Movies
Half Moon (V)
“The biggest disappointment, however, is what the promos call a ‘bloody, hair raising climax’ that fails to impress… I expect a lot more after being forced to sit through an hour long conversation and an overly dramatic sex scene.”
Creating an original werewolf film and properly executing the story behind it is a very difficult task. These films usually require either intense costuming or CGI, an obvious understanding of the myth, and a need to show intense gore. Werewolves are bloodthirsty, moon-obsessed creatures who instill fear. I’d say that’s a great way to kick off any good horror movie.
That’s part of why Half Moon intrigued me. The premise was interesting- a mysterious man reaches out to his on-call prostitute for companionship only to have another arrive in her place. The kicker is that the mysterious man is a werewolf and he’s in town for a treatment that will permanently rid him of his ‘disease.’ Throw in an unknowing, half naked heroine and it could easily have been a classic.
Key words: could have been.
Adult film star Tori Black stars as Rose, a seemingly lost, young prostitute who has to deal with her own inner demons as well as her overzealous and less than charming pimp. While working the streets, Rose runs into a friend who ends up telling her about her monthly date with a mysterious man who pays a lot of cash for her, ahem, companionship. When the friend gets arrested moments later, Rose takes the call- and the date. The mysterious man, Jacob, played by the talented Marek Matousek, is the lone savior of this film. His performance is brilliant and carries the less than adequate plot. He does a great job with what little is given to him- and that alone is why I didn’t turn the DVD into a coaster.
The biggest problem with Half Moon is that the story drags. The bulk of the movie is literally a story building conversation between Rose and Jacob in a hotel room that goes on and on and on. She talks about her childhood and her pimp, he talks about how he was infected and the treatments he needs, and somehow it starts over again, literally going in circles. Tori Black’s mediocre performance certainly doesn’t help- her character has a hard time deciding whether she’s a damsel in distress or a hood rat. The sound quality makes some of the scenes unbearable- at times it’s hard to tell if you’re watching a home video or an actual DVD release. The biggest disappointment, however, is what the promos call a ‘bloody, hair raising climax’ that fails to impress. Rose tries to help Jacob escape from the wrath of her pimp, but instead finds herself at his mercy. Jacob turns into a werewolf, attacking and killing the pimp, and changing Rose into one of his own. Though the transformation was pretty cool for a low budget flick, it just flopped. I expect a lot more after being forced to sit through an hour long conversation and an overly dramatic sex scene. Basically Matousek’s performance is the lone reason I would encourage anyone to watch the movie- otherwise, it’s just another one to throw to the wolves.
Your enjoyment of Strung will depend on your tolerance of clichés, contrivances, and overused plot devices. There are plenty to go around in Malcolm D. Lee’s new thriller—and each one lands with a conspicuous thud. Yet this is also a movie where the formulaicness leads to amusement.
Strung is already off to a tropey start when the protagonist, a bereft violinist named Laila (Chloe Bailey), is vividly hallucinating during one of her recitals. Who does she see in that ghastly vision on stage? The sister whose death she blames herself for, of course. That’s when Laila wakes up from what’s actually a hallucination within a dream.
After a one-night stand with a handsome rando, another too-good-to-be-true opportunity soon falls into Laila’s lap. Because she’s broke, couch-surfing and forced to practice the violin inside her best friend’s closet, she jumps on it without much forethought. That opportunity is indeed suspicious, though; a wealthy grandmother (Lynn Whitfield) hires the main character to be her granddaughter’s live-in music teacher. The pay and accommodations are definitely good, but what about the client? Or clients, as it turns out.
Strung: Anna Diop as Imani, Lucien Laviscount as Marcus. (Photo by: Ilze Kitshoff/Blumhouse)
First, there’s pianist-in-training Zuri (Romy Woods), the walking definition of “precocious child in a horror movie”. She hides behind the bizarre mask once belonging to her late father, and her preferred form of communication is sharing obscure facts. Eventually, though, Zuri is the least of Laila’s problems; it’s her neglectful, demanding, and temperamental mother (Anna Diop) who proves to be the greatest obstacle at each turn. Diop just about snatches every scene with her zealous performance as the expectant Imani. Yet as amusing as that moody matriarch can be, her behavior brings up a good question: Is this cartoonishly devious character the legit villain here, or is she simply a red herring?
The kid’s creepy mask, along with Blumhouse’s involvement, might suggest a different kind of horror movie is at work here. Strung, however, is more like a smutty modernization of classic domestic thrillers that feature big houses, imperiled women, and heaps of paranoia. Keep in mind, this is not a bait-and-switch situation; Alan B. McElroy’s screenplay never leads the viewer down a different path, only to then send them another way.
Strung feels stitched together from other (and better) movies, and your sussing out the suspects is never a hard task. But on the plus side, this movie is often bright and even a little colorful; it’s not too riddled with scenes of flat darkness or washed-out palettes. The music is also another area of interest; certain choices corroborate that comparison to old Hollywood thrillers.
Chloe Bailey as Laila. (Photo by: Ilze Kitshoff/Blumhouse)
So while Strung does string out a number of overplayed twists—with some being less foreseeable than others—it’s a bit comforting to see how some ideas never cease to be used, no matter how familiar they’ve become. The cast’s eagerness also compensates for the general been-there-done-that quality. So often, their commitment to the story is integral to the movie’s best hand-over-mouth moments (and there are quite a few).
Joe Bob Briggs once said the best source of exploitation movies today is the Lifetime network. If you agree, as well as love Tubi’s own efforts in similar filmmaking, then Strung is made for you. This movie taps that same vein of suspense schlock, all while adding a few flourishes of its own.
Strung streams on Peacock starting on June 26.
Strung (photo: Peacock)
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