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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Last House on the Lake District, 1 August 2000
Author: gavcrimson from United Kingdom

Very much a film of slashed throats and ripped off blouses, Killer's Moon bluntly punctuated what was a rather dismal year for British horror movies (think The Cat and the Canary, Dominique and The Legacy). Its exactly the sort of film a minor sexploitation director dragging a cast of nobodies into the Lake District for an inept hotchpotch of A Clockwork Orange, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Please Sir would make. Four homicidal maniacs Mr Smith, Mr Jones, Mr Muldoon and Mr Trubshaw all modelled on A Clockwork Orange's droogs escape from a cottage asylum into the Lake District. Since they've all been treated on LSD dream therapy, they believe everything to be a dream and thus feel free to indulge in drug fuelled sex and murder fantasies. Coincidences find a bunch of 70's sitcom characters as potential fodder for them -an American jogger, a bunch of campers, the Scottish gamekeeper, the Cockney bus driver `they're all mard round ‘ere', the pompous school-marm and a busload of dubious schoolgirls. When the schoolgirl's bus breaks down on the way to a choir contest they're forced to stay in an off season hotel run by an elderly eccentric while outside minor characters stumble off to their deaths `why would anyone kill a gamekeeper with an axe?'. When the maniacs come out of the shadows to siege the hotel they are revealed as the most unashamedly over the top hams since the days of Tod Slaughter, they're really into the proceedings, cackling, growling and grimacing and are soon desperate to get their drug addled paws on the schoolgirls, who despite being cast in the St Trinian mode of carrying teddies and being prone to renditions of Greensleeves are nothing more than Wardour Street starlets cast mainly for glamour nudity. Most of the enjoyment though has to come from the dialogue thats looks as if it was written under the same treatment as its psychopaths. Watch as RADA never weres tackle gems of un-pc dialogue like `look you were only raped if you don't tell anyone about it you'll be alright' and `if we ever get out of this alive well maybe we'll both live to be be wives and mothers'. Amidst the sex and violence, Killer's Moon gradually transforms into a twisted music hall pantomime with girlies chased around the hotel, the help of Hannah the three-legged dog, a transvestite escape plan and one of the maniacs lamenting `why can't I dream of steak and chips, why does it have to be bread and cheese?'- all delivered with a serious candour which must have been hard for a movie that weds its carnage to acid-jazz renditions of `twinkle twinkle little star' and `three blind mice'. Produced in the dying days of the British film industry Killer's Moon really is cheap with the worse editing imaginable, a matte Lake district, while day and night shots are mixed and matched, its hard to believe that the film had a cinema release but it did (in August 1978). The acting is mostly foul as befits the cast of nobodies although living up to the unwritten law `show me a British actor/actress and I'll show you the 70's sex/horror film they'd like to forget', old hams and future soap stars (ie Jo- Anne Good who ended up in Crossroads) can be found if you look hard enough. Killer's Moon scores high with surprisingly strong exploitation elements. The token peek a boo nudity is expected, given Birkinshaw's background but scenes of 25ish year old `schoolgirls' abused by mental patients seem genuinely unhealthy. Screenwriter/Director (the late?) Alan Birkinshaw was indeed one of the more cheaper celluloid barrow boys. His previous film had been Confessions of a Sex Maniac (1975) a low budget skinflick about a Woody Allen-esque architect with a breast fetish who feels obliged to erect a building in honour of his obsession. After the axe came down on UK low-budget film production like Gerry O'Hara he flew to South Africa and hooked up with infamous producer Harry Alan Towers- Birkinshaw's work for Towers manifested in some Poe adaptations are widely reviled. Birkinshaw is also largely believed responsible for the shocking gore sequences tagged on to Don't Open Till Christmas. Managing to keep out of the reference books ever since its initial release, Killer's Moon now enjoys a mini revival in the UK, mainly due to the fact that the filmmaking is more fumbled than some of the victims. Killer's Moon does have great trouble with whose been murdered and who hasn't, famously a main character disappears halfway through the film only to appear as a corpse in the final shot as if an afterthought. Yet interest in Killer's Moon isn't just for laughs but also genuine nostalgia, looking back from a time of the dearth of truly eccentric British films the era of Killer's Moon seems a long time ago. Killer's Moon remains as sleazy and British as a night time trip down Soho, the quintessential bottom half of a fleapit cinema double bill, remember `blood on the moon, one mangled dog, one missing axe, and one lost girl who just found a body at the wrong end of the axe- how's that for the great English outdoors'.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Not THAT bad, but not exactly coherent either, 26 June 2008
5/10
Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY

Killer's Moon has just come out on DVD, and a friend in the UK expressed horror that I'd even ordered it. Well, it's not horrible, but it's not terribly coherent either. And what it definitely isn't, is the "British version of I Spit On Your Grave". But if you consider when it was made and a lot of the films from that era, it really is more-or-less typical of the exploitation films of the 70's.

