Small town Louisiana sheriff (David Janssen) investigates a murder that may have been committed by a werewolf. I love '70s TV movies. They just seem to have been of a higher quality than the made-for-TV stuff these days. This is a nice little murder mystery that takes its time building up to introducing the werewolf element. The only way I can see you being disappointed with this one is if you come into it expecting it to be a werewolf movie from start to finish. I suggest keeping your expectations reasonable and enjoy it for what it is, not hate it for what it isn't. It has nice atmosphere, locations, and a distinct '70s style. The werewolf's identity isn't much of a mystery but the atmosphere and the great cast make up for it. Loved seeing '50s sci-fi star Barbara Rush. She was in her forties here but lovely as ever. It's a very enjoyable TV movie that should appeal to a variety of people.

MOON OF THE WOLF (1972) is an OK-at-best, made-for-TV werewolf flick that has one outstanding quality: the setting in the Louisiana Bayou. I tend to love Horror films set in the Deep South and the setting in this one seems very genuine. After several locals turn up murdered, the sheriff (David Janson) of a rural Louisiana Bayou community suspects a werewolf to be responsible... MOON OF THE WOLF offers no real surprises, to me personally the identity of the Werewolf was clear pretty soon (actually, it was too obvious, which gave me a lick of doubt). A romance between the sheriff and his high-school sweetheart is thrown in as a filler. The film occasionally becomes somewhat boring, which, regarding the screen time of 75 minutes, is quite an accomplishment. Yet, the film has its qualities. As mentioned above, the setting is awesome. The Bayou landscapes all look very genuine, as does the small-town, and a vital part of the movie takes place in a Colonial mansion. Some of the bit-part players make a genuine redneck impression, one of them the prolific Geoffrey Lewis, a great supporting actor whose filmography includes great films of many genres, including MY NAME IS NOBODY, Clint Eastwood's HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, DILLINGER and Tobe Hoopers SALEM'S LOT. MOON OF THE WOLF may be enjoyed for the Deep Southern atmosphere, but overall nobody who hasn't seen it has missed anything.

After several locals are viciously murdered, a Louisiana sheriff (David Janssen) starts to suspect he may be dealing with a werewolf.Films like this one (as well as "Dark Night of the Scarecrow") prove that once upon a time, movies on television could actually be good. Today, that may be true, but in my opinion far less often. (The SyFy channel single-handedly lowers the bar on made-for-TV movies.) This film introduced me to the term "loup-garou", a type of werewolf that is common in the culture of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius. I do love how a plot point is that the townspeople do not know the term or even how to say it, with "loukarook" and other variations being used. This also taught me about the fictional "Seibert's syndrome", an offshoot of blackwater fever. That fever releases hemoglobin directly into the blood vessels and into the urine, frequently leading to kidney failure. Pretty sure that the guy allegedly suffering from it in this movie does not know what he is talking about.Sure, the werewolf (when we finally get a good glimpse) is a bit cheesy. But that is fine by me. Give me a well-crafted 1970s film over today's version of werewolves any day of the week. I would rather see a guy with a decent five o'clock shadow running amok than Taylor Lautner and his washboard abs sulking.

Overall, this is not a terrible film. It is made for television, and it doesn't have "blockbuster" written all over it, but it does have likable characters and a relatively interesting plot.It begins with the murder of a young girl, Ellie, who appears to have been attacked by wild dogs. Sheriff Aaron Whitaker (David Janssen) arrives on the scene and has the local doctor perform an autopsy, which reveals a head injury that could not have been caused by wild dogs. Hence, the little backwoods Louisiana town has a murder on their hands. As time goes on, Sheriff Whitaker searches from suspect to suspect, to later discover that the killer is, in fact, a werewolf.Like many of those who have recently seen this movie for the first time, I got my copy of MOON OF THE WOLF from a cheap public domain collection, specifically Mill Creek's "SciFi Classics" 50 Movie boxed set. I do believe this movie is also available in other such collections and can likely be found for free online. It's not a bad movie for fans of werewolf-themed mystery, although I dare say this is not science fiction, nor is it horror in any sense other than the general content of a lycanthrope.