During
the early days of Hollywood, Poverty Row studios like Republic, Monogram, and PRC
relied on western oaters to pay the bills. These days, horror films are the low
budget staple genre, so you could consider this a case of something old and
something new. The fact that yonder werewolf western is also a British
production makes it all the more eccentric, but we appreciate that. The bodies
will pile up when a skinwalker hunts its prey in Jeremy Wooding’s Blood Moon (trailer here), which launches
today on DVD and VOD from Uncork’d Entertainment.
Mud
Flats was a stagecoach stopover already well on its way to being a ghost town,
but the skinwalker hastened the process. Unfortunately, when the next stage
pulls in for chow, they are taken hostage by the twitchy outlaw Norton Brothers
(half-brothers technically). Amongst the passengers are Jake Norman, the new
Marshal for the next town over, Sarah, his new wife with a checkered past, and
Calhoun, the mysterious bad ass. There was also a priest, but the Nortons killed
him almost immediately.
Even
the profoundly unintuitive Nortons soon accept the idea something big and bad
is prowling around outside, but they are still determined to have their fun
inside. Meanwhile, the sheriff and Black Deer, his hard-drinking Native
American frienemy and potential hook-up, follow the trail of the Nortons and
the beast.
Like
so many westerns before it, Blood Moon looks
a little cheap, but it was filmed in Kent, so cut it some slack (after all, it
is the first UK western since Carry On
Cowboy). While the premise sounds like a dubious mash-up concept, it kind
of works thanks to the strength of the characters. Frankly, Shaun Dooley is
pretty darned awesome as the steely, super-together Calhoun. Yet, Anna Skellern
is even more awesome as Marie, the franchise-minded, derringer-packing Miss
Kitty. Wearing the black hat, American ringer Corey Johnson is charismatically loathsome
and contemptuous as the more stable Norton. Eleanor Matsuura’s Black Deer also
nicely provides the film’s required mysticism and defiance of authority.
Blood Moon is definitely a
low budget wonder, but it deserves props for its energy and attitude. According
to the laws of nature it should be a complete train wreck, but if you enjoy
B-movies, this is the sort that will remind you why you developed such
idiosyncratic tastes in the first place. Regardless, if you want to see a
British werewolf western, Blood Moon is
the only game in town, when it hits VOD platforms today (9/1), via Uncork’d
Entertainment.
