Review #412: 'Full Moon High' (1981)

In the 1950's, high school jock Tony (Adam Arkin) travels to Transylvania with his father, and gets bitten by a werewolf. After attacking some high-jackers on the plane ride back, Tony starts to terrorise his home town by attacking the locals, choosing to nip girls on their arses rather than actually eating them. Fearing he will be discovered, he leaves town and starts a trip across America for the next few decades (he's immortal too, see) only to return to his home town, pretending to be Tony's son. Caught between his old flame Jane (Roz Kelly), now married to his old friend, and lusty, mousy teacher Miss Montgomery (Elizabeth Hartman), he struggles to hide his affliction as the attacks re-surface.

'Written, produced and directed by Larry Cohen' is something that would normally delight me whilst watching the opening credits of a film, but although Cohen's trademark wit is their occasionally in the script, Full Moon High ultimately fails on all levels, never reaching anywhere near the level of quirk, or containing the endearing oddball characters, as the likes of It's Alive (1974), Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) or The Stuff (1985). Although he is annoyingly whiny at times, Arkin does give a game performance, and has the chance to spout lines such as "I don't believe in vampires or werewolves or virgins," (it made me laugh anyway). And the film did make me laugh a number of times throughout, with spinning newspapers giving headlines such as 'Werewolf Annoys Community', and a pretty talented comedy support cast (Ed McMahon, Kenneth Mars, Pat Morita and Alan Arkin) - Mars is a particular stand-out, playing the once-sexually repressed gay gym teacher who, decades on, is a full-blown queen.

But the mix of spoof, childish visual gags, Benny Hill-esque sped-up smutty humour, and outright farce doesn't quite blend, and ultimately, the film is an absolute mess. One scene near the end sees a cop shooting a bullet at the POV werewolf, only to hit the cameraman. The screen goes black as Alan Arkin and the crew rush the get the film going again. It could have been a moment of offbeat self-reflexive surreality, but its poorly-handled, and the film's budget constraints seem to get the better of it. It tries to homage the comedy of the Zucker brothers and Mel Brooks, but you'd be better off watching them instead of his lame effort, because although the film did amuse me at rare occasions, when I wasn't laughing I was generally cringing. Full Moon High is not something that will exactly tarnish Larry Cohen's CV, but it is certainly a massive disappointment from the man behind some of my favourite B-movie guilty pleasures.


Directed by: Larry Cohen
Starring: Adam Arkin, Roz Kelly, Ed McMahon, Elizabeth Hartman, Kenneth Mars, Alan Arkin
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #366: 'Black Caesar' (1973)

Not one to miss on an opportunity, Larry Cohen's second feature film utilised the explosion of blaxploitation cinema after the successes of Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971) and Shaft (1971), and crafted his own "black" action film, modelled on the 1931 film Little Caesar. Fred Williamson plays the titular role, a boy from the streets, witnessing and being victim of brutality from the white community, and particularly a local police officer, McKinney (Art Lund). As an adult, Caesar's goal is to become kingpin of Harlem, and he won't let anything stand in his way.

The narrative is a story told over, which focuses on a person who looses everything in the pursuit of power, including childhood friends, wives, and particularly looses sight of the person that they are. It's always great to watch a Cohen movie from this period. When filming in the streets (in this case New York - of which is his usual setting), his guerilla-style is self evident: clearly in the making of these films, Cohen does not get any kind of permission to film, he simply turns up and does it. In one scene, Williamson has been shot, the camera follows him down the busy street from a roof top, and passers by seem to want to help him. It's these elements of exploitation cinema that I embrace.

Whilst this is certainly not one of Cohen's greatest (check out his horror output for some terrifically socio-political subtexts), the film oozes charm. Not only do we have the easy-cool of Fred Williamson, the film also has the ubiquitous Gloria Hendry , although not in her usual kung-fu-influenced fighting mode. Even though this film is less well known than Shaft or Superfly (1972), who's soundtracks were composed by soul giants Isaac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield respectively, Black Caesar's soundtrack is provided by the godfather of soul himself, James Brown: Break it down! Heeyyyyaa!!


Directed by: Larry Cohen
Starring: Fred Williamson, Gloria Hendry, Art Lund, D'Urville Martin
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Marc Ivamy

Review #106: 'God Told Me To' (1976)

If you're a fan of B-movie quirkiness, then you should be more than familiar with the great Larry Cohen. His films really should be bad, even awful, but Cohen's genuine talent for screenwriting and his ability to stamp his famous sense of humour onto his films makes them better than they should be. God Told Me To is his fifth film, after a few blaxploitation films (including the very entertaining Black Caesar (1973)) and the killer-mutant-baby film It's Alive (1974). Marketed as a Grindhouse picture under the title of God Told Me To Kill, Cohen's film contains little violence and after a seemingly methodical first half an hour, the film takes a sudden change of direction that, of all things, certainly keeps the film interesting.

Opening with a sniper picking off random people, he is approached by Detective Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco), a New York cop. When asked why he is doing this, the killer replies 'God told me to' and flings himself off his perch. He is told the same thing by another murderer, and when a cop (played by Andy Kaufman!) goes nuts at the St. Patrick's Parade, Nicholas realises that more powerful forces could be responsible. He begins a search for a man with long, blonde hair that was seen with the murderers at various points before the began killing, and Nicholas must battle with his own faith and the possibility that he may not be quite who he seems.

Yes, this is a mad film. By the end, after a man shows our Detective a large vagina in the side of his torso and asks him to mate, you'll wonder what the hell you've just watched. But that's the great thing about Larry Cohen, he takes something strange and mundane and turns it into something entertaining. This isn't his greatest film by all accounts - it doesn't make a lot of sense, it's overlong, the love interest has the worst glasses in film history - but I certainly quite enjoyed it. The shaky camerawork, fast-paced dialogue and simply bonkers plot devices just takes it a notch above the usual pap. But maybe it was missing Michael Moriarty.


Directed by: Larry Cohen
Starring: Tony Lo Bianco, Deborah Raffin, Sandy Dennis, Sylvia Sidney
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie