Directed By Olaf Ittenbach
1992/1997/1999 (I've seen all three. Seems like it was made in 1992)
Unrated
DVD: Intervision Picture Corp.
I'm sort of a twisted bastard. I always tell myself that splatter flicks are not for me. Minutes later, I'll catch myself reading online debates about what the most disturbing and goriest film of all time is. Splatter as a sub-genre is an interesting phenomenon. These movies truly have so little to offer but gore. It's like going to McDonald's and only ordering four Cheeseburgers. No fries, sodas, or apple pies in sight. Just pure, gluttonous, meat and bread.
The BURNING MOON is firmly in realm of sick, morbid, demonic, meaty, crazy splatter flicks. Director, Writer, Producer, Star, and Special Effects Director Olaf Ittenbach seems like he's a pretty messed up dude and here's why:
THE PLOT:
The movie opens with Peter (Played by Ittenbach himself) on his way to a job interview. Peter is cool. He has a killer earring, drinks beer, and loves heroin. He asks the man interviewing if he has any beer. He then tells the guy to kiss his ass when he is not offered the position.
Then there is a gang fight. Not sure why. It's probably supposed to make Peter like even more misguided. . . or it's probably supposed to be a random and awesome gangfight. Either way, I'm ok with it. Lot's of fantastic face punching and blood spitting.
Peter comes home and tells his Mom to kiss his ass because she asks why he looks beat up. His parents go away and he is left alone with his kid sister.
Peter does some bomb heroin and then he sees this:
 |
| Sort of makes me want to try heroin. |
 |
| No. I could hear your earring jingling all the way in the basement. |
OUR FIRST BEDTIME STORY
 |
| Killer Grafx |
JULIA'S LOVE is the story of. . . Julia and her trouble with dudes. She always seems to end up dating the strangest guys.
The story opens in a mental institution. Some stupid nurse takes Cliff Parker, a dude who killed almost 30 people, off his meds and places him in therapy. Cliff proceeds to cave in everyone's skulls and escapes. He's crazy because of this:
His Gramps chopped up his whole family.
The next scene we see Julia Parker come home. She proceeds to get ready for a big date with a cute boy. She seems like a happy girl. So happy that she must have missed the fact that her escort for the evening is maniac from the mental hospital.
The date is wonderful. They eat off of GIANT dinner plates and call Pepsi, Coke. What more could a girl possibly ask for? Just when Julia is thinking about fornicating with Cliff, she hears a report on the car radio about a psychopath who had stolen a red Volkswagen. Guess what? The plate number matches the car they're riding in. Julia skips out and hitches a ride with a passerby back to her house.
One thing though: she left her wallet in the Volkswagen. Whoops. She frigged up bigtime.
Cliff discovers Julia has left and sees her wallet on the passenger seat. Suddenly a hooker pounds on his window. He accepts her request for a "party." She get is in the car about is decapitated in about 15 seconds. Cliff sits at the traffic light while green for a bit, surveying his latest victim. A greasy dude with a mustache honks at him. So Cliff chucks the severed hooker head at the greasy man's fresh white whip.
We are then transported back to Julia's house. She says hello to her mother and father. She goes upstairs and meets her sister in the bathroom. They have a good laugh about how bonkers all the men she dates are. Meanwhile in the first floor Cliff arrives and severs their mother's fingers on the butter dish and her throat gets ripped open.
Julia's father meets a similar fate:
Julia leaves the bathroom and her sister proceeds to get ready to go out with Jake, a normal hunk. Cliff beats Julia's sister to death in a semi perverted/romantic sort of way. Then he does this:
Julia finally realizes she doesn't have her wallet and discovers the carnage. She battles with Cliff a bit and gets captured. Then cliff tells her this:
Julia stabs him with a scissors. She gets punched out of the window. Cliff is about knife her in the face. Then his head gets blown off by an off-screen gunman. Then we discover:
When the story ends, we are left with Julia in an ambulance. Her whole family is dead and she is scarred for life. She has now become a psycho. Is this supposed to make some sort of point about the transference of psychoses? Does that happen?
