Amazing Fantasy Fest 2025 Coverage
Frenzy Moon review
This cycle’s Full Moon Feature pits six friends against a forest full of werewolves.
Festival coverage will not contain spoilers.
Frenzy Moon
Directed by Gregory Lamberson
Written by Gregory Lamberson
Starring Alyssa Grace Adams, Aaron Krygier, Kayla Malika, Gabrielle Nunzio, Harold Octavius Jacob and Steven Maiseke
Frenzy Moon Review
This cycle’s Full Moon Feature crosses over with festival coverage for the first time ever! That doesn’t actually mean anything…we’re still going to focus this review on the werewolf aspects of the movie. I just thought it was neat. Frenzy Moon had its world premiere on the opening night of this year’s Amazing Fantasy Fest. For the first time I can remember in my three years attending the festival (under various names), there was a replay screening a few days later. It was written and directed by Amazing Fantasy Fest director Gregory Lamberson…so it had a pretty good in. It would have bene wild if he hadn’t selected his own film for his festival. The premiere was sold out so it wouldn’t have made any financial sense either.
All jokes aside, Frenzy Moon is the first werewolf movie I’ve seen in the long list of festivals I’ve covered for this site. Given the number of them that pop up every year it’s a little strange there aren’t more making the rounds at genre festivals.
Frenzy Moon’s premiere was preceded by a short film. There was no Q&A for the feature, however. They saved that for the second screening. The accompanying short film was called Like Me and proved to be a big hit with the capacity crowd. It was written by, directed by and starred Ashley Lauren Thomas (and her cat). Thomas was on hand for a Q&A. The cat was not. Like Me is a quick 7 minutes or so…and I recommend seeking it out if possible. Some very funny and very gory moments are packed into the short film. It was not a surprise to learn that Like Me took home this year’s best micro short award at the festival.
Then it was time for the premiere of Frenzy Moon. Plenty of the cast and crew were on hand for the event…which always makes for a fun time. A majority of Frenzy Moon is set inside a great cabin location (including a fully utilized outhouse). The first two scenes, however, take place in the woods. It’s a little jarring to see the same kind of scene play out twice in a row…but there is a narrative reason for it. While the story centers around six friends at a cabin in the woods…the opening scenes set up the film’s seventh character, a hunter who is hit by one of the friend’s cars. The opening scenes give us his backstory, although it isn’t fully revealed until later. It also allows the script to have a character who knows what’s going on.
What’s going on is, obviously, werewolf related. Or, possibly, werewolves related. It wouldn’t be much of a frenzy with just one, right? Well…there’s just one for a while. The best scene in Frenzy Moon makes great use of it. When Jennifer (Alyssa Grace Adams) heads outside alone in need of the outhouse…we get Frenzy Moon’s most suspenseful and atmospheric scene. Eventually the story will turn towards that “frenzy” idea…unleashing more fur and blood in the climax than the build up would have had you believe. But its best scene involves Jennifer stuck inside an outhouse with a big bad wolf trying to blow it down.
There’s plenty of werewolf lore in Frenzy Moon…which we always appreciate. It doesn’t take a silver bullet to stop one. It doesn’t seem to take a full moon either. The wolf costume is exactly that. It doesn’t allow for much in the way of facial movement. They’re nice looking wolf costumes even though they hamper the amount of possible werewolf action. Still, there’s some good practical gore effects here. Frenzy Moon offers some light paranoia and mystery in its place. While it’s not exactly a game of secret werewolf…it does inevitably devolve into a round of (possibly justifiable) suspicion.
Frenzy Moon offers some laughs between its group of couples. Especially when the man they knocked out wakes up. There’s a brisk pace to Frenzy Moon once its characters reach the cabin. The movie may be a bit too bold for what its budget will allow…but placing characters over wolf action gets it far enough to succeed. It’s not looking to rewrite the book on werewolf movies…just to have some fun within the concept. If the opening night crowd is to be believed…it certainly has that.
Scare Value
Frenzy Moon packs a lot into its low budget werewolf story. A standout scene set in an outhouse raises the stakes early and the frantic screenplay keeps it there. While it can’t pull off a full-on frenzy…it does offer fun dialog and a willingness to get a bit weird. More cabin in the woods horror with a werewolf than werewolf movie set inside a cabin in the woods. Which works for what Frenzy Moon is going for. Even if it misses out on some of what we love in a Full Moon Feature.
