If you see a trend forming here, I like (or will at least watch) everything Full Moon or it?s past incarnations (Wizard Entertainment, Shadow Entertainment, etc) puts out. I?ve always had a special place in my heart for horror films ever since I was a young?in getting the pants scared off me watching pay per view movie trailers in the 80?s and sneaking a peek in the horror section at the video store when my parents weren?t looking. Full Moon is really what launched me into becoming a huge fan of B-Horror here a few years back with movies like Jigsaw, Bleed and the Subspecies series.
With that said, I?ll reiterate that I?ll watch most anything they have put out that falls into the horror genre. I read reviews on the ?net and whatever seems least bad is what I?ll watch next.
That brings us to Dr. Moreau?s House Of Pain. I remember seeing this in the video store and upon looking at the case said to myself ?hm. this looks like it is pretty damn freaky.? That was before I became keen to Full Moon?s bait-and-switch video cover tactics. Ie – In some cases, it appears as though they spent half the budget for the film on the DVD cover art as a means to lure folks at the video stores into renting their movies. Shady, but slick.
?Moreau?s..? opens up with a two-bit boxer fresh of defeating an aging ex-champ chillin in the back of a car with two ladies, looking for information on the disappearance of his brother. This is supposed to take place in the 40?s, I guess and while it looks neat, the visual aspect of this is over done. The colors are way, way way washed out. It looks neat initially, but as the budget of this film becomes more evident as it rolls on, it kind of gets annoying. At least the characters and their costumes are fitting for the time, which is more than I can say for a lot of other B-Horror stuff.
After a failed attempt at shaking down a know-it-all bartender for information on his brother, our hero follows the bar?s stripper (who?s kinna attractive except that you can literally count each individual rib) into the back alley where she literally punches through some dude?s head and drags him off in her car.
Our protagonist and his female companions follow her car and they eventually wind up at ?the house of pain?. They?re gaffled and taken inside where they are locked up and scared and harassed half to death by some half-man, half-animal lookin things (the pig is especially silly). We meet Dr Moreau, who?s being held hostage by his own creations and ?forced? to perform experiements with the ultimate goal of creating the perfect man/animal hybrid.
Things kind of get dull for awhile..a long while.. like most Full Moon flicks and this winds up in a desperate dash for freedom by Moreau, our lead guy and the remaining gal (the other one got waxed.. rather anticlimactically). That?s my main gripe with this, there is very, very little action in the middle.. just mulling about. It?s like they suck you in with a teaser in the beginning.. put you to sleep in the middle, then try to jolt you awake with the last 10 minutes of the movie.
Again, that?s really my main gripe with newer Full Moon efforts.. they are formulaic and the formula pretty much sucks.
?Moreau?s..? is decent by Full Moon standards, but still took a few (3, I believe) sittings to make it through the ?entire? 75 minute running time.
** out of *****