THE BACK HALF
There is a second story that Peter tells his sister. I am not going to cover it in depth here. I felt that spoiling the first story was less egregious than the second.
The second story is what the movie is truly famous for. It's quite mean, demonic, torture porny and makes even less sense than "Julia's Love." If you're curious about it, just pull a google search for BURNING MOON HELL SCENE. I'm sure you'll be able to see all the "best" parts.
After the second story, we go back to Peter and his Sister.
The movie's ending tries far too hard to be shocking. I won't spoil it, but if you think about a heroin addict that tells these types of stories to his seven year old sister, you could easily figure out what happens.
THE DEETZ
The movie is certainly not for me. It really goes to show that for a movie to be enjoyable, there needs to be some semblance of coherence in the plot. Things need to happen for a reason. I need to care about someone or something. In the first story, Cliff is crazy because his grandpa killed his family. This is really the only thing we know about any of the characters in the movie. I understand that this is a cheap, shot on video (SOV) splatterfest. But the serious and mean tone certain reduces any affection I may have for the films finer points.
With that being said, the technical details of this movie truly impress me. THE BURNING MOON is the most accomplished SOV horror movie I have ever seen. Ittenbach seemed to understand that just because video is cheap, didn't mean that he couldn't movie the camera or make a lot of cuts in a scene. Every kill in this movie is made up of several cuts. The camera twists, turns, and truthfully, makes some bold moves for a film of this ilk.
Watching this movie for a second time truly gave me an appreciation of the sort of effort that Ittenbach and his crew put into this. Very much a hallmark in the splatter genre, as well as the pantheon of SOV trash. Certainly a must see if you ever consider making a very low budget horror/gore movie.
Not to mention that the effects are top notch for a low budget flcik. Ittenbach does the effects himself, very impressive considering what he's working with. From gunshot wounds to decapitations to eviscerations it's all pretty great for the time period and for the budget.
I honestly couldn't recommend THE BURNING MOON to anyone. Unless I know you're a freak. You truly have to have a curiosity about movies like this (SOV, low budget horror, or Splatter Flicks/Torture Porn) in order to appreciate any of what happens in this movie. If you don't, I would steer far clear. It just doesn't offer enough of anything but gore.
I hope someone sends me an email saying, "YOU JUST DON'T GET THE POINT MAN. IT'S GORE MAN THAT'S WHY YOU WATCH IT BRA." I do get it, but I also get that I'm not really into the Ultra violent "Splatter" genre. On top of that, this isn't fun, funny, or even humorous in the slightest (aside from some minor bits such as the "Love Juice" part or the "I'm a cop" part). Aside from the technical attributes of the film, it's a mean movie with nothing in way of redeeming qualities.
I really didn't expect the technical details of a SOV feature to stand out as the best thing. But here it is. THE BURNING MOON.
THE GUUDZ:
The DVD is pretty wonderful. Intervision Picture Corp (A sub label of Severin Films) has released a few trashy discs (THINGS, SLEDGEHAMMER, Several Jess Franco pictures). Surprisingly, their discs are not bare bones releases.
THE BURNING MOON includes a "making of " featurette. This is the only feature on the disc. It's about 50 minutes in length and offers insights directly from Ittenbach during the production of the film. It's a pretty remarkable piece.
I would have liked an audio commentary (from who? I don't know) on the disc but the featurette is more than sufficient to make the DVD worth purchasing should the movie interest you.
SET YOURSELF UP
- German Bier
- Bananas Foster or Cherries Jubilee. . . or any other food or drink you can set on fire.
- Heroin
Slice your wrists and bleed all over the place. . . That, or you could order a pizza.
