The Burning Moon Review

Movie: The Burning Moon
By: Maniac E
Date: December 10, 2012

The Burning Love For Gore

The Burning Moon is Olaf Ittenbach’s second feature film and his take on anthology based compilation horror, such as Creepshow (Georg A. Romero, 1982) and Twilight Zone: The Movie (John Landis, Joe Dante, Steven Spielberg, George Miller, 1983). Anthology horror movies were especially popular in the 80s but the tradition slowly died out during the 90s, and I guess Olaf Ittenbach found himself being a fan and wanting to test his skills with an anthology based horror flick, only adding much more over-the-top elements and blood ‘n guts to the stories. Let’s see what he cooks up for us.

"The Burning Moon" is in many ways a typical product of Ittenbach, a very grim diptych that connects two stories with a prologue, intermezzo and epilogue in which a rather weird junky reads some bedtime stories for his sister. The first story is about a crazy serial killer. Once escaped from the mental hospital he leaves a trail of death and destruction behind and goes on a blind date with an unsuspecting young woman. In the second part, we follow an apparently good village priest in the nocturnal hours he emerges as a murderous Satanist.

Most actors do such a clumsy and bumbling impression that it is difficult for you to escape the impression that they are just randomly picked from the street after responded to a poster that hang on the outer walls of the local supermarket as decoration. But as brutal and violent splatter movie, blood flows freely and it gives the viewer a series of brutal murders presented substantial. Don’t forget Ittenbach is a major makeup artist and it shows as he really dashes out the best makeup I’ve seen in a while. For the rest of the movie there isn’t much to tell, Ittenbach is on a roll here and that shouldn’t be backed up by a good surrounding story.

It is a pity that Ittenbach rarely does anything original here, in the end he extracts and particularly reverts to tried and tested recipes. An exception are extremely morbid, but unique and creative depiction of hell in the second story. In one sequence of the movie one of the villains gets racked up and tortured and almost gets literally torn apart. Anyhow, the second story, both thematically and visually, and confronting a lot better than the first. Also, because much more is played with an atmospheric elements like fog, light and darkness.

The Burning Moon is best seen as a display for just how vulgar and disturbing Ittenbach’s gore work can get, and the film definitely does feature some very disgusting and memorable gore effects, including several decapitations, full bodily dismemberments, eyeball gore, a blowjob from a severed head, a machete through the face, a woman is attacked with a hammer and her dead body is raped. Yes, Olaf Ittenbach doesn’t hold back on the violence and the blood spatter, and his inventiveness and creativity in this field is without a doubt the sole reason for watching his movies.

Yet "The Burning Moon" is a work that becomes ultimately mediocrity rarely able to transcend from other better movies and only can be suggested for the ones that are interested in extreme horror pictures. I’m positive this movie will constitute some enjoyment with the hardcore splatter fanatics, but for those who weren’t into the German underground scene in the late 80s and early 90s and who crave a solid storyline and a more professional approach to filmmaking,

DVD REVIEW

Image quality

Very poor quality to be found here, maybe done on purpose but in the end falls short in everyway.

Sound

mono quality audio track and bad syncing all over. It ruins some moments of the film even.

Extras

Interview stuff, some behind the scenes of Ittenbach maybe the best thing of the dvd.

Overall

Nothing special here the extras are a good thing on the dvd. This is pure for fans of Ittenbach the movie isn't terrible but looking at everything as a package it isn't great at all.

Filmfreak