BLOOD MOON (2014)

Studio:       Uncork’d Entertainment
Director:    Jeremy Wooding
Writer:       Alan Wightman
Producer:  Michael Vine, Jeremy Wooding
Stars:     George Blagden, Raffaello Degruttola, Shaun Dooley, Jack Fox, Corey Johnson, Eleanor Matsuura, Amber Jean Rowan, Anna Skellern, Ian Whyte

Review Score:

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Summary:

Stagecoach passengers waylaid by outlaws are stalked by a legendary creature in a frontier ghost town.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Pine Flats, Colorado – 1887 – A werewolf kills saloon manager and cook Charlie Packham outside of the Silver Palace Hotel.

Lassiter, Colorado – Wearing bandit masks, outlaw brothers Hank and Jeb Norton shoot and rob banker Lloyd Walker before killing Lloyd’s associate Ben Corbett and escaping on horseback. Town marshal Wade Norman reckons that the Nortons will make their way to Pine Flats. Doc Taylor tends to Lloyd’s gunshot wound.

On his honeymoon, Lassiter’s deputy marshal and Wade’s cousin Jake Norman travels by stagecoach to Denver with his newlywed wife Sarah. In the carriage with the couple are preacher Father Dominic, widow Marie Cooper, and Henry Lester, a young reporter from The London Times. Stagecoach drivers Yancy and Glen are stopped by a gunslinger named Calhoun, who insists on joining the coach after having to shoot his injured horse Pete.

A fellow Indian breaks up a fight between Ahiga and Black Deer as they play poker in Joanie Loumis’ store. Wade recruits Black Deer to help him track the Norton brothers. Black Deer warns Wade of a dream vision she had involving a skinwalker, an evil creature that kills in the light of the blood moon. Skinwalkers are said to be Navajo warriors banished for learning the secret of shapeshifting. Wade dismisses the story as legend and refuses to delay his search until after the moon passes.

The stagecoach stops in Pine Flats and finds the town deserted. Behind the hotel, Calhoun finds Charlie’s body along with a tuft of fur. The Norton brothers attack while the stagecoach group buries Charlie. Father Dominic, Yancy, and Glen are killed. Calhoun, Jake, Sarah, Marie, and Henry are captured.

Black Deer arms herself with white ash, said to have the power to send skinwalkers to the land of the dead. She and Wade begin searching for Hank and Jeb Norton.

Sarah hides a knife up her sleeve while preparing food for Hank, Jeb, and her fellow captives. When a wolf brays outside, Calhoun claims they are being hunted by a skinwalker. The group argues over the legend. Hank goes outside to investigate and discovers that the corpses are missing. Sarah passes the knife to her husband so that Jake can cut his and Calhoun’s rope ties.

Marie shoots Jeb in his head as the others break free and subdue Hank. Henry is mauled and torn in half while retrieving guns outside. As the group searches for the beast, the skinwalker grabs Sarah through a window before being chased off by Hank.

Around their campfire, Black Deer reveals to Wade that she is part skinwalker. Black Deer attacks, but Wade is unable to bring himself to shoot her with his silver bullets.

A skinwalker attacks Jake and Calhoun. Marie and Sarah fire at it and it flees. Calhoun puts Marie’s silver rings into his shotgun shells. Hank is pushed outside the hotel to bait the creature. The skinwalker mauls Hank, but Calhoun’s gun fails to fire. Marie shoots herself to avoid being strangled by the beast. As the skinwalker confronts Sarah, Wade arrives in town and tramples the monster with his horses.

Calhoun recovers and shoots the wounded skinwalker. Wade gives Calhoun white ash to pour on the corpse. The skinwalker reverts to its human body. Wade agrees to take Jake and Sarah to Lassiter. Calhoun parts their company to go his own way. Black Deer is left alone in the forest.

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Review:

Ever since the nearby silver mine dried into dust, the population of frontier ghost town Pine Flats has dwindled to one: a lonely hotel caretaker anxious to entertain weary travelers with a shot of whisky or a plate of beans.  That population is about to decrease by the same number when the fearsomely furry claws of a Navajo legend come to life rip right into the grizzled coot’s neck.

Forty miles away in Lassiter, a pair of brotherly bandits sling bullets into a banker and cash bags over their saddles, putting a lawman and his Native American tracker hot on their trail.  All paths soon collide back in Pine Flats, where a ragtag band of stagecoach passengers is also waylaid, and the beast from before now has a whole host of humans with which to feed its insatiably savage appetite.