- M. McSlam
Cliff discovers Julia has left and sees her wallet on the passenger seat. Suddenly a hooker pounds on his window. He accepts her request for a "party." She get is in the car about is decapitated in about 15 seconds. Cliff sits at the traffic light while green for a bit, surveying his latest victim. A greasy dude with a mustache honks at him. So Cliff chucks the severed hooker head at the greasy man's fresh white whip.
 |
| Seems reasonable. |
 |
| Toast? Dry please. |
 |
| Are those "Transitions" lenses? |
 |
| Works everytime. |
 |
| Works everytime. |
When the story ends, we are left with Julia in an ambulance. Her whole family is dead and she is scarred for life. She has now become a psycho. Is this supposed to make some sort of point about the transference of psychoses? Does that happen?
THE BACK HALF
There is a second story that Peter tells his sister. I am not going to cover it in depth here. I felt that spoiling the first story was less egregious than the second.
The second story is what the movie is truly famous for. It's quite mean, demonic, torture porny and makes even less sense than "Julia's Love." If you're curious about it, just pull a google search for BURNING MOON HELL SCENE. I'm sure you'll be able to see all the "best" parts.
After the second story, we go back to Peter and his Sister.
The movie's ending tries far too hard to be shocking. I won't spoil it, but if you think about a heroin addict that tells these types of stories to his seven year old sister, you could easily figure out what happens.
THE DEETZ
The movie is certainly not for me. It really goes to show that for a movie to be enjoyable, there needs to be some semblance of coherence in the plot. Things need to happen for a reason. I need to care about someone or something. In the first story, Cliff is crazy because his grandpa killed his family. This is really the only thing we know about any of the characters in the movie. I understand that this is a cheap, shot on video (SOV) splatterfest. But the serious and mean tone certain reduces any affection I may have for the films finer points.
With that being said, the technical details of this movie truly impress me. THE BURNING MOON is the most accomplished SOV horror movie I have ever seen. Ittenbach seemed to understand that just because video is cheap, didn't mean that he couldn't movie the camera or make a lot of cuts in a scene. Every kill in this movie is made up of several cuts. The camera twists, turns, and truthfully, makes some bold moves for a film of this ilk.
Watching this movie for a second time truly gave me an appreciation of the sort of effort that Ittenbach and his crew put into this. Very much a hallmark in the splatter genre, as well as the pantheon of SOV trash. Certainly a must see if you ever consider making a very low budget horror/gore movie.
Not to mention that the effects are top notch for a low budget flcik. Ittenbach does the effects himself, very impressive considering what he's working with. From gunshot wounds to decapitations to eviscerations it's all pretty great for the time period and for the budget.
I honestly couldn't recommend THE BURNING MOON to anyone. Unless I know you're a freak. You truly have to have a curiosity about movies like this (SOV, low budget horror, or Splatter Flicks/Torture Porn) in order to appreciate any of what happens in this movie. If you don't, I would steer far clear. It just doesn't offer enough of anything but gore.
I hope someone sends me an email saying, "YOU JUST DON'T GET THE POINT MAN. IT'S GORE MAN THAT'S WHY YOU WATCH IT BRA." I do get it, but I also get that I'm not really into the Ultra violent "Splatter" genre. On top of that, this isn't fun, funny, or even humorous in the slightest (aside from some minor bits such as the "Love Juice" part or the "I'm a cop" part). Aside from the technical attributes of the film, it's a mean movie with nothing in way of redeeming qualities.
I really didn't expect the technical details of a SOV feature to stand out as the best thing. But here it is. THE BURNING MOON.
THE GUUDZ:
The DVD is pretty wonderful. Intervision Picture Corp (A sub label of Severin Films) has released a few trashy discs (THINGS, SLEDGEHAMMER, Several Jess Franco pictures). Surprisingly, their discs are not bare bones releases.
THE BURNING MOON includes a "making of " featurette. This is the only feature on the disc. It's about 50 minutes in length and offers insights directly from Ittenbach during the production of the film. It's a pretty remarkable piece.
I would have liked an audio commentary (from who? I don't know) on the disc but the featurette is more than sufficient to make the DVD worth purchasing should the movie interest you.
SET YOURSELF UP
- German Bier
- Bananas Foster or Cherries Jubilee. . . or any other food or drink you can set on fire.
- Heroin
Slice your wrists and bleed all over the place. . . That, or you could order a pizza.
- M. McSlam
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