Cold Moon

In his invaluable book Danse Macabre, Stephen King writes about the slicing open of the goose in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Blue Carbuncle to reveal the titular gem, and the reader’s joy at sharing the finding something special where nothing could possibly be expected to be. Directed by Griff Furst, son of Animal House star Stephen Furst, Cold Moon isn’t quite that gem of the story, but it’s an interesting little rabbit hole that really isn’t your normal horror-thriller. Although this is a serious film in which the main character is a delusional serial killer, it’s also based on Cold Moon Over Babylon by Beetlejuice writer Michael McDowell, who King rated highly for his less celebrated work; King’s wife Tabitha finished two of McDowell’s novels after his death.

So that’s quite a pedigree for starters. Cold Moon is set in the town of Babylon, Florida, where the Larkin family are threatened by degenerate banker Nathan Redfield, played by Josh Stewart. Redfield snaps into action in the opening scene, murdering teenager Margaret Larkin and tying her to her own bicycle and throwing her in the river. Her spirit then emerges and soon Redfield is getting bad feelings. His father James (Christopher Lloyd) is no great fan of Nathan, and neither is Sherrif Ted Hale (Frank Whaley from The Doors) who is onto Nathan’s scheme to inherit the Larkin farm. But Nathan moves fast, and when the community demonstrate their innate racism by deciding that a black schoolteacher might be the killer, an opportunity presents itself that will take him to the grave.…

It’s a little disconcerting to see a film that aims to tell a story from within the mind-set of an active serial killer, but Cold Moon does it and at a fairly breakneck, pulpy pace. There’s a little William Faulkner mixed with EC Comic morality here, a little of the Southern strangeness of Harry Crews’ Feast of Snakes. And snakes there are many in this film, and yes, some of them have Beetlejuice-style heads on them; this film is aiming less at jump scares that a more traditional kind of deadly morality.

There’s a remarkable line-up of talent here, including The Man Who Fell To Earth’s Candy Clark and even Tommy Wiseau, and if Cold Moon feels rushed and chaotic at times, there’s a very solid horror story in there, and it just about gets over the line. Perhaps I shouldn’t characterise Whaley and Clark by one specific film from long careers, but it’s a shorthand for where you might know them from. And after Cold Moon, you’ll certainly never see Beetlejuice quite the same way again…