Taglines: Half man. Half wolf. Total terror.
Bad Moon movie storyline. While making love in their tent during a work expedition in Nepal, photo-journalists Ted Harrison (Michael Paré) and his girlfriend Marjorie are attacked by a werewolf. The werewolf snatches Marjorie and Ted attempts to rescue her but gets bitten in his shoulder and thrown to the ground. Hurt but determined he crawls to his shotgun and manages to shoot the werewolf’s head off but not before the beast kills Marjorie.
With the intent of living in isolation Ted moves back home into a trailer in the woods hours away from his lawyer sister Janet Harrison (Mariel Hemingway). One day in an effort to reach out to her and his young nephew Brett (Mason Gamble), Ted calls them up and invites them for a meal at his home by the lake.
Upon seeing him again the family dog, Thor, begins to sense something wrong with “Uncle Ted” and goes into the woods tracking a smell, which leads him to human remains hanging on a tree branch. Meanwhile, having heard of Marjorie’s death and in an attempt at comforting her brother, Janet invites him to stay with them. Shaken and fearful of hurting them, Ted declines and Janet, Brett and Thor leave before the sun starts to set, at Ted’s insistence.
The next day there is an investigation going on in the woods near Ted’s trailer where the mangled bodies of several missing hikers and a Forest Ranger were found. Ted, under fear of being found guilty, calls Janet and tells her he’s changed his mind. He parks his trailer in her yard in the hopes that in being near his family he’ll be able to control himself.
Thor, however, is aware of Ted’s nature and becomes suspicious and eventually hostile towards him. Noticing that he goes out to “jog” at night with handcuffs, Thor becomes frenzied until Janet lets him out of the house. Tracking his scent, Thor follows Ted into the woods and finds him turned into a werewolf and tied to a tree while growling, clawing and trying to escape. Meanwhile, Janet starts looking for Thor and goes into the woods. Aware of her danger, Thor manages to find and distract her back to the house before she finds Ted.
The next day while making breakfast, Janet sees on TV the news coverage on the killings and confronts her brother about not telling her his true reasons for visiting her and invites him to stay permanently. While Brett is watching Werewolf of London (mistakenly confused for The Wolfman), he and Ted discuss werewolves and their existence, with Ted stating that it doesn’t take a full moon to start the transformation and that he has “been acquainted with a few in his time” and Brett states that werewolves don’t exist.
While Brett throws out the trash, Ted tries to warn his sister and advises her to start listening to Thor and his sudden change in behavior and drops hints that the murders had been done by a wolf. She ignores his pleas and he retreats into his trailer where Thor follows him, waiting for him until the sun starts to set. Ted encounters a suspicious Thor but eventually leaves the trailer with the hopes of chaining himself again.
Bad Moon is a 1996 American horror film written and directed by Eric Red and produced by James G. Robinson. The plot involves a family man who struggles to overcome the curse of lycanthropy. It stars Michael Paré, Mariel Hemingway and Mason Gamble.
The film is based on the novel Thor by Wayne Smith, which mainly tells the story from the dog’s viewpoint. Thor was published in the United States (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s Press hardback, Ballantine paperback), and in the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, in English, German, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian. Bad Moon received poor reviews and was a box office bomb.
Bad Moon (1996)
Directed by: Eric Red
Starring: Mariel Hemingway, Michael Paré, Mason Gamble, Ken Pogue, Julia Montgomery Brown. Johanna Marlowe, Hrothgar Mathews, Gavin Buhr,
Screenplay by: Eric Red
Production Design by: Linda Del Rosario, Richard Paris
Cinematography by: Jan Kiesser, Geza Sinkovics
Film Editing by: Carroll Timothy O’Meara
Costume Design by: Tracey Boulton, Rita Riggs
Set Decoration by: Hope Caton
Art Direction by: Linda Del Rosario, Richard Paris
Music by: Daniel Licht
MPAA Rating: R for horror violence and gore, brief language and a scene of sexuality.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: November 1, 1996
Hits: 248