A bus full of schoolgirls breaks down in the middle of nowhere, & the girls & their chaperons are forced to stay in an old hotel that's closed for the season. Of course, 4 lunatics that are part of some experimental program in which they're fed LSD and given dream therapy, have just escaped, thinking that everything going on around them is a dream. This is, of course, a bad thing.

The lunatics happen across the girls & hold them captive and ravish a few, after killing one of the chaperons. The girls eventually fight back with the help of two guys that are camped out nearby, plus the intervention of a three-legged Doberman who appears out of nowhere from time to time. And that's pretty much it.

This does have some interesting moments but it's not terribly coherent & could have used a bit more suspense & scares. As I mentioned it's not that much different than a lot of exploitation films of the era so if you like that sort of fare, you can probably watch this without much trouble, otherwise, don't bother. 5 out of 10.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Woeful, 18 June 2008
2/10
Author: adriangr from United Kingdom

There's very little that's good about this film. A coach transporting a load of schoolgirls breaks down in the countryside and all the girls book into an off-season hotel for the night. Unfortunately a group of homicidal mental patients have just escaped from a nearby hospital. You can guess the rest.

It's just plain bad all the way through. The outdoor scenes switch from day to night time all over the place. The dialogue for the girls and their teachers is atrociously written. The murders are a joke...victims never try and escape, they just stand still and wait for the murderous escapees to do their worst. One hilarious moment involves a small group who happen to be staying in a small tent in a field...as soon as night falls the scene switches to a very obvious studio interior which looks nothing like the field setting, and you can hear all the echoes of the dialogue bouncing off the walls! None of the cast are convincing actors. The script makes the mistake of giving the band of murderers far too much to say, and they come across as very affected...they may as well have had them say "Ooh, we're mad, we are!". The film just rolls along until it peters out, and it even ends with a really terrible warbling love song!! So there you have it - just one long list of bad points. Nothing good to say about this film at all. It's quite obscure and hard to find now, but save yourself the effort and leave it in obscurity where it belongs.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
You people are all crazy. Killer's Moon is a genre classic, 18 November 2005
10/10
Author: Colin Keltie (colin_keltie@standardlife.com) from Edinburgh, Scotland

Now come on. Killer's Moon occupies a special spot in my heart for a number of reasons. Firstly, I was ten years old when it came out, and being mad for the horror flick, I remember wishing I was just that little bit bigger: big enough to blag my way into an "X" so I could see for myself what all this lurid stuff was really about! Happily, being a glandular freak, it wasn't too much longer before I was able to enjoy an illicit euroslash treat down the local fleapit whilst supposedly going to see "Empire Strikes Back". Hah! So years later I've caught up with Killer's Moon (around about 1985 as it goes) and y'know what? It has never disappointed me since. It's got its charming little flaws: so what? So it's not a highly polished, taught, edge-of-the-seat number: so what? The Hollywood machine, in the years since 1978, has learned to squeeze out dozens of highly polished, taught, edge-of-the-seat numbers - most of which are excrement. You tell me in all honesty that "The Ring 2" or "Cursed" are better efforts than Killer's Moon and I'll eat the dog's remaining legs.

What Killer's Moon does for me is takes me back to reading 2000ad, watching "Crown Court" and catching trailers for "Food of the Gods/Squirm (from Friday)" and wishing I was grown up enough to see them. Now I am grown up enough to see them, they are every bit as good as I expected.

So, away with your effete whining. Honestly, some of you moan it's sick, others moan it's not graphic enough, others moan that it's inept. What it's got is a lot of heart and soul (and half naked ladies). Killer's Moon is the "Eddie the Eagle" of genre cinema: you kind of know it's rubbish, but it leaves you with a warm glow, cheering it on.

Killer's Moon will always make my top five, and I'm never wrong about anything, so put that in your collective pipes and smoke it!

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
A Cult Horror Movie from the 70's, 28 June 2008
8/10
Author: andastre from London England

I have just seen the new release on DVD of Killer's Moon and considering it was made some 30 years ago, well, it has certainly stood the test of time. The story follows four criminal psychopaths being treated (forcefully) in a government experiment, using dream therapy – combination of lycergic acid (LSD) and psychiatric chitter chatter; "let all your evil thoughts come out in your dreams and then you will be cured" – who escape from their institution into the wilds of the lake district. And when they escape, naturally, they assume they are still in a dream and so have to carry out their evil thoughts. Sounds pretty good so far. Then you add a bus load of school girls, whose bus breaks down, also in the bleak lake district, and add to the mix a couple of virile young lads who happen to be camping in the hills and a three legged doberman. It's all there. The 'innocent' girls wear white nighties for most of the movie whilst running around in the woods hotly pursued by the maniacs. The maniacs also wear white. Director Birkinshaw said in an interview that it was because they were innocent too! Well, why not? Then to top it all, you add some appropriate dialog by famous novelist Fay Weldon (sister of Birkinshaw) and the whole thing turns into a cult. Director Birkinshaw said in another interview that the whole thing shouldn't be taken too seriously. "It isn't brain surgery, for heaven's sake! We were having fun making it, and if people are still watching it and talking about it and being frightened by it some thirty years later, well, it has to have something going for it!" Birkinshaw isn't wrong. Killer's Moon is a wholly watchable, occasionally frightening, sometimes amusing, movie made by an award winning director who has been working ever since in mainstream television and movies.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Sleazy, but not in a good way, 2 November 2004
Author: lazarillo

