Powerful

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Absolutely Fantastic

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

OCTOBER MOON is a very low budget shot on video gay relationship drama with a few horror touches. It's only really notable for featuring NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD's Judith O'Dea and scream queen Brinke Stevens in support. The horror elements only really feature at the climax and until that point the journey is grainy, long-winded, and populated by characters you simply don't care about.

Jason Paul Collum both wrote and directed this little film that resembles a gay 'Fatal Attraction' without the benefit of a tight script, good actors, suspense, or sophisticated effects and camera work. Sadly it boils down to a fifteen-minute story spread out over an almost interminable 2 hours.The story involves on Corin (Sean Michael Lambrecht), a 30-year old ad exec in a five-year bumpy relationship with 23-year old party boy Jake (Jeff Dylan Graham). Corin's boss and friend Nancy (Brinke Stevens) understands Corin all too well, appreciates his relationship, but in attempting to relieve his work duties hires an assistant Elliot (Jerod Howard), a gender confused nerdy lad who is engaged to his lifelong chum Marti (Tina Ona Paukstelis) in a push from his mother (Judith O'Dea) to make things 'right'. Elliot is befriended by Corin, brought into Corin's and Jake's friendship, and Elliot and Marti and Corin and Jake begin socializing. Elliot falls for Corin, comes out of the closet to the extreme dismay of Marti and his mother, and despite Elliot's friendship with Corin and Jake, he begins to stalk Corin. Corin's rebuff of his advances leads to disaster and the film tumbles downhill from there.Yes, some may view this weak little foray as being full of statements about love, obsession, relationships, and friendships, but all of that has been said far better before and without the seemingly tacked on genre of a horror film. The acting from the women in the film is good, but the men are blunted stereotypes. Everything about the film screams low budget. One annoying factor - a music score that sounds like lessons on electronic keyboards and obscures a lot of the dialogue - turns out to be a blessing in that the weak script is covered frequently. Most viewers will utilize the fast forward button to get through the repetitious dialogue and race for the end, a predictable, stagy tableaux that really doesn't resolve anything. Not worth two hours of your viewing time.

Contrary to what most other reviews have said, this movie breaks absolutely no new ground, nor features anything near a high-quality execution. An unrequited love turns an obsessive admirer violent? Give me a break. The mere fact that the love is homosexual is hardly enough to provide an adequate twist, or to persuade someone to lower his standards enough to accept this film as watchable. Horrible actors stumbling over pathetically groan-inducing lines, uninspired cinematography and editing, and an agonizing hour of useless exposition all contribute to make it an extremely tedious experience. A low budget is no excuse for a lack of talent. As a romantic drama it ranks below the worst standards of television, with its extremely trite and overwrought love-triangle concept, and as a tense thriller it falls flat on its face by creating absolutely no tension. It fails both in concept and execution, producing an all-out stinker.

I found myself enjoying this movie a lot more than I thought I would. Expecting a slasher flick I found October Moon to be an intelligent drama, picking up steam as it progressed. Solid performances by industry veterans added a lot, offsetting a wooden performance by the lead Sean Michael Lambrecht. Jerod Howard's portrayal of Eliot's (forgive the cliché) "descent into madness and obsession" was aided greatly by his expressive eyes. I am eager to see what director Jason Collum can do with a bigger budget.All in all, I enjoyed this movie, and recommend it not as a gay themed movie, but as a study of what extremes love can push a person and a comment on the importance of being true to oneself.