Blood Moon (II) (2014) User Reviews

Decent enough effort with a few minor flaws

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 6/10 · 14 March 2016]

Under attack by a group of criminals, a small outpost town attempts to find a way of derailing the bank robbers stalking them find an even more dangerous and vicious beast in the nearby woods and must band together to stop the deadly creature.

This here wasn't all that bad of a werewolf film and did have some solid points about it. When this one is mostly concerned with it's attacks by the creature itself, this one really comes off nicely with the action providing this one with some rather enjoyable elements throughout here. The opening assault against the different hunters makes for a great time with the rather suspenseful attacks keeping things chilling while letting the kills generate some nice bloodletting in the savagery of the actions, while the later attack in the saloon is quite a hit of fun with the rather frantic and chaotic attacks coming through the walls and windows requiring all sorts of shootouts throughout trying to kill it. As well, the finale in the streets of the old-west town as they try to get the creature killed is a bit of fun with the fun attacks and different escapes required throughout the town that makes for an enjoyable if slightly problematic effort that highlights the few flaws within here. The fact that the action is enjoyable is fine, but it's way too confined to that one section of the film as the majority of the time this one doesn't really offer up a whole lot of rather frantic werewolf action on display. It's only got these several scenes to really go on that generates the kind of overall action within this one that lets it be known it's actually a werewolf movie since the majority of the film is concerned with other areas than getting to the creature. By focusing on the different criminal gang interacting with the townspeople and how they're getting the underhand against the creature running loose, it all holds off the attack generated from the attacks actually occurring as there's so much time in between it getting loose again that it takes up the time on these other matters which isn't all that interesting as the main section of the film. As well, that problem also brings up another in the form of a rather brief series of action scenes that go by quickly in order to move on to the next scene without ever letting the action sink in, and with the quick-shot editing this one really does have some substandard action within here. These here are the film's few issues that hold it down.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

I GUESS WE'LL BE MAKING OUR OWN COFFEE

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 22 April 2018]

The film takes place in 1887 Colorado. Two bank robbers hold a group of stage coach riders hostage in a saloon/ stage coach stop. A sheriff and a Navajo woman are on their trail. Meanwhile stories of a shapeshifter Skin Walker abound as we anticipate the werewolf scene.

The characters in the story have their secrets, but they are presented in a way that doesn't make the characters or the film overly interesting. The hostage scene dragged on way too long as we awaited to see a man in a bad wolf suit...Oh look, the mouth moved a little! The dialogue does have some meager attempts at humor. The wanted posters in the background of Tom Nixon and the Apache Kid are from 1877, kudos for doing your homework as many indies create anachronisms at this point. The film suggests a sequel.

Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity. For those who like western genre mixing I would suggest BONE TOMAHAWK.

Community Theater at its Worst

[dcarsonhagy · 4/10 · 1 September 2015]

"Blood Moon" is a movie about the legend of the Native American skinwalker. This interested me because of the setting: the American Old West complete with bank robbers and varmits.

Seems a certain town in the middle-of-nowhere-Colorado is losing its population. What is strange is the killings are only happening on-- you guessed it--the night of the blood moon. Methinks thar's a beast in them thar woods, but I digress.

This is the second movie I have watched where NOTHING seemed realistic. In fact, this reminded me of a play being performed, albeit a bad play. The opening scene looked so "staged" it actually lacked authenticity. All the actors were stiff and unconvincing. Another reviewer talked about how the lack of using CGI really made the movie convincing. I don't usually disagree, but this movie (and especially the creature) could have used something. And some of the "plot" never made sense.

This version was unrated for violence and language.

Plenty of boring chatters, some cheesy gunslinging action and barely any of the horror.

[quincytheodore · 3/10 · 14 September 2015]

The poster or synopsis can be misleading, at first glance Blood Moon is a supernatural movie set in wild west. Unfortunately, it's not much more than bantering between random cowboy and thug cliché, as for the supposed werewolf, or skinwalker in this case, it only appears in a fragment of the runtime. This leaves audience with mundane subpar western B-movie action at best.

What could be a unique premise unfortunately ends up with barren showing, majority of the characters are plain and lacking any presence. The movie tries to introduce many personalities, such as the young journalist, the usual mysterious gunman, enigmatic shaman and the unlawful hooligans. However, they are not fully fleshed out and the choppy acting makes it hard to invest on any of them, thus making the many subplots even more tedious.

