TRACK OF THE MOON BEAST

Track of the Moon Beast Movie Review

In a wonderfully awful scene, Paul Carlson (Chase Cordell) takes a shot to the head from a loose piece of a meteorite. The result is the young man turning into a "Moon Beast", a sort of half-man, half-reptile creature that stalks at night. Shot in 1972, this movie was meant to make it to the big screen, but instead got shelved for 4 years before making it's grand debut...on television. Let's get this out of the way right off the bat. If you are wondering what a Moon Beast looks like, here's a glimpse...

He's fantastic!

Yes, our star is a guy in a rubber suit and mask, and it's so bad it's good...as is most of the rest of the movie, for that matter. The acting is hilariously inept--Leigh Drake's portrayal of Kathy is must-see, and Gregorio Sala, the movie's Ahab, Professor Johnny Longbow, reaches out to his inner William Shatner to turn in a performance that is almost as bad. The dialogue is a struggle, but will provide some laughs. Speaking of laughs, you MUST see the special effects in this movie. They are beyond horrible, but so entertaining! 

This scene, in particular, is glorious

The end of the movie is a bit of a letdown, but hey, at least it looked awesome. Having visited Albuquerque, where this movie was shot, it was cool seeing some scenes and being able to say "Hay! I've been there!'. At one point in the movie, Paul tries to off himself by jumping out of the Sandia Peak Tramway He makes this jump at about 15 feet off the ground--as somebody who has made that ride, let me assure you, the Sandia Peak Tramway goes MUCH higher. I vividly recall the employee in the car stating we were almost 10,000 feet above the ground, or "an 8 second fall", so had Paul waited a bit, the Moon Beast would have certainly succumbed to such a plummet. Further note about my trip up that mountain--seconds after the guy made this declaration, and mere feet from the very top landing, our car had to stop for what seemed an eternity, as it was deemed unsafe to land due to the high winds. So instead of resting safely at the top of the mountain, we dangled, swaying, thousands of feet (or 8 seconds) above the ground. In another side note to that trip, I, along with our friend Charlie, teased my girlfriend on the way to this adventure, telling her she would be scared going up and down the tramway--she laughed, as both Charlie and myself trembled in terror, certain our fate had been determined. Back to our movie--Track of the Moon Beast is another entry from my 50 Chilling Classics collection--like most of the rest, it is a poor movie, but this one is so much more fun to watch than most of the rest. I'll certainly watch it again some day.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 6

Track of the Moon Beast Movie Trailer