This is an interesting piece of sleaze from that morally upright island off the northwest coast of Europe. I first saw it on a double bill with "House on Straw Hill" and I have no idea why the latter got branded a "video nasty" in Britain but this one didn't. Three homicidal maniacs who are fed LSD and believe they're dreaming terrorize a broken-down bus full of schoolgirls in the Lake District. You might ask yourself several questions: Why would anyone feed homicidal maniacs LSD (not to mention dress them in bowler hats like the droogs in "A Clockwork Orange")? Why would LSD make someone think they're dreaming? (Do the lecherous sleazeballs who made this have no firsthand experience with drug abuse?) If the characters think they're dreaming, why do they talk to each other? Finally, and most importantly, why would being doped up on LSD make homicidal maniacs any more frightening than they already are?

Some people found the fact that the victims are schoolgirls quite offensive. Well, it would be if the buxom, overage East End strippers they cast in this movie, dressed in schoolgirl outfits, and handed out teddy bears to were remotely believable as schoolgirls. What is more offensive is the cavalier attitude the movie has toward rape. One girl tells another not to be upset because she was "only raped" by the maniacs (if she'd been murdered THEN she could complain). The movie shows such empathy for its characters that one major character simply disappears halfway through and her dead body shows up as an after-thought in the closing credits. And if this movie isn't enough of a geek show, there's a three-legged dog wandering around, and, oh never mind. I'm trying to find something good to say about this movie--well, if you fall asleep and dream (or you are given a strong dose of LSD) you can imagine that you're watching "Breakfast at Manchester Morgue" or one of the other good horror movies made in the Lake District.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Bizarre zero-budget transgressive horror for the cultists and the curious, 17 July 2008
5/10
Author: EckyThump from United Kingdom

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

KILLER'S MOON, produced for a pittance in the dying days of the British film industry, reminds me of something John Waters once wrote in reference to his transgressive 1972 bad taste epic PINK FLAMINGOS. He didn't have a huge budget, he didn't have big stars, he knew he couldn't compete with major Hollywood product on his own terms, so in order to jockey for attention alongside the blockbusters of the day, he had to be truly outrageous and shocking - in the hope that the resultant bad publicity would make his film a word-of-mouth breakout hit. In 1978, under-budgeted British horror flicks didn't stand an earthly chance alongside their 'respectable' major studio-funded counterparts, so they had to include increasingly bizarre, contentious or repugnant moments (preferably achievable on a shoestring) that would pull in the crowds. The result? The ninety minute onslaught of peculiarly British madness, mayhem, cruelty, sweat-drenched perversion and cackling nastiness that is KILLER'S MOON.

Describing this film's skew-whiff approach is not easy, suffice to say it's clearly inspired by A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (at least the first few scenes of Kubrick's film), with a nod, plot-wise, towards Gregory Corarito's breast-fixated grind-house potboiler CARNAL MADNESS, and numerous concessions toward the cheaper end of the British sex comedy explosion of the 1970s - definitely more WHAT'S UP, NURSE than CARRY ON ABROAD. Four escaped lunatics - a murderer, a rapist, a homosexual and a religious maniac who believes everyone bar himself is in league with the devil and needs to be obliterated - escape from an intensive session of LSD-aided "dream therapy" in a Lake District cottage hospital and proceed to wreak havoc on a small rural community, which just happens to include a bus-load of schoolgirls on their way to a choral singing competition. Naturally, the schoolgirls are all played by twenty-something glamour starlets, all the characters are stereotypes (the bus driver even says "they're all mad around here" at one point, the gamekeeper seems to have stepped out of a Two Ronnies sketch, the schoolmarm is a starchy jolly-hockey-sticks type), and the loonies ham it up relentlessly in the best traditions of Robert Newton's Long John Silver. But what could have been a straightforward bog-standard throwaway shocker was elevated to another level completely by the screenplay.