At times it almost looks like they are just random people in period reenactment rather than actual cast for a movie. This takes away from the supernatural angle as well, which is incredibly disappointing considering it takes nearly an hour to build-up on the creature's backstory. The characters hype it with oversaturated fire camp stories about this ominous being for two third of the movie.

The most decent thing here is its practical effect, the gore looks intimidating and quite eerie. Still, the skinwalker deserves much more than a few bloody shots. When it does appear so briefly the movie uses rapid editing and jerky camera. In fact, it does so for almost the entire action sequences to the point of gunshot looking like timid firecrackers.

With no decent pay-off for its arduously long build-up, Blood Moon is lackluster on both action and horror. Staring at actual moon for an hour and half would be a better use of your time.

Werewolves in the Wild West...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 21 September 2019]

Well, while this 2014 "Blood Moon" hardly is going to move any boundaries for the werewolf genre, it still turned out to be a watchable and entertaining enough movie for what it was. Sure, there are better werewolf movies available, but "Blood Moon" wasn't actually as bad as I had anticipated.

The storyline in the movie is pretty straight forward, for better or worse. That, unfortunately, means that there are no surprises in store for the audience. So it feels like the movie just fairly quickly settled into a monotonous pace and trotted onwards.

There is enough action in the movie to liven up the moments when you are about to drift off and your attention start to falter. But, for me at least, it just wasn't enough to fully keep my attention. I actually fell asleep during the last 20 minutes or so. Did I go back to watch what I missed? No, the movie was adequate, but it wasn't good enough for me to do that.

The make-up, prosthetics and such were adequate, but not really top of the line. The werewolf was adequate, but hardly the best seen in the werewolf genre. The wounds and such were fair and adequately made.

Now the setting of the movie was good. There is just something about that Western period, so having a werewolf movie set in the late 1880s was just great. That worked quite well for me.

All in all, "Blood Moon" is adequate entertainment for what it turned out to be. However, it just wasn't outstanding enough to make itself memorable. As such, I am rating the movie a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Hackneyed B grade werewolf flick

[s3276169 · 5/10 · 16 September 2015]

Blood Moon is a hackneyed B grade werewolf flick with a Western flavour.

The premise behind this film has in one form or another been done before.This is by no means the worst interpretation but its by no means the best either.

The acting is, by and large, of a very good standard. That said the actors are constrained by the, at times, cheesy stereotypical cowboy characterizations, replete with lots of gormless gun twirling. Even worse again, are the tame and tacky monster effects, that are more comical than scary.

Blood Moon had the makings of a half decent horror if only more care had been taken with the special effects and more common sense had been injected into the script. As it stands, this film rates a five out of ten from me.

Tiresome

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 31 January 2016]

BLOOD MOON is a tiresome, zero budget, western/horror combo in which a bunch of the usual disparate characters are holed up in an old western town where they find themselves assailed by barely-glimpsed werewolves. Bizarrely, although this film is set in the Old West with some imported American stars (like Corey Johnson), it's actually a British movie filmed on a re-enactment set.

Not that we see much of the set, or anything if I'm honest. BLOOD MOON is one of those films that's almost entirely shot in the dark to hide the deficiencies of the budget. The werewolves are barely glimpsed throughout the movie so if you're looking for werewolf action you'll invariably be disappointed. Giving the directorial chores to a guy who has previously made stuff like MOVIE MISTAKES UNCOVERED and THE LEGEND OF DICK AND DOM wasn't necessarily the best idea as the people who wrote and made this seem to have little understanding of what makes either the western or the horror genres tick as BLOOD MOON is a failure in both.

The characters are below par and uninteresting and the set-up situations are entirely predictable with characters in-fighting before being forced to work together against a greater evil. It really does say something when the DVD cover is about ten times better than the film itself.

You'd think this would be cool

[harybobjoebob · 3/10 · 10 October 2020]

Cowboys and werewolves seems like a movie that would be hard to mess up, but this film is just lame. They try to pass off the werewolves as wendigos but they are just werewolves, and the werewolf effects are actually alright, the main character in all black can be cool sometimes, but somehow I found myself not caring about anything that happens in this movie, there are a couple of really lame twists that dont really add or take away from the movie. Honestly I'm surprised I still remember what happened in this movie. If I were you I'd skip this one.

Great atmosphere and sense of period

[greg-gillet · 7/10 · 7 October 2015]

I saw this at my local film society (its first public showing in Kent, where it was made). I thought it was pretty good by any standards (and not just "pretty good for a film that only cost £520,000").

If you're expecting state of the art special effects and CGI and an extended gore-fest, you'll be disappointed, but it's highly watchable, engaging, sometimes funny and made me jump more than once!

