Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Beautiful, moving film.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A vicious crazed psycho brutally butchers assorted luscious young female students at a boarding school in Spain. Director Jess Franco, working from a suitably sick script by Erich Tomek, keeps the enjoyably twisted story moving along at a steady pace, delivers a handy helping of tacky gore (an uproariously ridiculous decapitation by a giant circular saw and the infamous knife through the breast moment rate as the definite unintentionally sidesplitting splatter highlights), gives the whole thing a snazzy giallo-ish bent (a couple of obvious red herrings, plenty of depraved sexuality, and so on), tosses in a sordid incest subplot for scuzzy good measure, and offers a satisfying smattering of yummy bare distaff skin. The lovely Olivia Pascal makes for an appealing damsel in distress, Alexander Waechter cuts an appropriately creepy figure as a grotesquely disfigured probable suspect, and Jasmin Losensky, Corinna Drews, and Ann-Beate Engelke all supply some mighty delicious eye candy. Juan Soler's competent cinematography boasts a few nifty stylistic flourishes as well as the expected prowling POV camera shots. Gerhard Heinz's wonky thudding'n'throbbing score and the hilariously dated groovy disco soundtrack hit the right-on funky spot. Franco has a small role as a psychiatrist. Granted, Franco fails to generate much in the way of either tension or spooky atmosphere, but fans of undemanding lowbrow slice'n'dice fare should still get a kick out of this seamy little number just the same.

I have a pretty good feeling that BLOODY MOON will appeal to Jesús Franco's non-fans rather than his most appreciative cult audience. I mean compare this relatively straight-forward slasher flick to something like MACUMBA sexual, for instance. Two very different kinds of films. Franco has admitted in a very engrossing interview(..his often always are)that BLOODY MOON was a not a particularly fond experience because he had to direct the script he was given(..which may be cause for celebration for those who hate his challenging style of film-making which doesn't operate within a certain linear way)..due to the fact that is was written by the executive producer who wanted no changes if Franco desired to try something different. It's mostly a gore-effects film anyway modeled after the violent films popular of that time. I prefer to call BLOODY MOON a Spanish version of the Italian giallo because of the European setting, the sinister truth behind the killings(..very identifiable to the conclusions of many Italian giallo thrillers with it's being ties to murders based on greed and desire for wealth), and the lasciviousness of the characters populating the locale.And, I often felt I was indeed watching an Italian giallo, much in the same way as BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL. Lovely young girls attending a language school are being attacked by a killer in a ski mask, wearing black gloves. The "final girl", a student named Angela(..played by the gorgeous Olivia Pascal)attempts to warn others about a friend murdered in her bungalow(..the place where a scar-faced Miguel, played by Alexander Waechter, viciously stabbed a girl to death with a pair of scissors). Everyone considers her mad, but soon those she warns fall prey themselves to a psycho using an assortment of weapons to slaughter them such as a bandsaw(..that slices off the head of a girl who thinks she was being tied up, by rope no less, for sex games), tongs(..which grips around the neck of a girl, strangling her), and a knife(..which goes through one poor girl, out her breast nipple). You also see an act of retaliation result in one victim's chest cut into with a chainsaw and Angela uses a screwdriver to puncture the throat of her attacker. I think when one watches this, comparing it to Franco films of the past, they'll realize this isn't typical of his output..is that a bad thing?Miguel is released from an asylum and rejoins his sister Manuela(Nadja Gerganoff). Currently the language school is operating within the estate of a wealthy aunt who has already said quite bluntly that Manuela will be disinherited. Manuela has Alvaro(Christoph Moosbrugger)teaching the school's classes. The main portion of the story is devoted to Angela, though, and her fear for her life as Miguel is often peeping on her from the woods outside the bungalow and elsewhere. Obviously those who are familiar with slashers/gialli know that he's a red herring..it really shouldn't be too difficult to guess who actually is committing the heinous crimes. The dubbed dialogue for the characters are very reminiscent to gialli of the 70's..shockingly frank in regards to sex, and, at times quite vulgar. One trait of Franco's that remain's intact, nudity, just not as much as you'd expect. Pascal doesn't get nude, quite unusual as most female leads in Franco's work often remain barely clothed for the duration of the film's screen time.

Bloody Moon (1981) ** (out of 4) Original title: Die Sage des TodesSpanish director Jess Franco wasn't shy from jumping into a genre, which was proving popular at the time he did his jumping. This time out the director jumps into the slasher genre after films like Halloween and Friday the 13th had proved to be money-making gold. As the film starts a deformed man kills a woman after she turns down his sexual advances. He's sent to a mental hospital but five years later he is released and soon afterwards more bodies begin to pile up. This film doesn't really work and it's certainly not on the level of the best slashers out there. While it would fall somewhere down by the middle-ground American movies, I'd rank this a little higher since it doesn't limit itself to the certain rules that were in American slashers. As with a lot of Franco's work from this period, it's budget allowed for some nice stuff including the cinematography, which manages to be pretty good here. Another bonus are the special effects, which while some are obviously fake, they still come off looking good. We have a wide range of murders here ranging from simple stabbings to the most famous one where a woman has her head chopped off by a industrial saw. The saw effect is somewhat hit and miss but the gore that pumps out makes for an interesting moment to say the least. It's also interesting at how Franco plays with not only the victim but even the viewer during the scene. The performances are about average for what you'd see in a movie like this but the main reason to view this is simply for Franco's eyes on the genre. The director also doesn't shy away from lifting stuff from other films and that includes the opening sequence of Halloween and Mario Bava's structure to Twitch of the Death Nerve also seems to have been an influence here. Those expecting an American slasher are going to be disappointed but if you're a fan of Spanish cinema or Franco then you'll certainly want to check this out just to see how Uncle Jess handled it differently than what we'd normally see.

"Bloody Moon" aka. "Die Säge Des Todes" (literal translation: "The Saw Of Death") of 1981 is a gory slasher from exploitation's most prolific filmmaker - Jess Franco. I personally am a big Jess Franco fan, and it must be said that his repertoire of 180+ films ranges from brilliant ("Venus In Furs", "Count Dracula",...) to poor ("Sadomania"). "Bloody Moon" is not one of his truly great movies, but it is definitely a highly entertaining and gruesome flick that should not be missed by fans of gory European Horror exploitation. For Franco standards, this film does not feature a lot of sleaze, but even more gruesome brutality and graphic gore in exchange.The movie takes place in a language school in Spain, where a bunch of hot German girls are enjoy the sun, alcohol and sex more than practicing the Spanish language. A maniac is loose in the little Iberian paradise, however. A maniac who enjoys murdering pretty young girls in most atrocious ways...The movie begins a bit slow, but it gets really nasty and brutal later, and actually becomes quite suspenseful. The performances are, of course, not top-notch, but they're not terrible either, and actually quite good regarding what can be expected from young actresses most of whom never appeared in another movie. Furthermore, I found some of the performances amazingly convincing. Sexy Olivia Pascal fits very well in the leading role, for example. Director Franco also once again has a cameo appearance in the beginning of the movie. The eerie score composed by Gerhard Heinz, who has also composed the scores for a bunch of mainstream productions, is probably the greatest aspect of the film, and makes the whole thing a lot more atmospheric.All said, "Bloody Moon" is a brutal little slasher that I recommend to my fellow Eurohorror buffs, especially Jess Franco fans should not miss it!