Must See Movie...

As Good As It Gets

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Blistering performances.

"The Burning Moon" is a German film from 1992 and first of all it needs to be said that the runtime here on IMDb is not correct at 86 minutes because this one goes on for another roughly 10 minutes, so makes it past the 90 minute mark. The writer and director is Olaf Ittenbach (his second film and he was still in his 20s when he made it), one of the most known German horror filmmakers, especially when it comes to gore. The reason for this may not be his talent with horror, but probably his talent with comedy. His works usually put a smile on your lips occasionally because of how absurd and very much over the top they are and this one here is no exception. And lets be honest, it is a bit of an achievement if somebody makes a film like this and I as an audience member do not feel for the characters brutally slaughtered in here, but instead hope there will be as much blood as possible.So from that perspective, this film was a success I guess. But then there is also the component of the plot and story-telling and this is where this movie here disappoints about as much as most other of these very graphic horror films from the likes of Ittenbach. In the first half, there is still a bit of a story and that's also why I easily preferred the first 45 minutes. A woman has a blind date, but runs into a lunatic mass murderer afterward who keeps killing everybody that crosses his path. Can she make it out alive? Watch for yourself. And maybe switch off afterward as the second 45 minutes after a clean break is about a completely different story, so you can maybe say it is two films in one. All in all, I cannot say this was good enough to let me recommend it, maybe if it had stayed as good as the first half. Watch something else instead.

This was my first Olaf Ittenbach movie and I loved it! OK, so it's budget gore, and if you cried to "Shakespeare In Love" or need to impress your girlfriend with your sensitivity, then this probably isn't your cauldron of festering sewage. But if you're hankering for a bit of bare-knuckles film-making and a few ladles of ultraviolence, then this vid's for you. It's gory throughout, and for the hell scene near the end of the movie the film crew really pulls out all stops of depravity.This is the movie that all teenage boys dream about making. I am all the more impressed as I know how complicated and cumbersome video editing was in the early Nineties -- a lot more difficult than editing ordinary silver-halide film (keeping image and sound in synch was an absolute bitch of a task), and no comparison to today where you can just do it on your PC.Actually, for those of you unfamiliar with the trials and tribulations of linear video editing, let me provide you with a little 101 on the subject matter: while video made shooting a lot easier and cheaper, editing became hugely more complicated as on video the sound is about two seconds out of synch with the image, so after each cut the new scene would be silent for the first two seconds. Also, precise cutting is tricky, editing scenes in or out is nearly impossible, and the image quality degenerates quickly -- it's an absolute nightmare. This explains some of the strange technical features of this movie, they were necessary compromises which Ittenbach was forced to make, rather than cute idiosyncratic ideas of his: namely dubbed soundtrack, dictatorial scripting, and single-take scenes. The love and dedication that went into making this movie seems strangely at odds with the destructiveness and hate it narrates. I look forward to seeing more of Ittenbach's stuff.

"The Burning Moon" is a shot on video type home movie,but a bit more professional than other similar stuff.It has some really good special effects and is gorier than Andreas Schnaas' stuff,if a little less sadistic.The film is about a druged up teen(Olaf Ittenbach)who gets involved with gang fights and has problems at home.He reads his little sister two stories-which form a basis of the movie.First story "Julia's Love" is about a serial killer,who escapes from asylum and terrorises a girl.Second story "The Purity" is about a priest who likes sacrificing and raping women.He kills himself,but a local who think another bloke is the killer kills him,and he returns as a zombie and it climaxes in Hell.Ittenbach's vision of Hell is almost too horrible to watch-the gore is truly extreme!A really good film,my favourite gore scene:a man strapped to a table is operated on by two demons,who pluck out his eye,crave open his body,rip out his insides and then tear him in half with chains from crotch to throat.

If you are looking for gore, guts, murder, rape, brutality, satanism and lots of blood, this is the movie for you. It makes me wonder if Evil Dead is really the best of them all...(but I know it is). Don't miss it, if you want spend a nice bloody weekend this is the one.