In a Q+A afterwards, the director and the director of photography admitted they had had the same problem that a lot of creature feature makers have - the creature never looks as convincing on screen as you had hoped (we all remember the rubber-looking shark in Jaws!). As a result, their creature is only briefly on screen but its presence and menace are still felt.

All the actors give a good performance but I'd maybe highlight Shaun Dooley as Calhoun, looking like a slightly younger Russell Crowe, and Corey Johnson as Hank.

I'm not a big horror genre fan myself - if you are, you might find yourself insufficiently scared - but Blood Moon still stands as a well-made indie film. It benefits from having been shot in Laredo, a Western town in the UK recreated by a group of re-enactors - the period detail throughout is much more than skin deep and it's a convincing enough location to have fooled many people into believing it was shot State-side.

It's done pretty well on the festival circuit and, as the first British-made Western since "Carry on Cowboy" in 1965 (reputedly), I think it deserves watching.

Blah blah blah boring

[mkivtt · 3/10 · 28 May 2021]

If you're going to make a horror movie, make it a horror movie. Not 90 minutes of stupid talking and drama between "bank robbers" and "hostages" in what's mostly a single room, and 10 minutes of action.

Surprisingly Good Western Werewolf Film

[Rainey-Dawn · 8/10 · 12 April 2016]

This one actually took me by surprise - I was expecting much less from this film so I found it a pleasant surprise. I think I was expecting bad acting, horrible script, terrible cinematography and that sort of thing but what I found was the complete opposite from my expectations.

You will see the werewolf at the very beginning then it turns into a really good western drama that builds suspense towards the last 30 minutes or so of the film - which is where you will see the werewolf and get some action involved.

I really like this one - it's not a gore fest - there is a little but NOT overly done by any means. It's just a well written and acted werewolf western film.

8/10

Not bad at all

[jinxedind-70671 · 7/10 · 2 June 2021]

To start I love the cast, I've seen all of them in various TV shows and movies and I commend them on hiding their accents (most were English) The atmosphere was good, the dialog well done and the acting pretty good. A well made B-grade horror set in the old west, I'd watch it again.

Not a bad B-Movie

[pipelinerer · 4/10 · 15 September 2015]

Well I was happy to sit back tonight excited about getting two movies wrapped up in one, I love a good Western & I love a good werewolf movie. Two birds with one stone right?

This movie was a bit slow on the start & I was close to turning it off, especially with all the in depth "Slow dragging" chattering going on in the bar, but my other half is like me & loves Vamp's, Zombies, werewolves & Westerns.. So she said give it a minute more. We knew the director was letting us get to know the characters, although I thought that they spent a little to much time on that side of the story considering this was involving werewolves & we knew that the actors would not be excepting any Oscar's.

When the action started after the moon rose it did get a bit better & get a bit more interesting. Downfall was it was a bit dark & they didn't have a lot of the werewolf on the screen, reminded me of the old movies that mostly showed shadows moving here & there, and having you squint to try & make out what you thought you may have or may not have seen or what your wanting to see. Not a big deal since the music score was right & timing was right when it did appear.

My whole take on this film is if you like a fair B-Movie with Cowboys, Outlaws, Werewolves & it's a rainy Saturday, get some popcorn, relax but keep in mind this is just that & you will enjoy this movie. I would say it's a high 3 or 4. Watchable again? Yes

Anyone with a digital camera and a few friends can make a movie now...

[greg-29535 · 1/10 · 12 May 2020]

Another piece of garbage with bad writing, bad acting, and really amateur filming. Any review above 1 star is from a famly member, friend or relative of someone involved with this "movie", and yes, to be clear thise are quotes around the word movie...

Gunslingers versus Werewolves........

[FlashCallahan · 5/10 · 11 October 2015]

The old west gets hairy when a town is overtaken by skinwalkers, or as we all like to call them, werewolves.

Knowing they've got to combine forces if they want to survive the night, the passengers of a stagecoach unite with a heroic gunslinger and a couple of outlaws to battle the beastly enemy under the blood red moon......

It appears lately that any high concept film, trying to mix genres together, rarely gets it right, and they are usually funded by some small British film company. Some, on the rare occasion, get it right, like cockneys Vs Zombies.

But then there's a film called Navy Seals Vs Zombies........make of that what you will.

But like those films, where they come up with the title and work from there, the premise here is pretty sound, even if it does sound like Tarantino's forthcoming Hateful Eight, sans Lycanthrope.

