Name: Moonchild
Genre: Horror
Released: 1989-09-08
Duration: 1 h 24 min
Rating: 5.2
Cast: Judith Holding, Patrick Olliver, Phil Lyndon

Another great low-budget film from Murphy!

I'm back to continuing disc 5 of the Powerhouse/Indicator box set 'Magic, Myth & Mutilation: The Micro-Budget Cinema Of Michael J. Murphy 1967-2015' and the next film is 1989's 'Moonchild'.

This time Murphy delivered a film which mixed up the Tribal, Occult, Satanic and Folk Horror/Thriller genres and it's done with the usual miniscule budget, regular actors, loads of passion and, once again, some good writing.

A twenty something young woman Sarah (Judith Holding, who looks like she is going to become a regular actress in all of the remaining films on the box set) starts working as a secretary for Occult Expert/Author Lucan (another very good turn from Patrick Olliver) in a small, but strange, English Village. She starts to suffer from headaches and weird nightmares and the longer she stays the worse they become.

She senses that something isn't right and begins to follow clues which suggest she maybe being prepared as an occult sacrifice. The locals are your, typically occult bunch of oddballs that provide her with strange drinks and are, possibly, all cult members.

Judith Holding is good in her first lead role for Murphy, well, in the way that all of his actors are a bit wooden and am-dram. Caroline Aylward pops up again but in a smaller role this time, as Sarah's predecessor, who is also called Sarah and has gone insane and, as usual, she puts everything into the performance.

What I really like about this film is the improvement in some of the gore effects. There is a throat cutting scene near the beginning and it's really good, also a pair of maggot infested legs which are excellent too. Murphy uses more nudity, in the tribal/occult scenes as well, which suggests he was starting to realise what would help get his films more distribution. As mentioned, the acting is wooden, but I'm used to that with Murphy's films now and it's sort of charming most of the time.

However, the absolute highlight of this film, and a scene that had me in stitches, was the worst choreographed fight scene I have ever witnessed in film. It is so badly done that I cannot convey in words that will do it any justice. You have to see it to believe it. I'm not entirely sure if it was meant to be partly tongue-in-cheek but, either way, it is mind-blowingly awful and I would happily have paid for the box set just for that one scene.

It's a great fun watch, with a good score, plenty of atmosphere, lots of Jess Franco style zooms and a wonderfully cheesy and over the top finale as good battles evil. Once again Murphy cooked up a gem of a film, even if the budget was less than the price of four litres of milk and the loaf of bread I bought at my local shop this morning!

The horror genre features stories that aim to elicit fear, suspense, and a sense of dread in its audience. Horror stories often explore themes related to the unknown, the supernatural, and the macabre, and they frequently evoke strong emotional reactions such as anxiety, terror, and unease.

Satanic thriller. The young girl is involved as an assistant by the author who writes a book about the occult. But she engages more than she would like and is chosen as the "Moon Child" for the sacrifice...

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Moonchild

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