“The Lunar Pack” is composed of three tales of terror that all wrap around the enduring and fascinating werewolf legend. Jason liquori has created a series of short films that in and of themselves possess the qualities to be feature length films if the stories were padded with a bit more (RAW) meat. Hosted by Debbie Rochon as the strangely sexual Mistress Misty, “The Lunar Pack” certainly has its moments of extreme beauty, and it’s moments of weakness…
As with any low budget horror flick, there are complications with lighting, sound, and picture quality. Computer graphics leave something to be desired, and fade-ins and outs need to be smoother and less distracting.
Now the praise: The stories that are told in “The Lunar Pack” are really fun and thankfully employ an under utilized horror; that of lycanthropes. Sure, we’ve all seen the werewolf tale told many times, but right now the market is flooded with zombies, zombies, zombies. It’s nice to see a werewolf tale told with some really fun characters and a short attentions pan. Cause I have one. Short attention span, that is.
“Dark Rose” is a story that pits two women against each other; one werewolf, one vampire. An almost “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” feeling pervades this short, and some of the best woman –on-woman fighting scenes in any low budget indie film take place as Rose Lenoire is fighting the vampire. Lenoire, haunted by the fact that vampires killed her family 700 years ago comes back for revenge. This time, however, she has a few tricks up her sleeve. At the risk of giving away the story, which isn’t such a tragedy, Lenoire has become a werewolf in order to match the powers of her vampire adversaries. Nice blue lighting and some cryptic scenes add to the medieval glamour of this story.
“Sheep’s Clothing”, unfortunately, is not quite so entertaining as the previous story. Shot entirely in black and white, and with some grainy and poorly lit climax scenes, it is not nearly as much fun as “Dark Rose” or the story that follows. Following the exploits of a married woman suspected of cheating, a private investigator learns that she is hiding a very terrible dark secret. That secret being; you guessed it, werewolfism.
The last short, “Crying Wolf”, is by far the best. Not only does it possess superior cinematography, editing, and acting, it is also slightly longer than the previous two and more professional looking. Kevin White as the Sheriff and Shane Ferrel as Billy Joe really stand out as the stars of the entire film with their intense portrayals of a troubled man and a suspicious cop. Great nighttime sequences are pleasing and surprising based on the badly lit scenes from “Sheep’s Clothing”. When a young couple is attacked by a strange wolf-like monster in the woods late at night, chaos, confusion, and transformation ensues at the onset of the next full moon.
Of course, Debbie Rochon is entertaining and funny. Her presence serves a great purpose and she does her job well. By tying together the shorts with charisma and dynamite, with a dash of well-delivered humor, Debbie almost saves the day…”The Lunar Pack” without Debbie is an unrelated series of shorts held together by a thin, wolfy string.
Although plagued by bad CGI and sound, and a low budget, “The Lunar Pack” does have its moments. The filmmaker would be smart to focus on the sound editing of the shorts and the quality of the special effects. Often, over-ambitious makeup and costumes end up destroying many low budget horror films like “The Lunar Pack”. Generic and typical storylines that happen to be interesting are the strength of “The Lunar Pack”. Liquori knows what horror fans want in a storyline and in terms of scares. Despite the limitations, “The Lunar Pack” delivers some fun werewolf fights and drama to an audience thirsty for the cry of the wolf…