And this is where the film falters. I can imagine while Tarantino's protagonists/Antagonists are holed up together, they will have rich and complex characterisation, and have some wonderful dialogue to boot.

Here, it's pretty mundane, we have the bad guys telling everyone else to shut up after they get a bit chippy with one another, and there's occasional flirting from the bar owner. Oh and every once in a while, the one you recognise from other films spits, and he spits a lot.

And this happens for the whole of the second act, and the majority of the third, until we finally get to see what we've been eating to see for the whole movie, and as predicted, it's a bit of a let down.

There is some sub-plot involving another party, and one is a bit mysterious, but it detracts from the 'action' in the bar.

And it all finishes with the bloke from Billy Elliot saying that you wouldn't have heard where he came from and giving the whole film a sort of Van Helsing vibe, and sorts of promises the beginning of a franchise, which could improve if their are vampires involved.

Which sounds a lot more promising than Traffic Wardens vs Zombies.....

Movies by numbers, 1-2-3

[I_Ailurophile · 5/10 · 11 October 2021]

The costume design and set decoration is fine. I like the narrative concept. 'Blood moon' has every necessary element to give it the appearance of an Old West film. What it doesn't have is authenticity. There's a difference between a movie being set in a location and a movie transporting us there. It seems like every line of dialogue, and every scene - an impromptu funeral, a tracker employing their skills - feels terribly staged, as though the filmmakers were working from a checklist of western or horror film tropes. It's not exactly easy to engage with.

Effects including blood and gore, and the featured creatures, are surely limited by budget constraints; they're not the worst I've ever seen, but they're not terribly convincing, either. So it is with the acting: I don't have specific reason to doubt anyone in the cast, but all involved are mostly either chewing scenery or performing with utmost perfunctoriness, just doing their job. I can hardly cast any aspersions on the assembled actors when the material they're working with is just as dispassionate and detached. Occasionally there will come a moment that does actually surprise me, but they are very few and far between.

Mechanical and disinterested as the movie is, there are no real thrills, scares, or otherwise excitement to be had. It's entertaining, but only by way of being a passively adequate diversion. It's not bad, but it's not particularly good, either. You could do a lot worse, in any case, and I suppose it's the perfect movie to put on if you want to "watch" something without a real need to be invested in it. Yet at that point, why bother at all? 'Blood moon' is essentially a movie by numbers, and it's about as cursory as a western or horror film can get. Take that as you will.

Cowboys and Werewolves

[JoeB131 · 4/10 · 4 April 2020]

So this was a fun little picture about a group of people caught in a ghost town with a pair of bank robbers and a werewolf. There's also a side plot with a Marshall chasing down the bank robbers with the help of a Native American woman who is also a werewolf.

The movie has too many characters and kind of drags in places, like they were stuffing 30 minutes of plot into a 90 minute bag. The acting was pretty decent for a bunch of no-name actors. The Special effects were marginal, nothing to write home to mom about.

Again, the characters kind of made this film, but I'll probably forget I saw it in a month or two.

A lycanthropic western!

[parry_na · 7/10 · 28 March 2022]

This is a fairly convincing, wittily written werewolf western. No spoiler there - the revelation is all over the packaging. Great fun, and the werewolves are pretty impressive too - wisely built up throughout the film and kept in shadow much of the time.

At least some of the actors are not American, but sporting American accents as befits the location. I had a hard time trying to work out who was a native American and who was not, so convincing were the accents to my UK ears.

The finale is anti-climactic; I was hoping for rather more than we got. Overall, though, I had a great time with this. The locations and cinematography seemed very accurate and suitably creepy and there were really strong performances across the board. My score is 7 out of 10.

Don't expect more than it meant to be

[laniking-26562 · 8/10 · 27 April 2021]

This is supposed to be a B movie, werewolf, Western made in the UK. It's obviously tongue in cheek and all these British folk are having fun doing a Western. They can barely keep the twinkle eyes from it all. Knowing that makes it that much better. You can be in on the fun or grouse because it's not Jason or Michael. Get your popcorn and blanket, dim the lights and have fun with them.

Good Horror/Western.

[Pairic · 7/10 · 12 May 2018]

Blood Moon: A Werewolf Western. Bank robbers bushwack stagecoach passengers little knowing that the keeper of the rest station they had stopped at was just killed by a Werewolf (called a Skinwalker by Indians). Now passengers and robbers come under siege by the creature.

Meanwhile a Town Marshall and an Indian tracker (who knows a thing or two about Skinwalkers) are in pursuit of the robbers.

