Deathmoon

1978
4.1| 1h30m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 31 May 1978 Released
Producted By: CBS
Country:
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

An overworked executive vacationing in Hawaii finds that his romance with an attractive businesswoman he meets there is threatened by the supernatural powers of a strange native curse on his bloodline.

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Director

Bruce Kessler

Production Companies

CBS

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Deathmoon Audience Reviews

CommentsXp Best movie ever!
Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Carycomic I confess that I had never heard of Robert Foxworth before watching this, the night it debuted, on CBS. But, I sure as heck kept an eye on all his subsequent television appearances!This also marks only the second time I had ever heard of Joe Penny. The first time (or, perhaps, it was the merely the first time I could put a name to the face) is when he played an Amerasian D. A. in San Francisco, battling organized crime at night as "The Samurai." But, of course, he was later able to do so more openly on the Steven J. Cannell series RIPTIDE.France Nuyen, suitably exotic as the mysterious high priestess, was a childhood crush from the first time I had seen her as the Dohlman of Elaas on STAR TREK: TOS. And the ill-fated cat burglar who never had a single line of dialogue (unless you count his death scream) later became famous as Officer Danko on HILL STREET BLUES. For all these reasons, these entertainment firsts, I give this a perfect ten.**Although, I do have to point out one thing to the gentleman who wrote the plot summary here at IMDb. Mr. Zoerner? Hawaii doesn't have voodoo! That's strictly a syncretic mix of Euro-witchcraft, Roman Catholicism, and West African tribal animism developed in the West Indies.
trashgang This flick was made for television and is only available in the US on ex-rental VHS. It was made just before the new rise of the horrors. But this really is a turkey. You really must see the special effects used. It's about a man being cursed by some inmates when he is on holiday. Soon he realizes that he's a werewolf. He hunts his preys on the resort he is staying but I must say, where is the blood. I haven't ween one drip of the red stuff in this flick. There are even shootings and people get hurt but no sign of blood. The best part are the last few seconds when we have a close-up of the face of the werewolf. The werewolf itself looks ridicuulous. The effects used are just done with some cheap editing. It reminded me of The Wolfman of 1941 were they used the same effect. But overall it's more about a love story between a woman and the so called werewolf. The cover of the VHS looks amazing, if that was included in this flick, well, it surely would be a classic. No sign of those hands or even of the naked girl. It also reminded me of Paul Naschy's performances as a werewolf. But the reason why some people track it down is for Joe Perry, here in one of his first full features just before becoming famous in Jake And The Fatman. Rare feature that must be seen to believe.
Vomitron_G CURSE OF THE HAWAIIAN WEREWOLF. Terror and horror under a Hawaiian full moon... Jaahaa, sounds cool, doesn't it? Think again...While technically I remember this to be the very first werewolf film - or one of the first - I saw as a tiny little kid on a late night TV channel, I actually remembered little else of it (aside from the ending terrifying me). Probably because of the complete film being, uh, well, pretty much ballocks. What we got here, is a werewolf in Hawaii, in a motion picture flavored with ancient native sorcery (a curse, always scary stuff!), horribly colored shirts and dangerously short sporting shorts. All this could work, but it doesn't.So what did I get out of this film? Well,... a lot of muzak (seriously, will you listen to all those hideous tunes on the soundtrack) and some great textbook examples of experimental cross-cutting. Sergej Eisenstein should see this - he'd be proud. And then there's Robert Foxworth running around in werewolf make-up. I imagine this film to be a very tedious watch for the regular viewer, but if you manage to place yourself in the minds of the people who made this, you'll have a hard time wiping that grin off your face. It's just so ridiculous how they put this movie together. Especially the "cleverly planned" romantic interludes between Foxworth and Barbara Trentham are always a hoot to which you can set a timer. But the most painful thing about this film, is that Foxworth is the actual werewolf. The viewer knows this from the start, but Foxworth's character doesn't (It's you, Foxworth! Wake up, man, it's YOU! ...aw, Christ!). He always wakes up every morning, but has no clue about what he'd been up to all night ("Hmmm, must have been too much sun and alcohol..."). Now, any film in which the viewer knows everything from the first minute, but all the other characters are running around trying to figure things out, is just