drloomis666
Given that there are so few decent werewolf horror movie lately(thanks a lot Twilight)I have found myself looking for older movie that i;ve missed over the years.Found this gem on the internet.Don't let the words made for TV movie dissuade you as it almost did me.This movie was a pleasant surprise.Essentially it's a small town murder mystery with a supernatural twist.Sort of In the heat of the night meets Kolchack the night stalker.great old school cast all around.The Fugitives David Janssen is perfect as the tough skeptical small town sheriff whose just trying to figure it all out.More suspenseful than i thought it would be for a 70's TV movie.Especially toward the end.A good watch for werewolf genre fans.
Red-Barracuda
I have a bit of affection for American made of TV movies of the 70's. There is something a little cosy and dependable about them. Moon of the Wolf is no different in this regard. And while, like many TV films, it is restricted content-wise in what it can show, it has pretty decent actors at its disposal and is well written. In other words, what it lacks in excess, it makes up with solid professional values. It's a werewolf film but it unusually takes the form of a detective story. A sheriff investigates a series of murders that are occurring in the Louisiana swamplands. In due course he unearths several unsavoury secrets of the townsfolk.The story introduces us to several characters and allows for some plot melodramatics. This all adds to the whodunit aspect quite nicely. It does help that the acting is of a good standard, with such dependable character actors such as Geoffrey Lewis on hand. While the bayou setting adds a further bit of nice production value and ensures that the story is more distinct. As a horror film, it's perhaps unsurprising that it has to pull its punches a little due to its TV movie origins. But, for me, this was not much of a problem and is offset by the several other good things it has got going for it. For fans of werewolf movies I think this is a good effort, well worth checking out. Equally, fans of 70's TV movies should also get a bit of enjoyment out of this one. Overall, a pretty good little movie.
bkoganbing
Moon Of The Wolf is a film about some really horrific killings in the Louisiana bayou country. Sheriff David Janssen has his hands full with three different killings, first a woman who looks like some wild animal gnawed at her for food. But the second two have the whole town scared. Janssen arrests Geoffrey Lewis for the first killing and someone ripped the iron bars off the cell door to get at him and killed a deputy sheriff guarding Lewis in the meantime.Nice atmosphere of the bayou country is achieved in this made for television film. Unfortunately the suspense is let out halfway through the film as we're given everything but an eyewitness testimony as to who the killer is. It's just that Janssen doesn't want to even conceive of the idea, much less the existence of a werewolf.Some of the rest of the cast includes Claudia McNeil who knows some home remedies to keep the wolf away, Barbara Rush and Bradford Dillman as a pair of rich descendants of the town's founding father and John Berardino as the town doctor. Fans of any and all of the players above will like Moon Of The Wolf.
OldAFSarge
I just watched this movie again to see what I could remember from about 25 years ago. I remember seeing this when it first hit TV and I enjoyed it then and I enjoyed it all over again. Being from the South I didn't find it too slow, nor a weak story. However, I must admit that I like David Jansen who plays Sheriff Aaron Whitaker and Barbara Rush was always one of my favorite actresses. Ms Rush plays the high society lady that has been off to New York and has just returned to Marsh Island. Her brother Bradford Dillman plays Andrew Rodanthe, one of the remaining members of the towns oldest family. Other folks that you will remember if you are over 40 or so are Geoffrey Lewis, Royal Dano, and John Davis Chandler. All in all a decent werewolf movie for it's time. For me it was a very pleasant break from all the teenage slasher movies that have become all the rage. If you want a break from all the blood and gore and want to see a movie that you can watch with your children, but still want a little horror, then this is it. Very little blood, no nudity, and little if any language, so it is very tame by todays standards.
AD
