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 It would only be a matter of time before they would make a movie about Ed Gein himself, the cannibalistic serial killer who inspired many great horror movies like "Psycho", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Silence of the Lambs" (and also a great thrash metal song, "Dead Skin Mask", by Slayer). Interestingly enough, those movies have just barely scratched the surface of Gein's madness. Even to this day, he still ranks as the weirdest of all of the serial killers (at least out of the several hundred I've read about). Unfortunately, this movie doesn't dig much deeper into the madness and leaves out a lot of the brutal elements that made Gein so infamous. If you're hoping for something in the same vein as "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer", then you will be disappointed. "In the Light of the Moon" also struggles to decide whether to be a horror movie or a documentary, and the result is a rather wishy-washy cross between the two genres. It's not nasty enough to be a very effectively horror movie, certainly not one in the same league as "Silence of the Lambs" or "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", and it's not quite informative enough to be a good documentary. On the plus side however, Steven Railsback--who is no stranger to serial killer roles and has even played Charles Manson in the TV-movie "Helter Skelter"--does a decent enough job portraying Gein (he certainly has that crooked grin down pat), and the movie scores some points for generating suspence and also for showing some glimpses of Gein's rough childhood that ultimately claimed his sanity. The bottom line: "In the Light of the Moon" turns out to be a so-so movie. Take it or leave it. |
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QUARTER BY QUARTER ANALYSIS OF MOVIE
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OVERALL RATING
** NOTE: The more dots, the better it is. 12 dots indicates a masterpiece while no dots means it's a "disasterpiece." ** |
    
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The Worm-Hole Reviews are written by Matt Barnes.