DVD Review: THE BURNING MOON - Believe The Hype

Among well-heeled gorehounds, Olaf Ittenbach's The Burning Moon is something of a talisman, a badge of honor for those who've seen it and lived to tell the tale. The film is notorious among horror fans and in the ever-percolating VHS collector underground. Ittenbach shot this, his second feature, on video back in the early '90s, somewhat late in the SOV generation. The Burning Moon was even a bit of a mystical thing back in the day, as I remember reading about this film that would break your soul back in 1997 when I was a budding film freak in high school.

The Burning Moon hasn't been readily available in the US since its initial VHS release. There was an import German DVD, but it was relatively little seen on these shores, and Intervision Picture Corp's domestic DVD release is highly anticipated. This is one of those films with such a huge amount of baggage relating to its absurd reputation that success is far from guaranteed. A film that's been saddled with as many superlatives as this one runs the very real risk of falling short in the eyes of those among us who expect no less than the Devil, himself, to emerge from our TV to reap our souls during it's 93 minutes. Anything less would be considered a failure, or so I thought.

Thankfully, The Burning Moon not only lives up to its reputation as one of the goriest, nastiest, and angriest horror films ever shot, it is also a halfway decent movie. That second bit was a huge surprise to me, I wasn't expecting anything great in terms of cinematic value going into this film, especially after having subjected myself to the supreme mindfuck that is THINGS. The fact that both films were shot on video and both feature an incredible amount of gore is about where the similarity ends. THINGS certainly has its charms, but coherence is not among them, however, The Burning Moon makes sense, which only serves to make it more evil.

An angry, nihilistic, lazy, drug abusing, and pissed off young man (Olaf Ittenbach) is left in charge of his young sister one evening when his parents decide to go out on a date. No one is comfortable with this arrangement, not the young man, not his parents, and certainly not his little sister. However, for the sake of creating this nightmare, it happens. As soon as his parents leave, the young man decides it's time to shoot up, so he grabs his kit and fixes up right before going into his little sis's room to send her off to the land of Nod. In an effort to speed her journey, he decides to tell her a couple of bedtime stories unlike any she'd ever heard.

What follows are two of the most depraved stories ever committed to tape. Prostitutes, spree killers, machetes, and numerous other hacking and slashing implements are prominently featured. Olaf Ittenbach, himself, handles the special effects, which is his specialty and something that he worked on for his other films as well, both Black Past and his other well known hack'n'slash Premutos. The first story is simply nasty and gory, but not particularly upsetting, unless you are weak of stomach. It's the second story that sends this film into heretofore uncharted territory. Murderous insanity sends one man into the depths of hell where he is graphically tortured and destroyed. Drills encounter teeth, knives encounter guts, and legs are torn from torso, all in graphic detail. This is the stuff of nightmares, but somehow, it all manages to make sense, which is typically the Achilles Heel of these films, and manages to make The Burning Moon stand out from the crowd.

There was a time in the late '80s and early '90s that Germany was at the forefront of the ultragore film explosion that burrowed its way through the underground horror scene in the aftermath of the played out slasher craze. Filmmakers like Ittenbach, and to a larger extent Jorg Buttegereit, pushed the envelope of on screen viscera to a level that shocked and sickened all but the heartiest of cinematic souls, and The Burning Moon is certainly in the pantheon of greats of that film genre.

The thing that makes The Burning Moon such a special film is the craft on display in this super low-budget feature. Having seen a number of SOV features, I've not seen many that manage to look quite this good, as a director, Olaf Ittenbach had some skills to draw on and a wonderful eye for composition. That, combined with his undeniable effects abilities, made him a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunately, the ultragore feature has fallen from favor, and the worthwhile films are few and far between. Thank Jeebus that we have The Burning Moon as our high water mark. Highly recommended.

The Disc:

As I mentioned several times, The Burning Moon was shot on video, so any discussion of the image quality pretty much starts and ends there. There are no tracking marks or anything like that, this is not a shoddy VHS dub, this is pretty much as good as you're going to get, and I found it to be completely sufficient.

There is only one extra on Intervision's DVD of The Burning Moon, however, it is fantastic. The forty five minute making of documentary is better and more in depth that a lot of similar docs we see on modern releases, which is incredible considering that this is pre-DVD bonus feature. We get lots of looks behind the scenes at the effects sequences, interviews with Ittenbach, and tons of b-roll footage. The Burning Moon was Ittenbach's baby, and as such, when something dangerous needed to be done, a full body burn for example, Ittenbach did it when there was no budget for a stunt man. This is a very interesting look at this cult feature that really has no business existing, but I'm really glad it does.

I was worried that The Burning Moon wouldn't live up to the fifteen years of pent up expectations in my mind, but I'll be damned if it didn't exceed them. I cannot recommend this DVD highly enough!