Bloodmoon is one of those rare instances where a rather demandingly tedious first half is redeemed by a thoroughly satisfyingly suspenseful and shocking second half. The plot centers on an Australian community which contains a private boy's school and female boarding school right nearby each other and the students often engage in sexual activity and relations outside of classes. The headmistress and her pu$$ywhipped biology teacher husband of the St Elizabeth's Catholic School for Girls arrived from California fleeing a sordid situation where boy-girl couples were found slaughtered near a lover's lane. We discover that Virginia Sheffield likes young boys and that she has a psychological stranglehold over her husband, Myles(Leon Lissek)using his inability to sexually satisfy her as an object of ridicule, which in turn causes a psychotic mania which motivates a rage to kill girl-boy couples that make love(..have sexual rendezvous)in hidden places. The first section of the film plays like a saucy after-school special featuring local boys who often bicker and fight with the rich snobs of the private school, while the Catholic school girls get naked a lot, freely agreeing to meet males away for some action. Kevin Lynch(Ian Williams), a middle class local surfer with a kind heart, and American Catholic school student Mary Huston(Helen Thomson), whose mom is a Hollywood movie star with a career that seems more important than her daughter's life, blossoming romance is highlighted because Myles is fixated with her. Their relationship and well being will be threatened as Myles makes preparations to execute them, arranging a meeting between the two in the woods(..a place which separates both schools and is used as a means to hook up for making out and having sex). We also see how Myles is mistreated by Virginia who insults him, and this unpleasant relationship, and her naughty behavior with a male student from the private school, are peeks inside a very volatile marriage.
I think if the viewer can make it through the opening thirty or so minutes, where we are treated to the lives of school girls and boys, their misbehaving and other minor melodramas, the film rewards your patience when Myles goes off the deep end and we see the monster for the first time when he viciously attacks two female students who break into his biology class to steal exam questions and instead find a bottle of fingers and eyes, keepsakes of the psychopath from past "conquests." What makes the attacks as shocking is that the girls actually look like real teenage students and Myles just can not stop himself from really inflicting damage. He repeatedly bashes one poor girl's face into a table, several times after she's clearly dead. The chase of another girl, who hurts her ankle falling down steps attempting to flee frantically as the killer is in hot pursuit, only to reach the building's exit, locked by Myles as he buries the knife in her back, is another well established terror scene(..not to mention what she does to him with a cutting tool used for dissection, attempting to escape as he tries to assault her). He loves sticking blades into the torsos of girls as well. We see the aftermath of one teenage boy's murder, his eyes gouged out. The strangulations from a barbwire garrote aren't elaborated for effects, we simply know that this is a method for which he uses on them. One chilling scene has Myles sticking his knife into the stomach of a young girl used to set up Kevin's meeting with Mary, and we see her falter as blood runs down her shirt with the deranged madman escaping as the camera pans back..a very well designed and cold-blooded sequence which might be the best of the film. Great aftermath of acid to the face and Leon's toady bug-eyed killer is a very effective creep. Christine Amor as Virginia is quite a nasty piece of work, really cutting her husband to the bone with accurate skill..we can see that this has been occurring for quite some time, and the profound impact on Myles' behavior is quite visible. I think composer Brian May's work bugged me more than anything else. His music during the opening of the movie reeks of sugary soap opera and episodic television..and, while more effective during the suspense scenes at the end, the music can be so loud across the soundtrack that the dialogue is hard to hear. Not a bad Aussie attempt at the American slasher(..which, in essence, is a reworking of the Italian giallo sub-genre)..does feature enough gratuitous elements to satisfy the desired audience, I believe. A lot more nudity than I was expecting and the dialogue can be raunchy at times. The teens of the film are coming of age with a sexual awakening which does contribute to such lurid details provided throughout. The film also follows the small town chief as he eyes Myles as a possible suspect responsible for a growing number of student disappearances.
I think if the viewer can make it through the opening thirty or so minutes, where we are treated to the lives of school girls and boys, their misbehaving and other minor melodramas, the film rewards your patience when Myles goes off the deep end and we see the monster for the first time when he viciously attacks two female students who break into his biology class to steal exam questions and instead find a bottle of fingers and eyes, keepsakes of the psychopath from past "conquests." What makes the attacks as shocking is that the girls actually look like real teenage students and Myles just can not stop himself from really inflicting damage. He repeatedly bashes one poor girl's face into a table, several times after she's clearly dead. The chase of another girl, who hurts her ankle falling down steps attempting to flee frantically as the killer is in hot pursuit, only to reach the building's exit, locked by Myles as he buries the knife in her back, is another well established terror scene(..not to mention what she does to him with a cutting tool used for dissection, attempting to escape as he tries to assault her). He loves sticking blades into the torsos of girls as well. We see the aftermath of one teenage boy's murder, his eyes gouged out. The strangulations from a barbwire garrote aren't elaborated for effects, we simply know that this is a method for which he uses on them. One chilling scene has Myles sticking his knife into the stomach of a young girl used to set up Kevin's meeting with Mary, and we see her falter as blood runs down her shirt with the deranged madman escaping as the camera pans back..a very well designed and cold-blooded sequence which might be the best of the film. Great aftermath of acid to the face and Leon's toady bug-eyed killer is a very effective creep. Christine Amor as Virginia is quite a nasty piece of work, really cutting her husband to the bone with accurate skill..we can see that this has been occurring for quite some time, and the profound impact on Myles' behavior is quite visible. I think composer Brian May's work bugged me more than anything else. His music during the opening of the movie reeks of sugary soap opera and episodic television..and, while more effective during the suspense scenes at the end, the music can be so loud across the soundtrack that the dialogue is hard to hear. Not a bad Aussie attempt at the American slasher(..which, in essence, is a reworking of the Italian giallo sub-genre)..does feature enough gratuitous elements to satisfy the desired audience, I believe. A lot more nudity than I was expecting and the dialogue can be raunchy at times. The teens of the film are coming of age with a sexual awakening which does contribute to such lurid details provided throughout. The film also follows the small town chief as he eyes Myles as a possible suspect responsible for a growing number of student disappearances.