First Moon review
A new way to look at a Werewolf curse…or a slightly new way to look at exorcisms.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
First Moon
Directed by Peter McLeod
Written by Peter McLeod
Starring Lauren Esposito, Julian Curtis, Shannon Ryan, Soren Jensen, Mitchell Slater, Yasmin Langlois and Anthony Ciccotosto
First Moon Review
Full Moon Features have been a staple of our reviews since the beginning of this website. Any time a full moon is rising in the sky…you can bet that we’ll be looking at another werewolf movie. One of the things that you learn pretty quickly watching a werewolf movie every month is that there is a surprisingly high amount of variety in the subgenre. If there wasn’t…we probably wouldn’t have stuck with the gimmick this long. One type of horror movie that doesn’t feature a lot of variation is the exorcism subgenre. It’s probably the most monotonous and unsurprising type of horror…and they never stop coming. First Moon is a bit of a “good news, bad news” situation. The good news is that it’s another werewolf movie that tries something new with the story. The bad news is that it tries to add an exorcism element.
Which puts the purpose of a Full Moon Feature into a strange position. New ideas are always welcome in werewolf stories…and First Moon certainly brings one. It’s an inherently interesting idea. The curse of the werewolf is, by definition, an animal possession. Possession stories, traditionally, end in an exorcism. Tying the two concepts together feels completely fresh and exciting…when viewing First Moon as a werewolf movie. When judging it as a movie full stop, however, things get a little more complicated. There is nothing more tired in horror at this point than watching religious characters deal with possessed people. Not even influencer based horror or public domain slashers. Though…they sure seem intent on challenging for the crown.
Luckily, First Moon brings a somewhat more interesting approach to its possession/exorcism storyline too. Yes, it’s still going to be a lot of religious people yelling about faith while they abuse the people they profess to be saving. But First Moon isn’t out to recreate The Exorcist with a furrier ending. It paints its religious believers as a cult. It makes them the clear bad guys. That’s not the norm in possession stories for an obvious reason. If there’s actually a demon in there…the religious folks trying to remove it are going to be positioned on the side of good. Not always, of course. Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism worked because it did something very similar. A choice that made sense because…no one was truly possessed in the story.
Jessica (Lauren Esposito) is definitely possessed in First Moon. What she’s possessed by leaves a bit of a gray area in the traditional telling of the exorcism story. Jessica is captured by a religious cult that is hell-bent on curing her. A deed they need to accomplish before the next full moon rises. As is the case with most exorcism movies…that means listening to religious zealots as they justify the torture they’re unleashing on their charge. Because Jessica has a wolf inside…First Moon can treat the cult as the antagonists of the story that they are. It’s more difficult when there’s a demon inside threatening the well-being of its host.
First Moon gets a lot of mileage out of what we already know about werewolves. Being infected is seen as a curse…because it’s happening to an innocent person. A person who carries the burden of what their animal form does when that full moon hits every month. Jessica hasn’t even turned into a werewolf by the time the cult grabs her. They’re abusing an innocent person who doesn’t even have a reason to be burdened yet. In most forms of the werewolf story…the human that walks around most of the time isn’t evil. There are variations on this…but the traditional idea is an innocent person haunted by their inner beast.
Jessica is an innocent person with a clock ticking down until she turns into…whatever kind of werewolf exists in the world of First Moon. Here too we have seen so many versions of the animal form to be certain a creature of unstoppable evil will emerge. I’m not sure how much thought that First Moon put into these concepts…but it stays out of their way well enough for them to have a positive effect on the story.
As mentioned, any of the usual werewolf stuff we look for is held off for a long time. There is a transformation scene and a werewolf design. Neither is much to write home about, unfortunately. That’s because First Moon isn’t about that aspect of the wolf as much as it is interested in treating the curse as a curable infection. Most of the story takes place in brutal interrogation and torture scenes. The final form of the werewolf isn’t bad. It’s a bit different…but it’s simply not as important as it would usually be to this type of movie. Sure, we’d always like more wolf action than First Blood gets around to serving up…but you can appreciate its commitment to the type of movie that it is instead.
It does have one very strong aspect to its werewolf story. A shared consciousness between Jessica and others who have been possessed. She can psychically communicate with them and, as they are dispatched, interact with their spirits as they pass on from a collective dream space. It’s cool stuff.
Perhaps the strongest aspect of First Moon’s unique spin on its story is how unforgiving it makes its true antagonist…Elyse (Shannon Ryan). Elyse is a sadistic member of the cult who takes such glee in her work that you can’t wait for the tables to be turned. Ryan devours every scene she’s in with joyful brutality. Elyse is like Nurse Ratched was allowed to slice people open mid-sentence.
Which brings us to the Full Moon Feature conundrum. First Moon has some new, and fun, ideas to bring to the werewolf subgenre. They just push too far into exorcism story territory to feel fresh in a broader sense. It makes sense to mix the concepts…but one of them feels too worn to hold up its end. Fortunately, by spinning the religious characters as the true antagonists…and having a top-notch lead villain to carry it, First Moon gets more out of the concept than most exorcism stories do at this point. While there isn’t enough werewolf fun to rate as a high-end Full Moon Feature recommendation…there are enough attempts at a unique presentation to make it a piece of interest for those so inclined.
Scare Value
Full Moon Features prioritize the werewolf aspects of movies above all…and, through that lens, First Moon offers something new. It treats the curse of the werewolf like an exorcism movie. On one hand, it makes sense given animal possession is a type of possession. On the other hand, it’s an exorcism movie. Werewolf fun is reserved for the final minutes of the story. The good news is that, unlike most exorcism movies, First Moon treats its religious believers as the true monsters of the picture.
3/5
