Killer's Moon Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.5

Killer's Moon Blu-ray Movie Review

A Clockwork Bore-ange

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater March 19, 2012

In the early 1980s, the British Board of Film Classification--at the urging of religious and civic groups--began cracking down hard on so-called “video nasties,” explicitly violent films that were being released on the new VHS and Betamax formats for home consumption. A list of 72 offending films was compiled, and some 39 were actually brought to court and deemed obscene. Somehow, 1978’s Killer’s Moon escaped the notice of the Director of Public Prosecutions and was never added to the list, but content-wise it’s very much in keeping with its video nasty brethren, featuring a quartet of drug-addled pyschopaths roaming the countryside, raping and killing school girls. Charming, no? In his book Shepperton Babylon, a history of the dark underbelly of the English film industry, Matthew Sweet calls Killer’s Moon “the most tasteless movie in the history of British cinema.”

Perhaps that’s true if, by “tasteless,” Sweet means “bland.” Killer’s Moon is actually quite tame by today’s standards--this is no Hostel II--and more than anything, the film is incredibly goofy, a low-budget shocker that’s poorly acted and clumsily assembled from bits and pieces of better movies. Most notably, A Clockwork Orange. Director Alan Birkinshaw claims that any similarities to Stanley Kubrick’s ultra-violent masterpiece were unintentional, but it’s hard not to see the four white-wearing mental patients in the movie as trashier, less stylish descendants of Malcolm McDowell’s Alex DeLarge and his cane-swinging crew of droogs.

The film takes its blessed time getting to these loonies. First, we’re introduced to a bus full of schoolgirls singing “Greensleeves” en route to the next stop on their choir tour. Spoiler alert: They ain’t gonna make it there. Belching smoke, the bus breaks down in the middle of nowheresville, and chirpy teacher Mrs. Hargreaves (Jean Reeve) leads her pretty young charges to an old manor house hotel that hasn’t yet opened for the season, finally convincing the proprietress (Hilda Braid) to let them bed down there for the night. Speaking of bedding, in a nearby clearing, the randy Pete (Anthony Forrest) is getting it on with a busty local when--holy three-legged dog, Batman!--a bleeding Doberman with a newly severed paw bursts into his tent. Later, Pete’s American mountaineering pal, Mike (Tom Marshall), notices with concern that their hand-ax has gone suspiciously missing...

Meanwhile, in London, a trio of stiff-lipped bureaucrats discusses the recent escape of four psychopathic criminals from a “cottage asylum” in the Lake District. To make matters worse, the lunatics are fried out of their brains on LSD and have been undergoing “dream therapy” to help them confront and overcome their darkest desires. This sounds conspicuously like the “Ludovico Technique” from A Clockwork Orange--in which Alex was forced to confront his violent tendencies until he experienced physical revulsion--but I’ll tentatively give writer/director Alan Birkinshaw the benefit of the doubt. Regardless of whether or not he ripped off Kubrick and novelist Anthony Burgess, Birkinshaw’s attempt at social satire is nowhere near as trenchant.

That’s still overselling it. Killer’s Moon is barely competent. Birkinshaw’s first draft of the script was worked over by his sister, feminist writer Fay Weldon, who was responsible for retooling the schoolgirls’ dialogue. This results in a film that’s sometimes pointed about women’s issues and elsewhere just completely exploitive and oblivious. In one of most memorably baffling scenes, one of the girls consoles another, a recent rape victim, with this: “Look, you were only raped. As long as you don’t tell anyone about it you’ll be alright. You pretend it never happened, I’ll pretend I never saw it, and if we get out of this alive...well, maybe we’ll both live to be wives and mothers.” That’s either hilariously clever or incredibly stupid. Or, maybe, both. It’s hard to tell.

