DVD review: Half Moon (2010)

Rose (Tori Black in her first role outside of the adult film industry) is a down-on-her-luck prostitute who s short on cash. When she hears of a mysterious client named Jacob (Marek Matousek) who pays a large sum of money for one night in a hotel, she goes against her better judgment and takes the assignment. At the hotel, Jacob proves to be a strange client: he´s willing to pay up front, and more interested in honest conversation than anything else. Then, just as Rose begins to feel at ease, she learns that her latest trick is about to undergo a transformation by the light of the full moon and she s about find herself trapped in close quarters with a terrifying monster. Half Moon is written and directed by Jason Toler. The acting is decent, this is the first time I´ve seen anything with Tori Black, I didn´t know much about her except that she´s in the adult filmindustry and with that in mind I didn´t have very high expectations regarding her performance/acting skills but she´s actually pretty good and is quite believable in her role. The camerawork, editing and soundtrack is pretty decent.I´m sure that some viewers might be put off due to the fact that Half Moon is slow, dialogue-laden and most of it takes place in one room with two characters. And there is very little werewolf action and there is only some very brief gore (practical make-up fx). In my opinion the werewolf design is pretty decent and I do love that it is practical man in suit design but the transformation scene is pretty bad.  Plenty of T & A in this, mostly provided by the Tori Black who also has a seductive dance-scene and a prolonged softcore sex-scene with Marek Matousek.
This review is based upon the region 1 DVD release from Vicious Circle Films, Breaking Glass Pictures.
Rating: 3½ out of 7. I enjoyed this. It was very different from what I thought it was going to be. And on a finishing note, Tori Black is f*cking gorgeous, I simply couldn´t take my eyes off of her when she is on the screen (even when fully clothed) and her acting is a lot better than might be expected. Recommended to fans of character driven horror that focuses more on suspense than blood and guts.

/JL