FULL MOON HIGH (director/writer: Larry Cohen; cinematographer: Daniel Pearl; editor: Armond Lebowitz; music: Gary William Friedman; cast: Adam Arkin( Tony Walker), Roz Kelly (Jane), Ed McMahon (Dad – Col. William P. Walker), Joanne Nail (Ricky), Bill Kirchenbauer (Jack Flynn), Alan Arkin (Dr Jacob Brand), Elizabeth Hartman (Miss Montgomery), Louis Nye (Reverend), Kenneth Mars (The Coach – Principal Cleveland); Runtime: 93; MPAA Rating: PG; producer: Larry Cohen; Filmways Pictures; 1981)
“Cohen’s first comedy.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Larry Cohen(“As Good As Dead”/”Masters of Horror”/”The Ambulance”) directs this low-budget oddball werewolf horror spoof. It does a number on I Was Teenage Werewolf (1957). This is Cohen’s first comedy, which I found pleasingly funny and engaging.
In 1958, the football star at Full Moon High, Tony Walker (Adam Arkin, son of Alan), goes with his CIA agent dad (Alan Arkin) to Romania. Tony is bitten by a werewolf and changes into one himself. In 1980, Tony returns to the States as a sympathetic but inept werewolf.
Its serious side of the film reflects on how greatly life has changed socially, politically and sexually from the ’60s to the ’80s. You might say the only character unchanged is the same aged Tony, but for transforming into a werewolf. When he meets his now middle-aged former friends, he poses as his son. He thereby observes how they changed as much mentally as he did physically.
REVIEWED ON 9/15/2015 GRADE: B
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
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