In the Light of the Moon, although I'm pretty sure that this is far more commonly known under the title Ed Gein, is set in Plainfied Wisconsin during 1957 & tells the story of Ed Gein & his murderous grave robbing ways. Ed (Steve Railsback who also executive produced) lives by himself & is a bit of a recluse, he lives deep in some local woods on his own isolated from the nearby town community. Ed is awkward & uncomfortable around other people who see him as a bit strange, a bit of a weirdo but ultimately harmless. Some of the local townspeople try to befriend him like barmaid Mary Hogan (Sally Champlin) & the owner of a local store Collette Marshall (Carol Mansell). However Ed is a very sick, messed up & twisted individual as he recalls his childhood that was filled with abuse by his Father George (Bill Cross) & strict religious Mother Augusta (Carrie Snodgress) while he would be expected to help in the brutal slaughter of farm animals. Ed often sees his dead Mother who convinces him to commit disgusting acts, at first digging up dead bodies but it soon turns into acts of cold blooded murder...
Directed by Chuck Parello I thought In the Light of the Moon was a dull way to spend 90 odd minutes. The script by Stephen Johnston is boring & has no real subtlety to it. In the Light of the Moon is obviously a factual take on Ed Gein & his crimes but Johnston breaks his motivations down to an abusive childhood & seeing his dead Mother who tells him to do these things & nothing else, yawn. Just so we get the message there are lots of flashbacks to Ed's childhood & an embarrassing scene where he sees a tiny burning bush in the woods with his Mother's face badly super imposed over the top of it talking to him. Anyone looking for gore, violence & Ed having sex with dead bodies will be sorely disappointed as In the Light of the Moon is virtually a blood free zone apart from some blood splatters, a pig being gutted & some human skin. I will admit that the second half of the film picks up when it focuses on Ed's crimes as we see him shoot a couple of people & the gruesome discovery of Marshall's decapitated & gutted dead body hung upside down in Ed's basement followed by the local police searching Ed's house & finding Ed's gruesome handiwork in the films two best sequences. But overall I still found In the Light of the Moon just too slow, plodding & contains nothing that no one doesn't know already anyway. The one half decent bit in this film is when Ed is literally trying on human noses presumably taken from his victims faces. According to the IMDb In the Light of the Moon opened on a grand total of 1 cinema screen taking a pitiful $5,708 by which we can safely assume this film was a serious box-office flop & it doesn't really come as a big surprise. Technically the film is competently made for sure but at the same time very bland & forgettable, director Parello doesn't inject any style, tension or atmosphere into the film & fails to distinguish between past & present events with the flashbacks looking exactly like the rest of the film. In the Light of the Moon looks & feels like it was made-for-TV rather than the big screen. The sets are OK & the 50's period design is fine. I personally thought Railsback sucked big time in this & I just wasn't interested in him or the character at all. The rest of the acting is alright but nothing spectacular. I think there is an audience for a film like In the Light of the Moon but it isn't for me as I found it boring dull & it just didn't captivate me as a story about one of the world's most notorious serial killers should have in my opinion. The most memorable part of In the Light of the Moon is the actual real life grainy black & white newsreel footage of the real Ed Gein being taken away by the police which rounds the film off. Do yourself a favour & watch The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) again instead for your Ed Gein inspired thrills!
Directed by Chuck Parello I thought In the Light of the Moon was a dull way to spend 90 odd minutes. The script by Stephen Johnston is boring & has no real subtlety to it. In the Light of the Moon is obviously a factual take on Ed Gein & his crimes but Johnston breaks his motivations down to an abusive childhood & seeing his dead Mother who tells him to do these things & nothing else, yawn. Just so we get the message there are lots of flashbacks to Ed's childhood & an embarrassing scene where he sees a tiny burning bush in the woods with his Mother's face badly super imposed over the top of it talking to him. Anyone looking for gore, violence & Ed having sex with dead bodies will be sorely disappointed as In the Light of the Moon is virtually a blood free zone apart from some blood splatters, a pig being gutted & some human skin. I will admit that the second half of the film picks up when it focuses on Ed's crimes as we see him shoot a couple of people & the gruesome discovery of Marshall's decapitated & gutted dead body hung upside down in Ed's basement followed by the local police searching Ed's house & finding Ed's gruesome handiwork in the films two best sequences. But overall I still found In the Light of the Moon just too slow, plodding & contains nothing that no one doesn't know already anyway. The one half decent bit in this film is when Ed is literally trying on human noses presumably taken from his victims faces. According to the IMDb In the Light of the Moon opened on a grand total of 1 cinema screen taking a pitiful $5,708 by which we can safely assume this film was a serious box-office flop & it doesn't really come as a big surprise. Technically the film is competently made for sure but at the same time very bland & forgettable, director Parello doesn't inject any style, tension or atmosphere into the film & fails to distinguish between past & present events with the flashbacks looking exactly like the rest of the film. In the Light of the Moon looks & feels like it was made-for-TV rather than the big screen. The sets are OK & the 50's period design is fine. I personally thought Railsback sucked big time in this & I just wasn't interested in him or the character at all. The rest of the acting is alright but nothing spectacular. I think there is an audience for a film like In the Light of the Moon but it isn't for me as I found it boring dull & it just didn't captivate me as a story about one of the world's most notorious serial killers should have in my opinion. The most memorable part of In the Light of the Moon is the actual real life grainy black & white newsreel footage of the real Ed Gein being taken away by the police which rounds the film off. Do yourself a favour & watch The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) again instead for your Ed Gein inspired thrills!