Bloody Moon

 
 
 
 





In his 200 plus film career, Jess Franco has never been afraid to adapt to the times. As well as his usual skin flicks, he’s tried his hand at the Zombie movie, the cannibal movie and the slasher. The latter is what we have here with Bloody Moon. Even for someone like me who is a relative newcomer to Franco’s films, ‘quality’ is not usually a word you begin to associate with the European sleaze king. ‘Bloody Moon’ is no exception but, as I’m beginning to see with a lot of Jess’ repertoire, it does have a certain charm to it. Hell, this might just be me. One man’s trash is another’s treasure, so they say.

 

The film follows Angela, (Olivia Pascal from erotic classic Vanessa) a student at an all-girl (naturally) language school in Spain, who is being stalked by a mysterious killer who bumps off her friends one-by-one. This is a good Jess Franco film for the non-Franco fan as there’s not many of his trademarks here (no zooms or crotch shots).

 



Let’s start with the faults. Bloody Moon isn’t a bad who-done-it movie, but Franco seems incapable of adding any other sort of suspense.  Scenes often plod along at a snail’s pace and the (attempted) shocks just don’t, well, shock you. Then we have scenes that involve reactions by the characters that are so odd. For instance, when Angela catches a glimpse of Miguel, who is hiding in her bathroom, she is naturally petrified and runs from the room. But after about two minutes, she suddenly relaxes and gets on with things. Uh, did you forget about that creepy guy in your bathroom? Then you have the film’s most famous scene where Inga is decapitated with a giant buzz saw (see the clip below). The build up to this set piece is so absurd it’s comical. Inga (Jasmin Losensky) let’s a mysterious masked man, who she’s only just met,  tie her to rock with no objections what so ever, because, as she puts it, “It’s a little perverse, but I’ll try anything; as long as I get back to the club in time”. I think you need to worry about something more than being late for class, Inga. Did you not see that giant buzz saw behind you? What did you think was going to happen? Rounding out the negatives are some dubious acting, unconvincing special effects and crap music (bad disco!) – all three not unusual for Franco’s films.

 



But enough whining, like I say, this film has charm despite it’s shortcomings. First and foremost, Bloody Moon looks beautiful. Say what you will about Franco, there’s no denying that a lot of his movies are photographed exquisitely. The luscious Spanish countryside is captured stunningly and perfectly complements Franco’s always great looking female cast members. The main reason I can’t be too critical of this movie is because it’s fun to sit through. The negatives above can be taken for ironic laughs. The characters bizarre actions are just so bonkers it’s hard not to have giggle. The SFX are mostly poor but do try to be gory and, as set pieces go, they are fun and memorable – sometimes for the wrong reasons: Angela almost gets flattened by the most obviously fake boulder in movie history.

 

 

‘Bloody Moon’ is an example of Franco having a stab at a different genre. Though he’s attempting an American-style slasher, I feel his European-filmmaking tendencies have got the better of him here because it plays more like an Italian Gialo. But whatever Franco was trying to accomplish here it’s a blast none the less and is definitely a film that you can sit through on more than one occasion.