Co-written by Fay Weldon (THE LIFE AND LOVES OF A SHE-DEVIL), the dialogue in KILLER'S MOON is so stilted, mannered, clunky and perverse, it takes the film far beyond camp and into the realms of the surreal. There's barely a line here that doesn't raise an unintentional chuckle ("Look, you were only raped. As long as you don't tell anyone about it, you'll be all right"), and the mood of escalating weirdness is further enhanced by the ad-hoc nature of the production itself. Day-for-night shots are mixed and matched with exterior shots that are clearly studio-bound (check out the dense reverb on some of the campfire scenes!), characters disappear and reappear without trace or explanation, the penny-pinching soundtrack (generously described by another reviewer as "acid jazz") burbles away behind some of the worst special effects ever committed to film (including the poor cat's tail amputation, laughably fake and obviously included for another cheap shock), and Birkinshaw's somewhat leisurely pacing means the 'endless night of terror' promised by the strap-line seems more like an endless night of tedium. The rape scenes are unpleasant - which, of course, is as it should be - and seem completely misplaced in a film that occasionally looks to be striving towards some degree of extremely warped black comedy. Then there's the ear-shredding travesty of a closing song, performed by someone whose voice cracks every time it gets within spitting distance of hitting the intended note.

In fine, KILLER'S MOON is a genuine cult artifact, a warped, scuzzy, offbeat ball of self-effacing weirdness that will make the curious viewer cringe and chuckle in equal measures. It seems unbelievable, thirty years later, that such a peculiar film ever got a UK cinema release, let alone became a popular video rental title (largely on the strength of a memorably lurid sleeve), but the fact that a film so often regarded (not unjustifiably, it must be said) as sleazy, tasteless and ineffably cheap can so effortlessly capture the mood of a long-distant time and place with its strong whiff of B-movie flea-pits, grind-house grue and pound-stretching eccentricity is somewhat remarkable in itself.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
I heard it on the radio, 28 June 2008
9/10
Author: Maureen from United Kingdom

I heard Jo Goode talking about Killer's Moon on the radio with director Alan Birkinshaw, and I thought if Jo liked it, then maybe I would like it too. Being a female, I don't really go in for horror movies, but I enjoy the CSI type programmes on TV, and there's a first time for everything so I bought a DVD. I wasn't sure what to expect, but when I viewed it I was very pleasantly surprised. What a great little horror movie (perhaps it should be terror movie?) this is. I like things quintessentially English, and that is precisely what this movie is. The plot was straight forward but with a difference; the script by Ms Fay Weldon added to the intrigue – at least it was intelligently written unlike so much other trash one sees at the movies. And the acting was pretty good. In fact, having heard him being interviewed on the radio, I think the director did a marvellous job. I was frightened when I should have been. I liked the contrast between the goodies and the baddies. I simply loved the doggy. What didn't I like about it? Well, I didn't like it when the dog died. But if they make Killer's Moon 2, I will be queueing up to go and see it at the cinema.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
all about Hannah from Killers Moon, 31 January 2007
10/10
Author: pond_autos from United Kingdom

I was about 12 years old when i heard about this film from my stepfather. he was the owner of the Doberman dog (Hannah) who starred in the film and retired to live with his parents, Hannah was used because she was a three legged dog and this is to let you know how she came to lose her leg. my stepfather was publican and ran a very b busy pub. Hannah lived in the pub and was friendly to everyone. one night as he was closing up two men came into the pub with shotguns to rob him of the takings, one of the gunmen pointed the gun in my stepfathers face, Hannah who was behind the bar at the time jumped the bar and proceeded to jump over my fathers shoulder when the gun went off, she took the bullet saving my fathers life, the men panicked and ran. she was awarded a medal of bravery from the mayor of London and was presented with the pedigree chum golden bowl award that was presented to her by the cast of George and moldered she lived for a good few years and died in her sleep, i was lucky to see her a few times before she died and used to curl up with her in front of the fire and go to sleep. she is still spoken of in certain circles and very much missed.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
No shocks, not even crude ones, 29 April 2002
Author: heedarmy from United Kingdom

A staggeringly dull and inept horror film, which amazingly enjoyed a national UK cinema release during 1978. Standards must have been lower then.

The inane premise has a busload of schoolgirls meandering bafflingly through the wilds of the Lake District en route to Scotland (why aren't they going up the motorway?) They and their teachers are terrorised by four psychopaths who escaped while being given experimental drug therapy at a cottage hospital (!). You would expect the fells to be knee-deep in police searching for such obviously dangerous characters, but not one is seen until the end, when a patrol car trundles into view.

Even allowing for such illogicalities, the potential is there for crude shocks but director Birkinshaw blows it entirely. Potentially suspenseful scenes are completely bungled and little dramatic use is made of the Lake District setting. The clumsy dialogue and sub-Clockwork Orange posturings of the psychopaths make parts of the film more laughable than terrifying. However, the "National Health Service psychiatrist line" is hilarious and few other horror films feature a moving eulogy to a three-legged dog!

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