Full Moon Fever

It was a full moon on Monday (no, not a new moon), so this seems like as good a time as any to do a certain Coverbox Wednesday I’ve been waiting to do for a while. At my video store, we had no shortage of titles from Charlie Band’s company Full Moon Entertainment. I think they must have had a deal with Ballbuster or something because whatever stuff they were peddling, we were buying. I used to eat up their horror catalogue after being indoctrinated into their world with Puppet Master II in 1991. I had actually seen some of their earlier offerings like Shadowzone and Creepozoids before that, but didn’t realize they were Full Moon until much later. I used to love the Puppet Master movies. If I might just nerd out (more than usual?) for a second, I have to confess that the only fan letter (besides X-Files fan club correspondence) I ever wrote was to Full Moon, more specifically an actress named Charlie Spradling, who appeared in PM2, Meridian and also hosted several episodes of VideoZone, which was a little featurette that appeared at the end of almost every Full Moon release. Ah... mammaries--I mean memories! Anyway, let’s back on track, shall we? I have documented the franchises of Full Moon like Puppet Master and Subspecies here before, so this time around I am going to concentrate on some of the other outrageous genre titles that hit our shelves in the early nineties. Enjoy!

This one featured a young Seth Green, but I know you are more interested in the "Virtual Reality Special Effects!" Apparently, The Lawnmower Man was a real trend setter.

Stuart Gordon directed this one, which should make it no surprise that P&TP is one of the better titles Full Moon has to offer.

This one was about voodoo and featured a stone hand that flew around turning people into chickens. The even crazier thing could be that I remember liking it.

As cheesy as this Jeffrey Combs/Brian Thompson vehicle appears, there actually is a cool stop-motion animation sequence involving two battling dinosaur skeletons.

It Came From The Archives 4.1

When I was working at my video store in the early nineties, I discovered a film production company called Full Moon Entertainment. I think the first movie I ever saw of theirs was something called Shadowzone, but my obsession didn't kick into high gear until I saw Puppet Master II. From then on, it seemed like our store had a new release from them every few months and they certainly didn't skimp on the merch. My last trip into the archives, I brought out all of the Full Moon related stuff I accumulated at that time and I'll be throwing it up here all week long. Honesty, between the ages of ten and twenty I seriously don't think I threw a single thing away, so if you're a fan of Full Moon, you've come to the right place.

The first thing I have in abundance are posters. Now that my poster collection is all ready to go, here are some Full Moon releases from back in the day.

Arcade featured a young Seth Green and was written by David S. "Dark Knight" Goyer.

Directed by Stuart Gordon and starring Henriksen, Combs & Oliver Reed. EPIC!

My favourite!

In 1993, Full Moon created two more labels to offer more specialized genre titles. The first was Torchlight, which released soft-core sci-fi and comedies such as;

Take a closer look at that lineup above.

The second company was Moonbeam, which provided lighter fare for kids. You may be shocked to know I don't have a poster for Prehysteria.

Next, there are all the clippings. We would get magazines at the store from distributors hocking their wares, and Full Moon was among them.

I'm not sure where I acquired the cards below, but the Weekend Of Horrors I attended in 1991 would likely be a good guess.

That's it for today, but, like I said, I've got a lot more stuff to show you so check back tomorrow when I talk about Charles Band and joining the Full Moon Fan Club.

Full Moon Fever 2019

In preparation for an upcoming article for Delirium Magazine and also that I'm working the booth at Fan Expo, I brushed up on nineties Full Moon movies this week. By brushing up, I mean I somehow viddied sixteen titles between Monday to Friday. 

Most of them I watched through Fullmoonfeatures.com, which is their official streaming site. You should check out their 7-day free trial, as it not only has FM titles, but also that of Blue Underground and Wizard. Okay, enough shilling, here's a quick rundown.

My introduction to Full Moon and still one of my faves.

Sherilyn Fenn & Charlie Spradling are so hot in this they almost melted my laptop. I didn't remember it being so rapey when I was sixteen.

This was a lot of fun. Jackie Earle Haley plays the villain. 

Stuart Gordon & Charles Band make a fine pair. This is a high point in Full Moon's catalogue. 

Some cool stop motion and Anders Hove bringing it as the villainous Radu.

The only thing more distracting than all the sci-fi exposition were all the close-up shots!

Hard to describe, definitely more incoherent than I remembered it. The flying hand was still cool, even if it is just ripping off Phantasm.

A Puppet Master redo to be sure, but these new creatures are certainly memorable.

This riff on Invasion of the Body Snatchers is one of Full Moon's more pedestrian offerings.

Completely bonkers idea and good move to cross market the soundtrack featuring Blue Oyster Cult.

Can't get the rights to Dr. Strange? No problem, just make your own!

Man, I love nineties computer graphics. It's like Seth Green says; "VR is the wave of the future!" Over twenty-five years later, the future is here!

Overall, this is the best PM film of the series, even though I'm still partial to Part 2.

Even though barely an hour long (when you take out the flashbacks), this is still amusing and a pioneer of the now-ubiquitous cinematic crossover event.

High concept and larger production values than normal. Solid flick.

Gordon is back with another winner. And this time he's brought Jeffrey Combs AND Barbara Crampton. Top notch make-up effects in this one.

So yeah, now my brain is slightly fried. I think I've earned myself some sun, wouldn't you say?