Moonchild (1994)

Shot on video and completely off its futureshock rocker, Todd SheetsMoonchild, in which a werewolf super soldier joins forces with an army of dim-witted kung-fu warriors in the search for his messiah-like son, just won’t stay dead and buried!

"Moonchild is back on the shelves, ready to kick some ass all over again!"


And for good reason as this B-grade flick is definitely worthy of your time (and money!!) as a group of cyborg bounty hunters, after planting a bomb in this monsgter’s stomach, attempt to stop him and these high-flying freedom fighters.  Thanks to Wild Eye Releasing’s sister label Visual Vengeance, a collector’s Blu-ray label dedicated to vintage Shot on Video genre independent features from the 1980s though the 2000s, Moonchild is back on the shelves, ready to kick some ass all over again!

It is a dark future which awaits us.  Todd Sheets knows this and, embracing the madness which surrounds us, shoves us straight into a cold dystopian future where government scientists run experiments on the population with gene splicing and whatnot.  Jacob Stryker (Auggi Alvarez in a flamboyant display of chewing the scenery) doesn’t remember much from the experiments performed on him.  He’s lost his son.  That’s all he knows and cares about.  The rest will fall into place whenever the other shoe drops.

He just wants to save the life of his son.  But the corrupt government surrounding this reluctant lycanthrope will not be so easy to overcome.  They have the power and the laser guns!  And, made complete by their cardboard-looking armor and gear-spinning weapons, they are going to pose quite the challenge to anyone this former government official comes up against. 

Good thing he has the werewolf on his side!  Too bad we don’t get to see it in its full glory until the end of the movie . . . but, hey, it’s not like this isn’t a werewolf movie.  Moonchild is just a whole lot of exposition, too, which makes the acting from everyone is . . . challenging and so damn hilarious.Moonchild (1994)

Full of some serious practical effects (which includes an early attempt at morphing effects) as a handful or rebels attempt to outsmart an overlord and his stooges, Moonchild is full of a whole lot of endless gonzo situations involving granny-aged bounty hunters, protruding fingernails, masked thugs, and a hooded leader who speaks in a very “threatening” manner to his subservient hivemind of armies.  It also has some awkward kissing as characters find commonalities in their collective losses.

If you are expecting a masterpiece, look elsewhere.  Moonchild is a SOV disasterpiece which rewards its viewers with a whole lot of ambition as Sheets and company deliver class 7 and class 3 bounty hunters overenunciating their hammy lines, all against a heavy metal soundtrack which oozes just as much cheese as its cast and its slow-moving car chase sequences.

Think The Road Warrior on a $100 budget and you’ll get the picture.  It is now on blu-ray thanks to Visual Vengeance and Wild Eye Releasing.

4/5 stars

 
Film Details

Moonchild (1994)

MPAA Rating: Unrated.
Runtime:
102 mins
Director
: Todd Sheets
Writer:
Todd Sheets
Cast:
Auggi Alvarez; Kathleen McSweeney; Julie Kingr
Genre
: Horror
Tagline:
A full moon can be fatal!
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor:
Visual Vengeance
Official Site:
Release Date:
M1994
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
October 18, 2022.
Synopsis: A super-soldier experiment gone wrong turns a government agent into a raging werewolf.

Art

Moonchild (1994)