Purportedly only the second ever western filmed in the United Kingdom, “Blood Moon” is assuredly the only one of those two featuring werewolves among its sheriffs and saloon girls.  Perhaps more unique than filming Kent, England for wild west Colorado, and doing a convincing job of it, is the sleek tweak Alan Wightman’s script gives to the usual lycanthrope lore.

The creatures of “Blood Moon” follow expected rules of full moons and silver bullets, but these beasts are called “skinwalkers,” said by superstition to be fierce warriors banished from their tribe for daring to delve into the darks arts of shapeshifting.  It’s a slick little spin on routine wolfman mythology, and one lending a distinctly Native American flavor befitting the film’s western theme.

No one is likely to mistake the movie’s depiction of outlaws on horseback for a slice of lost time pulled directly from history.  Nor should anyone anticipate the production value of “Deadwood” mixed with an episode of “Tales from the Crypt.”  Although for an indie project counting nickels and dimes, “Blood Moon” makes the most of its throwback tone and puts as authentic of an atmosphere onscreen as anyone could under the circumstances.

Pine Flats and Lassiter are clearly standing sets on a rented lot somewhere.  We’re talking those familiar L-shaped rows where pre-existing buildings are generically labeled “Livery,” “Blacksmith,” “Undertaker,” and “Bank.”  But corners aren’t cut on other details.  Some are predictable props of player pianos, gas lamps, dirty prospecting hats, and kerchief-wearing bandits in bowler hats, while others include more meticulously-made set décor such as multi-layered costumes, ornate wallpaper, and full four-horse teams pulling wooden-wheeled wagons through sloppy mud ruts.  “Blood Moon” may not be transporting viewers through time, but production design puts in an earnest effort and then some to deliver a laudable look.

There’s even an easily overlooked, yet period accurate wanted poster featuring The Apache Kid on one wall.  I checked.  The movie is set in 1887 and sure enough, The Apache Kid was indeed on the run during the first half of that year.  Now whether or not a portrait of Abraham Lincoln would still be displayed 22 years after his assassination is a different debate.  Then again, the movie doesn’t specify exactly when that saloon went belly up, so who knows how long Honest Abe has adorned its wall.

A roster including standard staples such as a nebbish reporter, a bible-clutching preacher, a widowed tough girl, and a mysterious gunman cannot help but come off clichéd.  Though once again, “Blood Moon” makes it easier to grant a pass to passé when likable actors keep characterizations mostly on mark with the right amount of charisma.  Nothing in the movie is played with an outright knowing wink, though there is subtle good humor lying underneath, suggesting castmembers are enjoying their job without turning that job into a joke.

Cut from the same cloth as the Man with No Name, calmly cool cowboy Calhoun brings to mind David Morse and a rounder Russell Crowe, with actor Shaun Dooley’s screen presence channeling something akin to what a merger of those two men might be like.  Familiar face Corey Johnson is uncharacteristically out of tune with the 80% serious/20% sly vibe everyone else goes with, however.  Johnson opts for a 50/50 ratio by choosing to impersonate Billy Bob Thornton from “Sling Blade” with an overboard drawl of cowboy gruffness.  It’s a distraction.

For all the high noon showdowns “Blood Moon” wins against minor drawbacks, it is outdrawn by a major one: rhythm, and an inability to maintain it.  The screenplay primarily puts off character development until act three, when the pace is upended by pauses like a belated revelation about the deputy’s wife not being the person she claims.  Bits of backstory like these come too late to change any relationships or impact the outcome.  It’s as if “Blood Moon” builds backwards, frontloading itself with action and ending in unnecessary exposition.

More disappointing for horror fans is that the film is frustratingly frugal with its werewolf reveal.  A first glimpse of the creature’s face doesn’t come until under a half-hour remains in the runtime, and the Jell-O jiggle to the beast’s prosthetic snout hardly makes the wait worth it.

It’s a pity that “Blood Moon” stops shoveling coal into its engine and runs out of steam before reaching full stride, though a bulk of components still work in the film’s favor.  While the huffing and puffing ends without a house blowing down, the ambition motivating the enthusiastic existence of a slim-budget cowboys and monsters mashup is nonetheless admirable.  “Blood Moon” earns some attention as a worthwhile effort, just be sure to brace expectations for a werewolf western that has more of the latter than it does of the former.  Then make sure to be mindful that it is still a mildly quiet western at that.

Review Score:  65

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