I Watch Films: Moon Of The Wolf

 

Moon Of The Wolf

In Marsh Island, Louisiana farmers find the partially eaten body of a dead woman, Ellie Borrifor. The locals mostly believe that she’s been mauled by wild dogs, though whether before or after death isn’t clear. Her brother Lawrence accuses her lover, though he does not know who that is. The doctor reports that she died from a blow to the head, which the sheriff thinks might well be foul play – or it might be an accident.

The locals form a posse to hunt the wild dogs, but has little success. The brother, more and more unhinged, blames the mysterious lover, while the sheriff starts to suspect the brother. The elderly, ill, incoherent father of the woman keeps repeating a mysterious phrase, Rougarou. Inevitably the investigation leads to the home of the local plantation owners, the richest family in town. There Andrew Rodathe claims to have had an attack of malaria that night. His sister Louise disgraced herself by running away to New York with an unsuitable man. When Lawrence attacks the doctor, the sheriff puts him in jail.

It turns out the woman was pregnant. When the sheriff confronts the doctor about this he admits he didn’t put it in the report because it wasn’t about the cause of death, and because it was him who was having an affair with Ellie. Puzzling over this, the sheriff admires the full moon; getting back to the jail he discovers the steel bars have been destroyed and his deputy and Lawrence killed.

With the town in a panic Andrew volunteers to be a deputy. Back at the Borrifor house the father has created a potion; when Andrew breaths it he has a fit and has to be taken back to the hospital. While they are at the house Louise, who speaks French, speaks to the father and it reveals that what he’s saying is loup-garou, the French term for werewolf, though between his strangled voice and his thick Louisiana accent it’s completely unclear. Obviously the werewolf is revealed for a final sequence.

Watch This: Spooky werewolf mystery using the setting with some flair
Don’t Watch This: The mystery is obvious, the characters dull and flat