A church in Amityville runs a halfway house for wayward girls. When the various delinquents, runaways, and junkies begin disappearing, a detective (Trey McCurley) is called in to investigate. He figures out all the disappearances have occurred during a full moon. Could a werewolf be responsible for the missing girls?
Other than the opening title card that states the location of the church, there’s nothing here connecting The Amityville Moon back to the other Amityville movies. Really, it feels closer to an unrelated Howling sequel than an unrelated Amityville sequel. If we were judging this on the merits of an unrelated Howling sequel, it would earn relatively high marks (as far as Howling sequels go, that is). The central premise is similar to Howling V (it’s a whodunit movie where a werewolf is the culprit), and the effects aren’t too bad. While the werewolf make-up isn’t exactly great, I always prefer seeing a guy running around in a scruffy wolf suit rather than some shoddy CGI shit, so I’ll take what I can get. We only get one werewolf transformation scene (which makes sense since the werewolf’s identity is kept secret until the end), but it’s a decent throwback to the old school days of werewolf filmmaking. Crepe hair grows, rubbery fingers stretch out and extend, ears become pointy… shit like that. The gore is OK too.
The acting ranges from passable to solid. The actresses that make up the residents of the halfway house do a fine job, especially in their group therapy scenes. McCurley makes for an acceptable hero too, all things considered.
I can’t quite go to bat for this one. That’s mainly because it runs out of steam before it crosses the finish line. I do have a tendency to grade these fake Amityville movies on a curve. If it was a “regular” horror flick, it probably would’ve gotten **. When watched within the confines of a month-long fake Amityville sequel marathon, you realize it’s not too shabby. Since it’s certainly more competent than your average Amityville rip-off, a ** ½ rating is more than justified.
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