Seventh Moon is the latest picture from one of the names behind the Blair Witch Project. It uses the same “shaky-cam” footage that the other film was known for, but offer also offers some chilling scenes of its own.
Melissa (Amy Smart) and Yul (Tim Chiou) are newlyweds that are touring Yul’s homeland of China before going off to meet his relatives. They’re being driven around by tour guide Ping (Dennis Chan). The happy couple has just attended a religious festival and is driven into the night by Ping.
They’ve had a little too much to drink so both doze off in the back of the car. The car stops and Melissa awakens to see Ping going towards a village. He says that they are lost and he’s going to try and find directions. Ping is gone entirely too long and the couple goes to the village. It’s seemingly abandoned with all the doors and windows being boarded up.
However, there are small animals and food all around with religious banners all around. The people inside the houses start chanting and the couple flees. What they discover is that moon demons are prowling the woods because the gates of hell open wide on the seventh moon and now they have to avoid being dragged back to hell with the monsters.
True confession times kiddies. I’ve never seen the Blair Witch Project. Sure, it’s in my movie collection but with it being in the press so much as well as being parodied, I just guess I felt like I had already seen it and never got around to watching the real movie.
I know that director, co-director of Blair Witch, Eduardo Sanchez seemed fond of the shaky-cam and his film gave motion sickness to people everywhere. He’s not put down the shaky-cam as much of the assaults of the moon demons and running from them is done in this style. The mad camera movements only adds to the suspense as the blurry white devils are never gotten a good look at, well not till later.
The monsters are naked men painted white with strange symbols painted on them as well. They’re very effective in my humble opinion as the chattering, wild-eyed oddities chase people through the woods and eat them when they’re caught. Amy Smart and Tim Chiou is also a nice couple and you really don’t want to see them get eaten.
I really liked this Ghost House Underground entry (got two more to go but this one is my favorite so far) and found it very effective and scary. The foreign setting and mythology also add a certain mystery to the film as well.
Seventh Moon is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary with writer/director Eduardo Sanchez and Amy Smart.
The 11 minute “Ghosts of Hong Kong” is a making of, the 5 minute “Pale Figures” looks at the demon’s makeup, the 7 minute “Mysteries of the Seventh Lunar Month” is about mythology of the event, the 3 minute Ghost House Micro Videos are clips from the flicks with rock music, the 1 minute trailer, and previews of other Lionsgate products. If you put your disc in your DVD-ROM drive you’ll also be able to access special content on the web.
Seventh Moon is an effective chiller that features some interesting mythology and likeable characters. Likeable characters are always nice since you don’t want to see them get killed. If you got queasy watching Blair Witch you might also turn green under the seventh moon as the camera darts all over the place. The odd movements do add a certain mystery as well as seasickness.
Seventh Moon is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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