A LOVE TRIANGLE BETWEEN A WOMAN, AN OUTLAW, AND A BEAST
★★★☆☆ (Good for One Viewing)
Director: Martin Donovan
1992
In the days of the old west, a beautiful, virginal woman named Jenny (Mary Stuart Masterson) is about to enter the stage of “spinster” if she doesn’t find a husband and move out of her mother’s home. A sweet simpleton named Miller Brown has offered his hand in marriage, but she wants to refuse because she’s pining for the bad boy of the town—a card-playing, prostitute-loving outlaw named James. Why Jenny holds James above all others can be summed up in his sexuality and nothing else. James isn’t overtly kind or helps anyone out. When our damsel in distress asks him to give her a hint of his feelings for her before she’s forced to marry Miller, he grunts while she begs him with her eyes. Then they part.
The grunting and silent emoting are par for the course (swaths of dialogue have been replaced with actors awkwardly staring at one another), and like James, everyone else in Mad at the Moon is half-sketched. Miller is slow-witted, the local prostitute is sassy, and Jenny’s mother (played by the wonderful Fionnula Flanagan) is a caricature of an overbearing woman who puts her daughter’s happiness behind her duties as a future wife and mother. Jenny is slightly more developed, but she’s stubborn and unlikable, especially when she treats her poor new husband with nothing but contempt. Who cares if he’s a werewolf? This is a man who built her a welcome home sign for their wedding; who patiently puts up with her hissy fits as she mourns the sex she will never have with James. I was sure Miller would attack her or do something to make us turn our loyalties to her, but nothing like that happened. We sympathize with Miller from start to finish, and this was very confusing for me. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to get out of each scene because I was led to believe Jenny was our heroine.
Beyond that, there are historical inaccuracies, plot holes, a strange girl that follows Miller around for no reason, and the ultimate lesson: A man’s strength lies in his facial hair.
Mad at the Moon is a lover’s tale told too many times before, with a werewolf whose werewolfness is inconsequential. Even worse, the storytelling falls apart throughout the film, leaving us with more questions than answers when the final credits roll. The sparks of brilliance are in a few phantom visuals that delight, in particular the title credits, where a circus tent burns in the vacuum of space, and when a seated man confesses his sins as the walls close around him. Again, the movie falls apart on account of budget and script, not technical skill. Mad at the Moon is a pleasant little film that will appeal to those who don’t like horror but enjoy western romance, so if you have a friend who won’t watch your scary movies, this is an okay compromise. Anyone hoping for gore or the requisite wolf transformation will feel gypped. I went into this thinking I was going to watch a sexy, western version of The Howling and all I got was Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
GENRES: Atmospheric, Monster/Creature
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