With Frenzy Moon, writer/director Gregory Lamberson created an indie werewolf movie that’s a love letter to practical effects, rubber suits, and films like Evil Dead, An American Werewolf in London, and The Howling. Though this is a B movie through and through, with characters that are mere cannon fodder, horror fans should at least appreciate the movie’s loyalty to practical effects and its countless nods to classic horror films.
The movie has a cold open in which a werewolf mauls two hikers in the woods. They have little relevance to the rest of the plot, but it shows that this is going to be a creature feature, no more, no less. The cold open signals that there’s a lot of carnage to come. After that bloody opening, the movie shifts to the main narrative. A group of graduate students rent a cabin in the woods, and there, they find a stranger, Gavyn (Aaron Krygier), passed out on the couch. To Krygier’s credit, Gavyn’s role lends a little heft and weight to the movie. He ultimately joins the annoying grad students to fend off the werewolves.
Besides the werewolves, there’s a heck of a lot of tension among the six grad students. They bicker over nearly everything. One of them, for instance, packs a gun in the car, which leads to a warranted heated argument. However, their moods among each other shift suddenly that you start to wonder why any of them are friends in the first place. For instance, after one of the students, Jen (Alyssa Grace Adams), is nearly murdered by a werewolf, she lashes out at her friends. Then, a minute later, she suddenly apologizes to them.
As for the werewolves, they feel tactile, which again, harkens back to Lamberson’s commitment to do things old school in this feature, shifting from puppetry to rubber suits. Some of the practical effects look good and quite bloody. These werewolves certainly feast, and the monsters look best when they’re shown dashing through the woods. Some of the close-ups really underscore the film’s small budget. All of that said, horror fans should enjoy the fact this film has a heck of a lot of carnage. Werewolves slash throats. They chew on limbs. They howl and growl under the full moon.
There’s also a lot of cool nods in here to classic horror movies, including the blood test scene in The Thing. Meanwhile, a cabin besieged by monsters always calls to mind Evil Dead. Lamberson certainly flaunts his influences proudly here.
For what it is, Frenzy Moon is fun. It never veers away from B movie territory, and this certainly isn’t a movie interested in fleshing out its characters. Despite the campy moments galore and forgettable characters, Lamberson deserves credit for his commitment to doing things the old school way, with lots of blood, puppetry, and rubber suits.
