up and just going for the weakest look in the genre. It looks great, but it's still a poor design, and joins the other flaws here to hold this down. Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.

Dark Moon Rising / Wolf Moon is a love story... no, it's a story of a reluctant werewolf... no, it's a story of two families coming together... Well, it's a lot of things and not all of them pleasant. First and foremost it's the story of a girl with a single father who happens to fall for the bad boy werewolf drifter and could've ended happily at just that if not for the father's dislike/distrust for the new boyfriend and the fact that the boy's psychopath werewolf father is trying to track him down for a family reunion. For what it is, the film is decently acted and the story is moderately compelling. The big bad daddy wolf is a genuine monster and regales us with moderate gore, besides being a somewhat likable villain. The boy and girl are passable actors allowing their scenes to outshine their limited talent. The girl's father and the sheriff feel like something ripped out of a low budget Syfy Original (is there any other kind?) but they're not bad beyond possibly being somewhat derivative. The real flaw, through and through, are the horrendous special effects. The transformations are hokey, corny, and completely devoid of any real passion; the costumes are, well, just so obviously costumes that it ruins any thrill. Compared even to the presumably smaller budgeted Werewolf: The Devil's Hound, the special effects in DMR are flat out lousy and inexcusable especially considering the rest of the movie which is pleasant if not good. It's a shame that they decided to completely shunt the werewolf angle in a werewolf movie but, after all, this film is probably more of a teeny romance than anything else.

In a small town in the countryside, the teenager Amy (Ginny Weirick) is overprotected by her widower father John (Chris Mulkey). When she meets the newcomer mechanic Dan (Chris Divecchio), they immediately fall in love for each other. Dan discloses to her that he was cursed when he was a child and turns into a werewolf in the full moon. Meanwhile the local sheriff Sam (Maria Conchita Alonso) is investigating the slaughter of people in bloodshed and the murder of several animals in the farm of Crazy Louis (Sid Haig) apparently by a wolf. Out of the blue, the outsider sheriff Charles Thibodeaux (Billy Drago) arrives in her office and tells that the responsible for the deaths is the mean Bender (Max Ryan), who killed Dan's mother and his wife among other victims many years ago. Bender calls Thibodeaux in the sheriff's office telling that he had abducted Amy and scheduling an encounter in the city ruins with his old enemy; Dan, John, Sam, Louis and Thibodeaux head to the spot for a final confrontation to end the curse. The low budget "Dark Moon Rising" is a reasonable movie about werewolf and with improvements could be better and better. The special effects are decent and the plot avoids the usual clichés. However, there are some flaws and mistakes, like for example: (1) Maria Conchita Alonso is totally miscast in the role of a sheriff, with clumsy movements with the guns. The story would work much better swapping Chris Mulkey in the role of the sheriff and Maria Conchita Alonso in the role of Amy's overprotective mother. (2) There are stupid lines, like for example when John asks Amy about the bruises in her face; she should have answered that Dan had protected her instead of the silly argument with her father. (3) The last showdown is ridiculous, since Thibodeaux should have advised the group that only silver bullet could stop Bender. (4) Also in the final confrontation, Dan was the first to convert in werewolf, but he does not attack his father that easily kills Thibodeaux and Louis. (5) Last but not the least; the conclusion is ridiculous with Dan drifting in the desert leaving his car with Amy, and the girl putting roses on the road. In accordance with the fortune teller, the curse would end with the death of Bender provided Dan has not tasted human flesh and blood. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): "Lua Negra" ("Black Moon")

This certainly isn't Twilight, as we at least get to see some nice charlies on Arielle Vandenberg before she was bitten. The action takes a hiatus as we wade through the love story of Amy (Ginny Weirick) and Dan (Chris Divecchio). Dan has a secret that will make this love affair difficult. Seems Dan's daddy (Max Ryan) is looking for him, and he's one bad dude. He leaves a trail of gore wherever he goes. Lots of good favorites to keep you interested: Maria Conchita Alonso as the Sheriff, Sid Haig as Crazy Louis, and Billy Drago as an ex-cop that knows Bender (Ryan) first hand. Has no one here heard of silver bullets?

When you put the line on your DVD sleeve "twilight meets ginger snaps" than you have put the cat with the milk. Immediately you will refer to Twilight and admit it, Twilight was a big insult to the genre. It had nothing to do with horror or vampires or werewolves. It was just a love story with a strange twist. And I must say that this flick is indeed the same story of Twilight but without the vampires. But it clocks in at around 2 hours and that's a bit too long as did the Twilight shite. It's all about a normal girl falling in love with a stranger who appears to be a werewolf. But not only that, there's another werewolf on the loose. This is Dana Minnie's first attempt to make a horror. Being the story a bit too lame it's good on the gory side. The bites and killings are indeed gory and the guys will be amused by some nudity. Based for me a bit too much on Twilight I would tear it down but due the gory bits I gave it a 3. It's not like Twilight for 5 or 6 year old ones, this is for teenager ready to take some red stuff and a lot of love story. The acting was okay and believable but the werewolves were a bit to much of CGI and you could see the use of blue key. If they only had the werewolves done with real effects in stead of CGI it would have been much better.

There is a college community and Chace (Cameron White) is one of the students. He is taking literature after failing out of drama. He meets a number of interesting young ladies as he acts weird. There is also a local werewolf community that kills people, a community that came from the Vietnam Timber Wolf- not to ruin it for you, but Eric Roberts has a Vietnam flashback were he has long hair as an American Soldier and he sees a Vietnamese turn into a Timber Wolf. Now that I mention it, the werewolves are a head scratch. Sometimes they are just plain real wolves. Sometimes they are awkwardly moving CG wolves that look like regular wolves. Other times they are huge classic clay animation wolves. Other times it is just people with sharp teeth who look like vampires. Chace is a quiet lad who has "the inability not to speak." He meets "The Dawn" (Stasi Esper) who "can see what you're hearing." The subtitle "Pray for sunrise" didn't really fit as the wolves seem to control their turning, as one turned during the day. Eric Roberts had a confusing role, one they should have just cut out. Soon Hollywood will realize having Eric Roberts in the film will decrease sales. The soundtrack was metal and offered lyrics such as "I'm not the person you once knew" which is great for a werewolf film. Guide: F-bomb. Brief sex. Brief male nudity.