Full Moon High is a 1981 American comedy horror film written and directed by Larry Cohen. The film stars Adam Arkin, Ed McMahon and Roz Kelly.
The plot revolves around an adolescent boy becoming a werewolf while his aging process ceases.
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Plot
A teenager goes on a trip to Transylvania with his father and gets bitten by a werewolf. Made ageless, he attempts to put his life back together a couple of decades later by enrolling in high school. He initially tries to keep his secret from the school and the three women who show interest in him — a sexually active high school student, his own former girlfriend (now a married mother of one), and one of his teachers. He ignores sexual advances because it is his "time of the month."
He later encourages the female high school student to film his transformation. She, and the students who later watch the film, mistake the footage at first for a stag film, but after people watch the whole film, the werewolf is arrested for the crimes he committed while in wolf form. He, as the wolf, escapes prison in time to participate in his high school's homecoming football game. There he is gunned down by a psychiatrist. He survives because inflation has rendered a single silver bullet insufficient to kill a werewolf.
Cast
Adam Arkin as Tony Walker
Ed McMahon as Col. William P. Walker
Roz Kelly as Jane
Joanne Nail as Ricky
Bill Kirchenbauer as Detective Jack Flynn
Kenneth Mars as Coach / Principal Cleveland
Elizabeth Hartman as Miss Montgomery
Alan Arkin as Dr. Brand
Louis Nye as Reverend
Demond Wilson as Cabbie / Busdriver
Cheryl Lockett Alexander as Pregnant Teenager
Jim J. Bullock as Eddie
Tom Aldredge as The Jailer
Tom Clancy as Priest
Laurene Landon as Blondie
John Blyth Barrymore as Student
Bob Saget as Sportscaster
Pat Morita as Silversmith
Armando G. Fernandez as School Dance Dancer
Production
The film was filmed partially at John Burroughs Senior High School in the city of Burbank, California, in the summer of 1979. A portion of this movie was also filmed on location in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, on the football field in Bergen County Park at the foot of Valley Brook Avenue and River Road. The stands were filled with everyone from the town, and the varsity football team of that year were featured.
It is Cohen's "only outright comedy"
Reception
The film has a seemingly disorganised structure that may be explained by its chaotic production conditions.
Legacy
Dread Central called the film a cult classic. The film has been compared to the later Teen Wolf.
Screening
The film was screened at the Paris French Cinémathèque in January 2023 as part of the Cohen retrospective.