But I can tell you this. No one’s going to retroactively rediscover Killer’s Moon as some sort of feminist parable. This film’s goal is clearly to shock and thrill its largely male audience with violence--mostly sexual violence--and in this it’s something of a proto-slasher, a kind of pre- cursor to Sleepaway Camp. (Killer’s Moon was released the same year as John Carpenter’s incomparably more polished and entertaining Halloween.) The gimmick here is that the four killers each believe they’re inside a collective dream, and that their actions--rape, murder, animal torture--have no bearing on the “real” world. Hence, any semblance of morality or normal human behavior go out the window.

That’s not a bad premise, but the film just doesn’t do anything with it beyond that. The personalities of the four cuckoos--played by Nigel Gregory, David Jackson, Paul Rattee, and Peter Spraggon--are severely underwritten, and their dialogue runs in repetitive circles. We never get to really know any of the young female victims either; they only exist to be terrorized, and they’re pretty much interchangeable. I suppose Killer’s Moon has some value for its camp, low-budget charm--and there are a few unintentional laughs to be had along the way--but this is a minor cult classic at best. And at worst, it can be outright boring.

Killer's Moon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Killer's Moon looks exactly like what it is--an extremely low-budget horror film from the 1970s--and there's not much that can be done about that. Kino and Redemption Films do what they can by giving the movie a faithful-to-source 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer--and yes, it makes for a decent upgrade from standard definition--but don't set your expectations too high for razor-edged clarity or breathtaking color. The 35mm print itself is in rather rough condition, and you'll notice frequent white and black specks, small scratches and bits of debris, general jitteriness, and sometimes almost strobe- like brightness flickering, which is especially visible in shots that show the daytime sky. The image is never ever sharp--it never was and never will be--but the increase in resolution inherently nets the picture a more refined sense of detail. Color holds up well during the brighter scenes, but the last half of the film is a long slog through dim murkiness, especially when the characters venture out into the woods. Like most Kino releases, there's no sign of excess noise reduction or edge enhancement here, and film grain is plenty visible. There may be some compression noise in the picture, but it's honestly hard to tell given the film's already chunky grain structure. Overall, I think it's safe to say this is as good as the film could and will look in 1080p.

Killer's Moon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The same could be said for the Blu-ray's uncompressed LPCM 2.0 track, which does what it can with the film's fairly lo-fi original audio. There are some noticeable crackles, some splice pops, and a low-level tape hiss that runs pretty much persistently, but this is a listenable-enough mix, all things considered. There's no real bass response, of course, and highs are a bit brittle--listen to the girls singing, for instance, or the frequently peaking flute in the score--but no overbearing audio-related distractions. Dialogue ain't always crystal clear, but it is easily understandable throughout the film. Do note, however, that if you need or want subtitles, none are included here.

Killer's Moon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: James Blackford, from Redemption, hosts a discussion with director Alan Birkinshaw and actress Joanna Good, who reminisce about the making of the film.
• Interview with Alan Birkinshaw (SD, 14:37): Birkinshaw talks about his first film, Confessions of a Sex Maniac, which was--no kidding-- originally called The Tit, and gives us the lowdown on how Killer's Moon came about.
• Interview with Joanna Good (SD, 12:15): A bit of overlap with the commentary here, but Good recollects the few weeks she spent shooting the film, spending a lot of time on the camaraderie between the girls on set and the nervousness about doing nudity.
• Trailer A (1080p, 2:32)
• Trailer B (1080p, 1:43)
• Gallery (1080p): A user-directed gallery with 16 stills.
• Redemption Trailers (1080p): Trailers for the five recently released Jean Rollin films.

Killer's Moon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A minor cult slasher from a few years before the heyday of "video nasties," Killer's Moon has its share of sexualized violence and off-kilter humor, but it'll really only appeal to those horror hounds who are naturally drawn to camp, low-budget 1970s fare. Personally, I tend to like these kinds of films--admittedly, that "like" straddles a fine line between ironic and authentic enjoyment--but this one just didn't do it for me. Your milage may vary. For those who already own a DVD copy, Kino's Blu-ray presentation makes for a noticeable--but not drastic--upgrade.