a plain bore to sit through. In this case, an often funny bore, yes, but you'll be glad to see the credits roll after that final "shocking" surprise end-shot.Finally, I can imagine one of the very first production meetings of this film having went a little as follows. Throw in a producer (P), director (D) and writer (W): P: "Let's make a film about a guy going to Hawaii on a holiday and have him change into a werewolf every night." D: "Great! I love werewolf movies. I want to direct one." P: "Fine! Writer, figure something out to make the guy a werewolf." W: "Okay, we could put a curse on him, because his ancestors were evil missionaries... or something." P: "Wonderful angle! I like it! Anything else?"W: "I could throw in a redundant subplot about a thief, robbing rooms. So the police can run around clueless." P: "Excellent! Who's going to play the leading guy?"W: "I suggest Robert Foxworth. He usually doesn't have a clue about the characters he's playing." D: "Uh, could I direct some romantic interludes too? I like those." P: "Yeah sure. Romance always works." D: "What about tits? I want to shoot some naked breasts too." W: "I could write a gratuitous shower-scene into the script" P: "Okay for the shower-scene. But no tits. Remember, this is going to be shown on television. And put Foxworth in a shower somewhere too, for the ladies. But don't show his butt, D." D: "Aw, darn. I like Foxworth's butt." P: "Okay, all set then. W, you get your script ready in a week. I'll book us some tickets to Hawaii. I could use a holiday myself." D: "Yipii! We're gonna make a werewolf movie in Hawaii!" P: "Shut up, D. Go shoot this movie or you're not getting paid." Sure they got away with this. It was the 70's. They got this movie made.
Paul Andrews Death Moon tells the tale of Los Angeles real estate investor Jason Palmer (Robert Foxworth) who is a real workaholic, he is suffering from tension, stress & has been experiencing bad dreams although he can't remember them, he just knows they were bad. Seeking advice he is told by his Doctor (Don Pomes) to take a vacation, a complete break from work. Browsing the travel agents Jason sees a poster advertising the delights of Hawaii & the very next scene Jason is settling into his Hawaiian hotel. Jason begins to relax & before he knows it he has already found himself a girlfriend named Diane May (Barabra Trentham) & their relationship starts to become serious. Meanwhile Rick Bladen (Joe Penny) the house detective is trying to solve a recent spate of robberies from guests rooms when a stewardess named Sherry Weston (Debralee Scott) turns up brutally murdered & shortly after another body turns up mauled in the same way. Rick's investigations lead him to the conclusion that a Werewolf may be at large, a vicious beast who kills indiscriminately & must be stopped at all costs...Directed by Bruce Kessler Death Moon is crap, it's as simple & straight forward as that really. The fact that Death Moon appears to be pretty obscure is a bit of a blessing as it means you will probably never have the opportunity to watch it, I only wish I could have said the same thing. The script by George Schenck is as slow as you like, you could quite easily skip the entire first half of this & still pick it up. The first Werewolf attack doesn't happen until past the 40 minute mark, that's 40 minutes of dull as dishwater exposition & totally unnecessary character development & when I say unnecessary character development I mean character's who mean nothing to the overall story & just disappear anyway like the thief who steals a key-pass & breaks into people's rooms only to be killed & never referred to again. It's never really explained why Jason suddenly turns into a Werewolf every night other than some vague text at the start of the film. The whole film is deeply unexciting & very boring to watch at 90 odd minutes long. Someone should also tell the filmmakers that there is a full moon about once every month & not one every single night. The character's are dull, the dialogue forgettable & there are loads more better Werewolf films out there. Death Moon may have a cool sounding title but the film itself is total crap, less than impressive.Director Kessler does an OK job but it's very easy to see that Death Moon was a made-for-TV film. There's no scares, shocks or surprises & forget about any blood or gore as there isn't any, full stop. The Werewolf transformation is nothing more than old fashioned time lapse photography & the Werewolf itself is far from impressive, it's just a guy with bits of hair stuck to his face & fangs which are obviously so big he can't close his mouth.Technically Death Moon is alright, it's competent but it has no style or visual flair & looks every bit the made-for-TV film that it so obviously is. The acting is average & that's being generous.Death Moon is rubbish, it has no entertainment value whatsoever as far as I'm concerned & it nearly put me to sleep twice, I'm not sure how I made it to the end actually. Watch An American Werewolf In London (1981) again instead, one to avoid.