Blood Moon
Posted by Greg on October 25, 2005

The reason horror films are constantly being reworked, outside of box office sales, has to do with the times we live in. For example, compare 1951's The Thing From Another World with its 1982 remake John Carpenter's The Thing. They're radically different because of the era in which each one was made. For The Thing From Another World, everyone was worried about the invisible threat, communism, foreign countries, the fear of someone under your bed listening for secrets. The way the monster looks and hides reflects this. In turn, The Thing was made during a time when people were worried about disease, the recent discovery of AIDS, the things that live under out skin. Now the monster is an infestation that's evil runs in the molecules.

Today, we've hit a weak spot in horror films, a time where remakes and rehashes run wild. Look at what's out this month. A remake of The Fog, an adaptation of Doom, a sequel to the luke warm Saw and two claymation family films. Not exactly a box office of horrors this Halloween. In fact, nowadays, the only way to make your horror film recognized is by turning it into a comedy, and the chances of a good honest horror film getting noticed nowadays is slim.

Which brings us to Blood Moon (or Wolf Girl as it's known in the USA). Made in 2001 for Canadian audiences, it was widely put aside as "just another scary movie." This is in part to blame with the horrible marketing they used which passed the film off as a generic werewolf movie. The poster art showed the main star looking down into a pond and seeing a wolf's reflection and the trailer showed clips of a wolf girl leaping out of a steel cage and attacking teenagers in the woods. While similar scenes do happen, that's not what this film is about.

Remember what I said earlier about horror films reflecting the
times? It's true here too. What are we scared off nowadays? The easy answer
would be "terrorism", but let's not be that specific. Look at the
matters we're dealing with today: gay marriage, teenage girls vomiting right
after a meal to look like a catalogue supermodel, school shooting, child molesters, etc. It all comes down to this: People hate differences. Deep inside, they want all people to be the same, even if they themselves are different. The sideshow freaks used in this film are perfect tools in showing this flaw the world has.

The film isn't a truly scary movie, but I am and will continue
to call it a horror film for what it is: a dark and disturbing tale that plays
on the things we worry about. Plus, a wolf girl ends up attacking teenagers
in the woods.

In the Canadian woods, a group of teenagers do what teenagers to best: be jerks. Beau (Shawn Ashmore, aka Iceman) and Krystal (Shelby Fenner, aka you don't know her in anything else) are in constant competition with each other, shooting things with sling shots and pistols to score points, while Cory and Whiffer (Tony Denman and Nate Dushku) just sort of hang out and try to insult each other. That is, when all four of them aren't insulting Ryan (Dov Tiefenbach, aka soap guy who gets his arm cut off in Jason X), an awkward loner who takes his mom's rabbits out for walks and who "cries on clockwork." And so it goes on in their blissful little Canadian town, with nothing ever changing. That is, till the Freak Show decided to show up.

Once the Freak Show comes, the world is split into two, and the art direction begins to show very early. The Freak Show is nestled deep in the woods and it feels that the only way to find it is when your not looking for it. In contrast, the city we see later lays in an open plain where you can see where everything is (but there isn't much to look at). The Freak Show has a yellow and gold tint, the kind of color you would get if you lit everything with torches (and most of it is). The outside world has a darker, more blue-ish tint. The Freak Show's separation from the world only drives the point in further.

The Beau/Krystal gang watch as the Freak Show sets up, and besides a general disgust with the site, they realize what good can come out of this: new targets for their little game.

Meet our two stars, the main attraction and the ring leader. Tara the Wolf Girl (Victoria Sanchez, aka 2001's top graduate for Satan's School of Girls) has suffered from hypertrichosis since birth, a genetic condition that makes her grow hair all over her body. While the character she plays for the Freak Show is a vicious beast, Tara in real life is soft spoken, kind and generous. In one scene, Tara has to haul the Fat Lady's piss bucket and dump it out in the woods. Any other person would complain about having such a job, but Tara does it happily as a sign of friendship to the Fat Lady (Darlene Cates, aka Gilbert Grapes' mom).

Then we got Harley Dune (Tim Curry, aka TIM FUCKING CURRY), ringleader and boss of the Freak Show, who treats every one on the team like his own family half the time. Tim Curry pulls off another great performance here, but that really should be no surprise, since Tim Curry is best part of anything he does. He most certainly was the only good thing in Congo. Tim's character here is something of an oddity. He's both loving and a dictator, smart but often self-centered, lying and only trying to do what's best. He's not a bad person, just overbearing. He's like if the principal from Lean On Me became a ringleader for the Freak Show. Yeah, that's it. Only more subtle. Oh, fuck it, I don't know. Curry=Curious.

BTW, Blood Moon is a musical. All the songs are sung on stage, but while the Freak Show sing and dance, we cut away to someplace else, here the lyrics actually mean something (with the exception of Right Height For Delight. I don't think midgets giving oral sex to women applies in many real world situations) . For example, when double-gendered Christoph/Christine (Grace Jones, aka every gay man's favorite female friend) sings a song about believing your eyes and ears, we cut to a scene where Ryan watches Tara through the window of her trailer as she gets grooms herself like any teenage girl. Nothing at all like when she puts on the fake claws and teeth and tries to scare little children. The scene also goes with a song in which Tim Curry sings about plucking the bearded lady while making jerking hip motions. Ryan is still looking at Tara get ready. Well, looks like we know who the romantic couple of the evening is.

