SUMMER'S MOON
OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:
Eager to find her estranged father, Summer sets out on a cross-country journey and is soon rescued from a slight run-in with the law by a local handyman. It's an unusual connection, but she is quickly charmed and accepts his invitation to spend the night. Knocked unconscious, she awakes the next morning to find herself trapped in the basement. Now taken prisoner, Summer's dream has come to a bitter end and her real-life nightmare has only just begun.
OUR TAKE:
Summer's Moon is probably most notable for how many "Summer's Eve" jokes it'll drive you towards. A jumbled mess of parts of The Collector, Motel Hell, Silence of the Lambs, and every back-woods crazy killer-family flick out over the last 10 years, I don't think I've ever been more bored by a jumbled story of incest, serial killing, and familial secrets.
When our unlikable heroine winds up falling afoul of a creepy mother-son murderin' duo, this glacial slab of a story slowly starts to move. Meandering from basement-captive "Garden Angels" to a "Stockholm Syndrome" go-along-to-get-along kidnap victim, Summer's Moon culminates in a final grand "family that slays together" third act. After the meandering A-story, there's a B-story of a father trying to find his kidnapped daughter (their previous captive) but it's more of an F as it barely registers.
Things also stay pretty predictable with this film. You know where they're heading about 20 minutes before they get there. You're a little nauseated by the idea, but no worries. By the time you get to the big reveal, you'll be too bored to barf. The lead actress is wooden and the actors playing the killers overact the "Calmly Crazy" shtick. The only thing really striking about this film is the cinematography and score. It looks and sounds much better than it has any right to.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
There is a nearly 9 minute long Behind the Scenes Featurette (where they describe themselves as "not a horror movie.") Trailers for Summer's Moon, Night Watcher, Reborn, The Last Resort, the Ghost House Underground series (Thaw, The Children, Offspring, and Seventh Moon) . The film is presented in Widescreen format with English Dolby 5.1 Digital Audio. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish.
CONCLUSION:
Slow-paced and overlong at 91 minutes, Summer's Moon is a bit of an over-baked Southern Gothic. You'll be two steps ahead of the plot, then nauseated. There's really little here to recommend beyond the cinematography.
OVERALL PICTURE:
MOVIE: C-
EXTRAS: B-
Thank you for the review. I give the movie an F grade because it had terrible acting, dialog and had such a choppy ending. Also Summer was just as evil as the rest of her family and never had to face any repercussions for her actions.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened in the end everytime I try to watch it on line it cuts off. What is the ending?
ReplyDelete