DVD Review: The Amityville Moon (2021)

November 22, 2021

Written by Kelli Marchman McNeely

Kelli Marchman McNeely is the owner of HorrorFuel.com. She is an Executive Producer of "13 Slays Till Christmas" which is out on Digital and DVD and now streaming on Tubi. She has several other films in the works. Kelli is an animal lover and a true horror addict since the age of 9 when she saw Friday the 13th. Email: horrorfuelinfo@gmail.com

Down Amityville way, professional fuck-up Detective Kimball (Trey McCurley) takes the “Light Duty Highway” and is assigned to investigate missing woman at a church-run rehabilitation facility for wayward women.

While there he meets the rag-tag denizens of that haunted half-way house, including new girl Mandy (genre mainstay Augie Duke), who is having none of this dreaded domicile’s bullshit… bullshit that includes an escalating number of missing persons.

Now, just who is responsible for these vanishing acts? Could it be low-key beard-meister Father Peter (David B. Meadows)? How about hissing pop-eyed Sister Ruth (A nightmare on Elm Street 4’s Tuesday Knight)? Maybe professional papal weird-o Father Michael (Michael Cervantes)? Well whoever the fuck it is, it’s a hundo-P guarantee they are a mother fuckin’ werewolf!

Speaking of werewolves… you know what always gets me about these particular creature features, the big transformation scene. If the person changing is anywhere in the proximity of another, non-werewolf type of person, then said non-werewolf will stand and watch as the werewolf slowly, painfully transforms. My ass would be out the door lickety god-damned split on the first bubbly skin puff, you can bet your ass on that!

While we are on the subject, the werewolf and gore effects are where The Amityville Moon truly shines. We get a full-on creature suit for the main mangy menace, and it’s a nicely realized wolfie at that (and whoever was in that suit, Brav-fuckin’-o for pulling off a brutal performance that actually made me flinch a time or two), a solid transformation sequence, buckets of blood, ripped flesh, and even a face peel! Absolutely top-shelf work by the make-up and effects departments!

Also, we get fantastic performances from most of the cast, with Duke exhibiting the perfect blend of spunk and vulnerability, Tuesday chewing the scenery with villainous aplomb, and Cervantes just going in any direction he chooses.

The overall story here (written by director Thomas J. Churchill) is solid too, with the half-way house being a solid, neo-Gothic setting, and the mystery of just who is the werewolf is entertaining as well, plus there’s a few twists and turns that keep the viewer on their toes.

The main stumbling block here is the film’s pacing. The beginning is incredibly slow-burn, and often lethargic… but when we get to the gory-goods then it’s smooth sailing through Act 3 boils n’ ghouls! Also, I get tacking “Amityville” on there puts asses in seats, but this film has jack-fuck-all to do with Amityville, but such is the horror biz cats n’ creeps…

While it isn’t “Amityville” fuckin’ anything, The Amityville Moon is an effective slow-burn creature feature with some great practical effects work… and that tops another trip to that hoary ol’ haunted house any day in my beastly book!

 

 

 

 

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