You probably think that some loner teenager watching a girl dress is damn creepy, in which case you've already proven the point of the film. While I don't really promote that all loner teenagers sneak into a house and watch girls dress, what Ryan here is doing is showing admiration for Tara, and what you immediately did was call him a creep with a hair fetish. Compare to the other people who are visiting the Freak Show, who look at Tara with fear, or compare to the Beau/Krystal gang, who throw dog shit at her while she's on stage. In the matter of twenty minute, the film has manipulated you to shunning the good guy. How does that make you feel?

Alright, I kind of already presented the point of the film, so we're gonna rush through this a bit. After the show, Ryan contacts Tara and tells her to meet him at his house. It turns out that Ryan's mom (Lesley Ann Warren, aka the guilty party in the first of Clue's three endings) is a scientist for a cosmetic company who steals mice and rabbits from the lab and does her own experiments in her basement. One of these experiments is trying to find a way to get rid of unsightly body hair, and has been successful with mice, so Ryan thinks Tara should give it a shot.

And guess what. It's working.

Unfortunately, a few patches of hairless skin ain't gonna stop the Beau/Krystal gang. The next evening, while Tara is giving a repeat performance as the Wolf Girl, Beau and Krystal begin throwing darts into Tara's arm. Tara's response? By bursting out of her cage and trying to strangle Beau to death. See, the medication is not only making her hair fall off, it's giving her super headaches, super strength and super rage. Like any untested formula should.

DO THE LAMBS STILL SCREAM IN YOUR DREAMS?

It's also giving her weird visions and dreams of her hunting sheep, hunting people, suddenly having razor like claws and tearing at Beau's face but actually not, etc. It seems that the less wolf-like she is on the outside the more wolf-like she ends up in the inside. To the point where Tara drinks out of toilets, a scene that tips the movie too far on the silly scale and nearly broke the film. Luckily, it was the only scene like that, and the film continues it's dark tone till the end.

While visiting the town, Tara happens to find out where Beau lives, so she goes to investigate.

What she finds is Beau, dressed in nothing but a towel and singing like an idiot. We've all done that. Then he drops his towel, and to the horror of the audience members who didn't expect that kind of nudity, we find out that Beau has an incredibly small penis, and the horror element of this film is finally revealed. He's as much of a deformed freak as anyone in the Freak Show. Anyone of us is fit to be in the Freak Show for some reason or another. So many people are scared of this that they bundle themselves up and try to hide themselves. Where as the others take their deformities and use them for artistic and entertaining means, Beau uses his for justification to hurt other things.

This, by the way, is inter cut with a song from Christoph/Christine with two shemale backup dancers, singing about how there are two sides to everything, perfect for the situation, but it means you get three dicks in this film, so be wary if you're bothered by that kind of thing. Beau finally spots Tara in the window, and they both know that life is gonna be hell from now on.

That night, Beau shows up in Tara's trailer and pulls out a gun. Even though Tara promised not to tell anyone, Beau has to be sure his secret remains hidden. What Beau didn't count on was Tara's new wolf strength and rage, and she dodges the bullet and chases Beau out into the woods, where she rips his throat out without much afterthought. Meanwhile, the rest of the Freaks are noticing Tara's changes in her attitude, and begin to slowly but surely disown her, including Harley Dune, Tara's surrogate father. He realizes that something wrong with this town, and decides to pack up early.

Which doesn't sit well with Tara, who still needs more injections to complete the hair removal. So, she rushes over to Ryan's house, where Ryan has been experimenting with the formula dosage in one of the lab rabbits, who ended up going mad and eating itself. Tara doesn't care though, and she knocks Ryan down and steals the rest of the formula. Meanwhile, Krystal and her gang have discovered Beau's body in the woods, and all they can comment on is how small Beau's dick is. Never mind that their best friend was murdered.

They do finally smarten up, and when the Freak Show is giving their final performance, they come rushing in yelling about murder, and the crowd loses it and rushes out, destroying everything in their path. Tara escapes from the Freak Show and into the woods, where she gives herself the rest of the formula and lays there, whimpering like a hurt little dog. Meanwhile, Krystal is determined that it was Tara who killed Beau, so armed with Beau's gun, she rushes off into the woods.

Who she finds is Tara, her body hair completely gone. Krystal doesn't recognize her, and Tara refuses to speak. It's here we find out that Krystal has a secret of her own. She's a lesbian, and when she finds a mysterious and beautiful girl in the woods, she does what any guy would do in that situation: try to talk the girl into kissing her. Trust me, it's a lot better played than it sounds. It's not meant to be a lesbian scene for the sake of being a lesbian scene, it's supposed to restate the fact that everyone is different and that everyone belongs in the Freak Show for some reason. Besides, the scene is short lived because Tara ends up ripping out Krystal's tongue and eating it.

Tara's fully wolf on the inside now, vicious when people get too close, watching things from afar, separated and alone. Eventually, she runs off in the woods, sheds her clothes, and disappears.

Harley Dune packs up and leaves the next morning. He doesn't bother to look for Tara. Tara is nothing but a wild animal now, and Harley Dune only works with people. The final shot is of Tara, watching the Freak Show ride off to its new destination, and then walking away, removing herself from the world, becoming nothing.

For you people that hide your abnormalities by changing the person inside. That is happening to you. You're becoming invisible, you're mingling and disappearing behind the world. Is that something you want? Is being just like everyone else worth being dead and still breathing?

And that's why this is a horror film.