Good Horror/Western. 6.5/10.

Surprising

[realfandangoforever · 6/10 · 10 February 2019]

151005: For a low budget film; a surprisingly good film. There's not many glaring holes in the special effects because they keep them so well hidden through the use of lighting, movement and angles (see extra features). Some decent acting from this group, Shaun Dooley (Calhoon) being the weakest in my opinion. Other than that annoying pistol Calhoon carried, happy with this lost cost, low budget western. Can't say that for most I end up buying. As an added bonus, it even had me jumping at times (turn the volume up).

Outstanding Indie Effort!

[TheJonesBones · 8/10 · 5 May 2021]

I don't know any of the players or production crew (except Corey Johnson and Anna Skellern, a bit) , but this film SHINES! Oh, yes, it is definitely worth your time!

The dialogue is excellent, the story moves, the players are all topnotch and the cinematography is worthy of a Hollywood production. I've seen big budget flops that couldn't patch this effort.

Shaun Dooley (Calhoun) sparks memories of Ben Johnson - he plays the cool hand very well with minimal cheese. Corey Johnson and Raffaello Degruttola (the Norton brothers) put just enough "yuck" into the bad guys. Eleanor Matsuura (Black Deer) and Amber Jean Rowan (Sarah Norman) play convincing female roles, while George Blagden (Jake Norman) and Jack Fox (Wade) play lawmen you will believe. But best - and worst - is Anna Skellern's portrayal of Marie: best because she is so beautiful and hot as an old time saloon matron and worst because... well, spoiler. Just watch.

Oh, and I believe the creature is a windigo. One of my favorite North American monsters!!!

Another perfect werewolf film

[hanskrishnan · 6/10 · 14 September 2015]

I am a huge fan of werewolf films and this film is nothing but a good werewolf horror film. All the credit goes for Jeremy Wooding, the director, who brilliantly limited the CGI effects in the film and let the beast lurk in the darkness. What is to be appreciated here is , how the director managed to deliver an decent film with in such limited budgets but not sacrificing on any aspects of the horror. From my point of view this a perfect werewolf horror film, where the werewolf fans will be 100% satisfied. It's like yeah you know he is out there, but he won't just show himself, but you go outside that saloon and he's gonna slash you into pieces. I strongly recommend this film for all those werewolf film fans. Another good one after "Late Phases". Low budget but really cool film.

Surprisingly Good

[johogee · 6/10 · 11 January 2020]

I was not expecting much but the dialog fits the time period. Plus it looks like I expected the old west to look like. It was dirty, unkept and run down. This is really funny since it was made in the UK.

It did keep me interested in the lives of the characters so good job.

My Review Of "Blood Moon"

[ASouthernHorrorFan · 9/10 · 5 August 2015]

First off I was impressed with the direction that Wooding took in creating this unique First Nations People mythos of Skinwalkers as opposed to the more classical Eastern European concepts. Native lore from the Americas is a complex and vividly fascinating spiritual and mythological web of shapeshifters, magic, and superstitions that doesn't often get such a fresh, mature light shown on the beliefs. A lot of films tend to lean more toward spoof, comical, or exaggeration when telling skinwalker stories. "Blood Moon" keeps it straight forward, intense, and yes -at times-scary. One of the few films that made me jump in some of the more chilling scenes.

The creature effects and overall use of practical effects is worth applauding! Wooding could have opted for heavy CGI effects when bringing this beast to light, but instead chose to keep the CGI at bare minimum. It really puts the werewolf fan back in the mindset of classic horror like "American Werewolf In London" and "The Wolfman". Although in this case the creature design is more of a hybrid of the two concepts, and looks more like a massive beast morphed into a humanoid monster. Plus the music, atmosphere, and over all cinematography has a creepy, Hammer-esque vibe to it that really screams creature feature.

Overall "Blood Moon" is a true, modern classic and one of the coolest werewolf films that I have seen in the last several years. At first based on the first 10 minutes I thought I was going to be bored. The characters seemed cliché, redundant and two-dimensional. That notion falls apart almost right about the time 10 minutes is up! The characters come alive, the dialog zings, and the story just gets you into the vision that Wooding is going for. The creature, the mythos, and the style choice really makes this film a great add to any horror fans collection. Especially the shapeshifter, werewolf fan. I fell in love with the story based on the authentic approach to showing the Navajo system of belief without making it look or feel "hokey". Definitely check out "Blood Moon". The ending is not a big bang like you hope for when watching man vs beast films like this but it isn't really disappointing either.