Bloodmoon - Bloodmoon(Blu Ray) [Severin - 2024]Bloodmoon is an early 1990’s Australian slasher set around a catholic girl’s boarding school. It features decent who-done-it plotting, gory often barbwire-related murders, creepy nighttime stalking, and a fair bit of female flesh. Here from Severin is a Blu-Ray release of this lesser-seen slasher- with a new scan, and a few extras. Bloodmoon is from the year 1990. It was filmed in a few locations across Queensland- taking in both eerier woodland, boarding school buildings, and the coastline of the Gold Coast. It was directed by London-born Alec Mills- he had just two directing credits- this and thriller/ mystery set in a psych ward with Linda Blair in Dead Sleep(1990). Though he had seventy-three camera & electrical dept credits like Moby Dick (1956), Shout At The Devil(1976), The Awakening(1980), and Return Of The Jedi (1983).
The film is set between and features characters from a catholic girl's board school, a private boy's school, and teens from the local beach set town. Someone is killing off couples in the nighttime woods near the girl's school- with the initial murders occurring via the use of a barbwire nose- with throats ripped & eyes gorged. We get presented with a few possible suspects, and to be honest I wasn't totally sure who was doing the killings…though it starts to be fairly clear by mid-way in the one-hour & forty-minute film. There is a fair of shameless/ leering female nudity. And we get some neat uneasy stalking in the nighttime forest footage- with the killer whispering at its victims. And when our killer is fully revealed we get some entertaining hamming it up from our killer- who keeps a jar full of pulled-out eyeballs & severed fingers. And with this, we get a gory head bashing, a few stabbings, and even an acid face melt Adding into the teen cheesy factor we get a dance with towny teens standing off against preppy boys- which is soundtracked by two tracks from an on-stage glam metal band. Sure, we do get moving towards soapy banter here & there- but we have a good enough selection of characters/ victims. The film also features a ‘Flight break’ which occurs at around the hour mark- when our killer is finally revealed. This is rather fun/ neat- though you get the option to watch the film either with or/ without. All in all, I was more than pleasantly surprised by Bloodmoon- as it certainly stands as both one of the better oz slasher and an all-round decent 1990’s mix of slasher & mystery tropes.
This new Blu-Ray is a region A locked disc. It features a well-defined & balanced scan, which is good in both the daytime & nighttime shots. On the extras side, we just get two things- both of these are from the archive. First is an audio-only interview with actor Leon Lissek- who plays the role of the science teacher in the girl's school. The interviews with Paul Harris And Mark Hartley of Film Buffs Forecast – it runs at the one hour and thirty-minute mark, and is largely a more general career interview. Next, we have an on-screen interview with Actress Christine Amor( 4.44)- who plays the girl's school headmistress in the film. She talks about having to take her top off for the film audition, and gives her assessment of the film – appalling- this clip is from the Oz exploitation doc Not Quite Hollywood (2008). It’s a real pity we didn’t get a new commentary track for the film- from maybe the excellent slashing-loving podcast/ commentators The Hysteria Continues- but I understand it’s always viable to get one for every film. Lastly, we get two trailers for the film
Bloodmoon is most certainly one of the better slashers of the 1990s- with some rewarding gory kills, moments of creepy unease, and a fair bit of female flesh on display. This recent disc from Severin takes in a nice new and well-defined scan of this lesser-known slice of Ozploitation horror. Roger Batty
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