Full Moon High - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Full Moon High

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
The genre has mostly died out (after Underworld and Twilight tried to bring it back partially), but werewolves USED to be a big thing in horror. The 1980s and 1990s were awash with titles like Silver Bullet, An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, and even comedic films like Teen Wolf and Teen Wolf II. Most of these being fairly successful films that were rather creepy and disturbing in nature. Well, except for comedic films like the Teen Wolf series. Michael J. Fox made the original film, as it was pretty much a schlock film with a rising star as the main pull, but it was still a decently successful movie. But, a full 4 years before Teen Wolf, the king of schlock himself, Larry Cohen, decided to make his OWN werewolf comedy film named Full Moon High. Full of big name actors (or soon to be big time actors), it winked and nodded to the camera with devilish glee, while infusing the slapstick elements of It’s a mad, mad, mad, world with some traditional werewolf ghoulishness to create a schlock y film that has a lot of charm, but is sadly a bit forgettable at the end of the day.

Tony Walker (Adam Arkin, yes, the son of Alan Arkin) is a regular high school kid. He’s getting ready for the big football game when his CIA agent dad (played by Ed McMahon) uses him as a cover for going to Romania to get some microfilm from a spy. Well, the trip doesn’t exactly go as planned, as Tony ends up getting bit by a mysterious wolf. Coming back to the United States and Full Moon High (heh heh, a little foreshadowing), he starts to undergo some changes. One night he morphs fully into a werewolf and starts terrorizing the citizens (usually hot young girls, and he usually only ends up nibbling on them and not killing them). Realizing that he’s cursed to be immortal, Tony leaves his home after a horrible incident with his father, and moves to New York City for 20 years.

However, the boy really DOESN’T age, and Tony is cursed to live in New York for 20 years in the body of a high schooler (well, more like a mid 20s person, but then again, Hollywood is famous for casting 20-30 year old adults as High School students). But he has yearning to end his curse and go back to being human. So, the werewolf decides to come back to Full Moon High and re-enroll, posing as his own “son” to throw people off the trace of his terrible secret. Yup, you guessed it. Hilarity ensues as Tony tries to get back to being a normal kid, and uses his werewolf power in secret.

The film is decidedly schlocky (which isn’t shocking coming from the same man who wrote Maniac Cop), and has less to do with the more family friendly Teen Wolf, and more to do with the old slapstick comedies of the 1960s. I catch a distinct It’s a mad, mad, mad, World tone to the insanity, as every line in the whole film is pretty much tongue and cheek. The all star cast (or soon to be all star cast depending on the actor) makes the film hilariously funny at times, including the late Kenneth Mars (who will forever be the German boss of Francis on Malcolm in the Middle and King Triton of The Little Mermaid to me), Bob Saget, Adam Arkin as a kid, his father Alan Arkin as the therapist, Mr. Miyagi himself (Pat Morta), Ed McMahon and several others along the way.

The habit of breaking the 4th wall and winking SQUARELY at the camera has its perks, but the schlocky nature of the film starts to wear on the viewer as well. The movie plays better as a short film than a feature length movie, but Adam Arkin really gives it his best as Tony. The humor is fast and quick, with some incredibly non PC material that just would NOT make it into movies today (the scene with the gay son had me dying on the floor, but also fully recognizing that it would not have made the cut in today’s society), but not every one of those jokes lands and the film starts to drag in the second half. Tony doesn’t really leave town and decide to come back till halfway through the movie, so it feels like a film that’s kind of at odds with itself, switching narratives a bit too late, thus giving us a fractured feeling that doesn’t work as well as it should.




Rating:

Rated PG by the MPAA




Video:

I haven’t seen any announcements of a “new print” or anything, but Full Moon High seems to have come from a very serviceable master. Colors are decently saturated, and clarity is good for the most part. When Tony and his father go over to Romania things get a bit grainy and not as sharp, but once they return to the states the film has a tendency of looking much better than it should for an old 80s movies with very little “done“ to it. Blacks are also very pleasant, with good shadow detail and not that much washing out of the blacks (I noticed that sometimes the scenes look a bit brightness boosted in the dark). Artifacting is fairly minimal, with small bits of crush and some blocking, but other than that, it’s a very nice looking transfer that does the film justice.





Audio:

Scream Factory maintains the Monorail soundtrack of the original sound design (just in a DTS-HD MA wrapper), and the overall experience is more than pleasing. It’s a simple track, and one that really doesn’t have a whole lot of ambiance or explosiveness, but Scream Factory has replicated the simple precision quite well. Vocals are clean and clear, with only mild sharpness in the upper range, and the front two channels have a decent sense of depth to them. I was actually surprised how LOUD the track was recorded, and turned it down a couple of notches on the dial as a result. There’s nothing wrong with the mix, but a monorail track from the 80s isn’t a wild Atmos mix, and as such, it has a hard time of playing with the “big dogs” of the home theater world.







Extras:

• Audio commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen, Moderated by KING COHEN filmmaker Steve Mitchell
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

Full Moon High has a fantastic premise, and you’d honestly be shocked that it beat Teen Wolf by a full 2 years, but NO ONE seems to have heard of it! Well, the reason is pretty simple. The premise is great, the cast is great, but the film is a largely forgettable movie that has a hard time standing out from the success of the Michael J. Fox film that arrived shortly thereafter. Larry Cohen is famous for being the king of schlock, and while this and its more famous cousin are roughly on the same plane of entertainment, Full Moon High shifts to niche status, while the Michael J. Fox films is lauded as a semi-cheesy classic. Scream Factory has done a good job bringing the film to Blu-ray, with solid video and audio, but not as many extras as I really would have liked considering the kitchy nature of the film’s past. Worth a watch if you enjoy 80s cheese.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Adam Arkin, Alan Arkin, Roz Nelly, Ed McMahon
Directed by: Larry Cohen
Written by: Larry Cohen
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA Mono
Subtitles: English
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: PG
Runtime: 94 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: April 10th, 2018

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Nostalgic Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I have seen all the movies you listed above except for this one for some unknown reason.. I will have to keep an eye out for it.

 

[Asere]

I might have to catch this one. I can't believe I've never seen it.

 

[Michael Scott]

yeah, it's an obscure Werewolf film. I had forgotten about it for YEARS until I saw the Scream Factory promotional video a few months back. Definitely brought back childhood memories