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Children of the Full Moon
(Werewolf/Child) 4****skulls
* No Blood * Not Violent * No Strong Language * No Nudity *
* No Sexual Situations *
1982/Color/60 Min./Thriller Video & IVE Entertainment
& Chips Productions, Ltd. & Cinema Arts International & Hammer Films
& ITC Entertainment, Inc./Not Rated
Director..............Tom Clegg
Screenplay.......Murray Smith
Music.................Paul Patterson
Producer...........Roy Skeggs
Executive Producers.....Brian Lawrence & David Reid
Special Effects and Make-up by Ian Scoones & Eddie Knight
Dramatis Personae
Tom.........Christopher Cazenove
Sarah.......Celia Gregory
Mrs. Ardoy..Diana Dors
Harry.......Robert Urquhart
Woodcutter..Jacob Witkin
Tibor.......Adrian Mann
Sophy.......Victoria Wood
Eloise......Sophie Kind
Young Boy...Matthew Dorman
Young Girl..Wilhelmina Green
Small Girl..Corinna Reardon
Small Boy...Daniel Payne
Irenya......Natalie Payne
Andreas.....Daniel Kipling
Critique: Hosted by "Mistress of the Dark" Elvira. Not a lot happens, there is no suspense, the characters are neither convincing nor of any interest. Don't be afraid to show this one to your children who would probably enjoy it more than adults would. Despite better than average acting, and typically good British production values, theres not a lot to recommend here. More like a twilight zone episode or a boring python skit than a real werewolf movie. Elvira is as always interesting.
Plot Summary: Sara Martin and lawyer husband Tom stay at Eric's cottage for a week on holiday. The trip starts off poorly when the throttle sticks on the BMW. Sara makes the critical horror movie error of suggesting a short cut through the woods which unluckily cuts through an other yard of an old gothic manor "in the back of beyond" where they hear children playing. The residents of the manor shockingly have a functioning telly, two big German Shepherds, and a ready supply of wine which they grow themselves Pinot Noir. The matron tells at great length of the self-supporting farm and spring where they have about eight foster and step-children who never go to bed at normal hours, "not our little ones. Mrs. offers them to stay the night as they can't get any immediate help. Sara meets the strange children Tibor the floutest, smiles and remarks "It's getting dark outside" and the children who were surrounding Sara one minute disappear the next. When Sara insists upon helping Tom get the things from the car, she is met by a horrified Tom who describes a half human creature with gray spiky hair which chased and tried to bite him, "snarling and snorting" with yellow eyes. The delicious mutton soup seems to calm them down until disquieting remarks about parents in the past tense and a the howl of the wolf spoil their appetites. Mother requests that the Martins remain confined in their assigned room until morning so as not to scare the children who "move about during the night". The children who fear nothing in those woods retrieve the Hungarian festival is tonight, something like Christmas Eve. wants to know why the children are becoming progressively clumsier as the light fades when Sara suddenly bumps into a small werewolf in the hall. Tom climbs out the window to investigate and falls from the drainpipe as he listens to his wife scream in terror as she is attacked by a werewolf. He awakens in a hospital where Sara, remarkably unscathed, tells him they were in a car crash. She laughs at his tale of a family of werewolves and blames the delusion on his concussion.
Back in London, Tom notices that Sara is behaving oddly, aggressive in bed. Harry tells him one doesn't dream when one is concussed, which doesn't calm Tom's concerns. It turns out Sara is eight weeks pregnant. At the celebration, Tom enjoys Salmon while Sara feasts on thin raw strips of steak. It also seems that the fetus is developing at a radical pace. Sara enjoys strips of liver as she drives her Ford Fiesta back to werewolfland as her time approaches. In the birthing room, she sees a photo of herself has replaced that of an earlier deceased mother. Tom arrives at the edge of the woods where there is suddenly no path. A woodcutter invites him to walk with him but denies that there is any path near Apple Grove and no family Ardoy. Tom inquires about legends of werewolves in these parts, but the woodsman assures him that that kind of stuff only happens in Hungary. The woodsman explains that there is only one alpha male with many wives. The woodsman, growing furrier every second, tires of the interrogation and whacks Tom with an axe and Sara dies in childbirth.
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