Teringer
An Exercise In Nonsense
Gutsycurene
Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
Fleur
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
Woodyanders
A strung-out heroin addict delinquent jerk (played to the obnoxious hilt by writer/director Olaf Ittenbach) tells his little sister two twisted tales of terror: The first concerns on an escaped serial killer (handsome Bernd Muggenthaler) who embarks on a murderous spree while the second and stronger yarn centers on the vile atrocities committed by a depraved and deranged priest (a creepy portrayal by Rudolf Hob).Ittenbach treats the bleak stories with admirable seriousness and maintains a suitably grim tone throughout. Moreover, Ittenbach delivers the gloriously excessive in-your-face over-the-top gore by the gleefully appalling bucketful which runs the gruesome gamut from decapitations to disembowelment to a guy tied down on a table who gets cut and torn up into itty bitty messy pieces. Alas, said splatter in the first story proves to be so cheap, cheesy, and unconvincing that it comes across as silly and laughable instead of gross and disturbing, but fortunately the grisly make-up f/x are done with more skill and polish in the second segment. Moreover, the first anecdote sizes up as a strictly passable slasher outing. However, the second vignette rates as an altogether darker, nastier, and overall blasphemous affair complete with rape, blood drinking, savage beatings, and an incredibly intense and nightmarish climatic descent into hell that goes right for the jugular. Recommended viewing for fans of savage and unapologetic take-no-prisoners fright fare.
t_atzmueller
Right, if you're not a complete gore-hound, you might well stop reading now and click that little "x" on the top-right-side of your screen.If you compare Horror-flicks like "The Exorcist" or "Halloween" to fine French cuisine, you might liken the gore- and splatter-fests of Lucio Fulci and Umberto Lenzi to plain working-class food. In that case you'll view the works of Olaf Ittenbach to the cheapest, greasiest burger you've ever put into your mouth. Or, in the case of you being German, "Curry-Wurst". Not the fresh variation, mind you, but rather yesterday's leftover sausage, re-heated."The Burning Moon" can be considered the grandfather of the bottom-of-the-barrel, Z-grade horror-flicks from Germany (in other words: trash that is produced by people like Andreas Bethmann, Oliver Krekel or Marc Vorlander). In other words: expect nothing. Acting that resemble anything in the classical sense? Forget it. A story with a twist, or more depth than a 3rd graders high school-play? Not even close. Any technical talent or finesse? Zilch. But all those lacks are compensated for with gore, gore and more gore. It seems that the few measly bucks that went into the production went solely into the special effects, which consist of a few lackluster murder and torture scenes and the film's highlight, a torture scene in hell which lasts an estimate 20 minutes.If you're familiar with the genre, you know what to expect: red food-colour mixed with hot-chocolate powder and egg-yolk (for consistencies sake), buckets full of them and generously dumped over the "actors".The reason for giving this piece any points at all is the fact that back in 1997 "The Burning Moon" was more or less a "first"; a curiosity rather than a real film. Nowadays these kinds of products have become rampant, especially in Germany. That is no longer the case and Orson Wells prophecy that "everybody wants to make movies and my stupid brother too" has fulfilled itself; an army of "stupid brothers", incompetent and unable to the last one (see above mentioned names). Makes you long for the days when producing films meant that you needed a budget, sponsors, producers and an able team technicians and artists.So, if you want to make a movie, hey, why waste your time with film-school or talent? Assemble a crew of friends and neighbours, invest 100 bucks in a digital camera, find yourself a back-lot or piece of forest where filming is free, and raid the kitchen for special-effects items. Then write yourself a couple of glowing reviews on IMDb and applaud yourself for being "a real film-maker". Again, for above mentioned "film-makers", including director Olaf Ittenbach, this hasn't only become employment but a sport and a virtual way of life.4/10 points – one for being a first, one for the ambition, one for the "hell"-scene and one for the general nihilistic, morbid and misanthropic aura that surrounds the stories.
trashgang
Germany, it still will be a weird country. Most of the movies coming from there are the real gory splatter ones. Weird, because the German authorities doesn't allow those kind of movies. Bethmann and Ittenbach are the best know directors of the genre with Bethmann having his own label, X Rated Kult. Do I need to say more. This movie belongs to Ittenbach's first attempts in the genre. Still unavailable on DVD it conquered the earth on VHS, but still some versions were only 88 minutes long. My copy was uncut, so 99 minutes long. The flick is about a guy who has to babysit his little sister. Fed up with his parents and the situation, he's in his puberty, he tells his sister some horror stories. The stories itself those are the one we see in the movie. Two stories it is, the first one not that original, and not that gory too, some stupid effects, watch out for the collision with a car and a person! But the second story is the best, and there you will find the gore. like Premutos it's full of entrails and torture. This is for the geeks out there, one of Ittenbach better ones.
EVOL666
As I've stated in other reviews - I'm not a huge fan of the Euro-gore scene, most films of the genre being silly and pointless. But I have seen a few exceptions, and THE BURNING MOON is one of them. Not a "great" film by any means, but compared to other similar films, it holds up rather well. Unfortunately my copy is in German language only, so I may have missed a few points, but here's the basic story: The film centers around a drug-addict guy who tells his little sister two "fairy tales" before she goes to bed. The first entitled "Julia's Love" is about an escaped mental patient who stalks a woman and her family and dispatches most of them in gory fashion. The second, entitled "The Purity" is about a priest who moonlights as a satanist/rapist/murderer who does his deeds amongst the local villagers. If I understood the story right, an innocent is wrongfully suspected of the murders and is killed, and this segment ends with a suitably gory finale set in hell...I've had THE BURNING MOON laying around for quite a while and just now got to checking it out due to the fact that I've been so disappointed with many of the German/Euro-gore films I've seen - but this one was decent. The blood flows pretty hot-'n'-heavy pretty much right from the start, and let's face it - that's really all we're interested in a film such as this. I liked the "serious" tone of the film, and even though it's obviously a very low-budget affair, there is some decent FX work in the film, and both stories are suitably "rough" and mean-spirited. Definitely worth a look for the splatter-heads out there - one of the better films that this often weak genre has to offer...7/10
