In this ongoing SHOCK column, editor Chris Alexander muses on classic and contemporary films and music worthy of a deeper discussion.
Jess Franco’s BLOODY MOON (1981)
Beloved, hotly debated and now, sadly, deceased iconoclast Jess Franco first made his major movie mark in France with a series of crisp, sleazy and stylish black and white arthouse horror pictures like 1962s landmark THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF (a quote on Georges Franjus groundbreaking sex and surgery epic EYES WITHOUT A FACE), movies that valued high contrast photography, graphic violence and then mild, soon to be abundant female nudity. Over the span of the ensuing decades the tirelessly prolific Franco would make scores of personal, jazz influenced (Franco was also an accomplished composer and musician) sonnets to sex, violence and voyeurism, playing with color and working with budgets both high and low in any country that would fund his filmmaking fetish.
Which brings me to BLOODY MOON, a latter period early 80s German financed (the original title was DIE SAGE DES TODES or THE SAW OF DEATH) bloodbath made in the wake of the slasher craze sparked by John Carpenters HALLOWEEN and juiced up by the considerably later, much more explicit FRIDAY THE 13th. But the seriously bent BLOODY MOON (whose ample but klutzy murders landed it onto the Video Nasties list in the UK) is so much more than simply a stalk and stab shocker. Why? Because it was made by Franco, of course and, as any serious scholar of Jesss work knows, no matter how dodgy and cheap a more downmarket Franco film could be theres always something there that was uniquely his. A lazy lidded energy, a leering point of view something.
This typically greasy looking film opens on a spectacularly sickening murder at a Spanish girls school by a completely un-spectacularly made-up lunatic (Alexander Waechter). Five years later, pretty young student Angela (sex film starlet Olivia Pascal) has taken up residence in the same room where the said slaughter went down and to make matters eerier, the Velveeta-faced killer has been released from the looney bin, apparently none-to-reformed.
Sooner than later, a spate of increasingly sadistic killings kick into high gear with all manner of lovely lass getting revoltingly ripped to ribbons. Is it old cheese-puss wearing the dollar store black gloves that pop into frame before each offing? Is it his comely sister with whom he shares a rather, um, close relationship? Before Francos 90 minute mess winds down, all questions will be answered and many tummies will be well-turned
Now, as I mentioned, Franco made a staggering amount of films, including such acknowledged classics like VENUS IN FURS, SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY, FACELESS and VAMPYROS LESBOS, so you might be wondering why Ive chosen to muse on BLOODY MOON. The answer is simple. Plenty of people dislike the work of Jess Franco, laughingly labeling him a hack. And while Ill never argue that the man has made more than his share of duds, when someone gives him a bit of time, money and space, Franco had no peer, making stylish, eccentric and very personal films. BLOODY MOON has moments of free-form Franconian vision and, despite its budgetary and narrative failing, is a blood-bucket full of fun.
By his own admission (revealed in an often hilarious interview that accompanies Severins Blu-rayrelease), Franco signed on to the project under the promise that his craven producers had art-rock super group Pink Floyd attached to compose the score. As this was the early 80s and the already legendary band was achieving their commercial apex with the double disc, chart topping album The Wall (as well as dissolving internally), it would be obvious to anyone with any shade of cynicism, insight or common sense that they would never, ever have their name glued to a grubby European slasher movie directed by the guy who made THE BARE BREASTED COUNTESS. But again, Franco just wanted to work and so he proceeded in hopes that such boasts might be the icing on the gig.
Instead of a Floyd score, BLOODY MOON features music by someone named Gerhard Heinz, a German born tunesmith who tries his best to mimic a David Gilmour-esque guitar-jacked, psych-rock sound and for the most part, succeeds. Many fans and critics have cited this score as the pictures most offensive element, but I rather like it its bizarre, bombastic and dirty and it works. When an unlucky lady gets her head sawed off in the films most notorious (and delightfully fake) gore sequence, those wailing guitars and skunky basslines sound perfectly awesome.
Francos masterpiece? Far from it. But BLOODY MOON is pure, sleazy, upbeat Jess gore gold. A document of a creative innocence, of a guy who worked to live and lived to work, who just loved making movies and managed to weave his way into pop culture legend by never giving up, never stepping off that ladder. Good on him and God rest him
Note: portions of this essay originally appeared in “Chris Alexander’s Blood Spattered Book” from Midnight Marquee Press.
