Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Diavolo (indiediavolo) MOONCHILD has got to be one of the weirdest "horror" movies I've ever had the pleasure(?) of watching. Borderline incoherent for a majority of its run time, this movie is essentially what most people picture when you ask them to imagine a strange, pretentious student art film (which it actually is). I mean, it opens with a quote from Edgar Cayce! But there's a sort of raw, attractive weirdness to MOONCHILD, the kind of feeling you get watching a movie that the director obviously poured his heart and soul into. The maker of this movie was clearly reaching for great heights, and even if he didn't quite get there, it's pretty admirable what he did manage.The plot of MOONCHILD is from the same basic mold as "The Reincarnation of Peter Proud" and "The Search for Joseph Tully". In my opinion it's better than the former but worse than the latter. A young man (the "Moonchild", or "Gavallan" as we eventually learn) is under some curse where his soul continually reincarnates (conveniently looking identical in every life) and is drawn to a certain hotel where he is judged, harassed, prodded and put on trial for a trivial "crime" by an array of cryptic and weird people that populate the hotel, who are all based on people who he knew in his original life. Our protagonist is the seventh incarnation of this poor sap so far. I've always liked reincarnation as a subject in film and theme of being held hostage by the past, so I found the plot genuinely intriguing. The problem is, we don't learn the truth until near the end of the film, so most of it is just Gavallan wandering around the hotel encountering bizarre strangers who speak cryptic riddles at him. The fact that all the dialogue is basically in code and doesn't make sense at all until you know the truth of who the main character is a little tiresome. The film is beautifully shot, at least in the outdoor sequences. Indoor shots have a problem with murkiness. The color palette is muted and in the version I watched everything had a green tinge, which I'm not sure was intentional. The old mission/hotel that the movie is set in is lovely and I'm curious if any other movies were shot there or if it even still exists. In all, MOONCHILD is a movie I'd only really recommend to fans of the weird, cryptic and artsy, but I would definitely recommend it to those people. It's bizarre and rough around the edges, but that's part of what gives it its out-there charm.

arfdawg-1 A young artists spends the night at a mysterious inn, where he meets a group of strange, sullen people, among them the innkeeper's beautiful daughter.What he doesn't know is that he has wandered into a kind of spiritual void, and the inn's residents are engaging in a battle over his soul. Very odd 70's film saved in a way by a nice walk through by John Carradine and some very artsy and surreal direction. Supposedly filmed in Riverside, CA, the sets are very interesting as well.The print I saw held up very well. Color still popped.This is the only movie the director ever made. He started it as a student film. Apparently th film did not do well when released but in recent years it has become a cult item.Gadley also edited a student film of George Lucas. That's it. Sad there is not more information about him. He clearly was in school to get into the picture business and made an interesting first film, yet nothing exists about him. At the time I write this IMDb user are giving this an average of 2.2 stars! That's a disconnect. It's definitely way better than that.

t_atzmueller "Moonchild" ran on German TV under the title "Im Jenseits ist die Hölle los" (roughly translated as „All Hell breaks loose in the hereafter"), which led many viewers to expect a horror-comedy, since a zillion comedies ran under the moniker 'All Hell breaks loose …' (you just need to fill the blanks). Having recorded it on video tape and watching it many month later, I was surprised to find that this was neither a horror film nor a comedy – in fact, at the time I couldn't have put it under any genre apart from, say, experimental film.I don't want to say much about the story; this is one of those cases, where the viewer is best left to his own conclusions.The movie shouldn't be based so much on the story (which should really be left to the interpretations of the viewers) but rather on the excellent atmosphere: despite taking place in the seemingly endless, sun-showered desert, the atmosphere throughout is gloomy, claustrophobic, even suffocating. Although it is obvious that the director is young and inexperienced, there are traces of Bunuel, Kenneth Anger and even the "weirdness" of Salvatore Dali.While Carradine seems frail and sickly, bent by age. Victor Buono, as he does in most performances, hams it up to 11, swinging easily from gentle, benevolent giant to steely eyed and threatening menace. Over-acting isn't for everybody, but it has always worked for Buono. A similar thing could be said for Pat Renella with piercing eyes and sharp, chiselled features, there is an air of violence about his character throughout, until revealing a strange gentleness at the end of the film; evidence of a very distinct, versatile actor, making one sad that Renella hasn't gotten many bigger roles in his career.On the other hand, Mark Travis isn't altogether convincing as protagonist and it's no surprise that he only appeared in a handful of TV-shows after "Moonchild" – let's just say that acting isn't for everybody. Same goes for Janet Landgard and Frank Corsentino, whose performance as Homunculus is plain embarrassing. So, it doesn't come as much of a surprise that Buono and Renella easily steal the show.Compared to many contemporary, over-ambitious and self-important student- and experimental-films, this film is a little, albeit almost forgotten gem, even though it's probably not everybody's cup of tea. Highly recommendable if you're into "weird movies".

Infofreak 'Moonchild' is an odd little movie. Originally made as a student film, it would have been better if went for about an hour. As it is it gets a bit too dull and repetitive for my liking. Unknown Mark Travis plays a young art student who wanders in a strange and mysterious hotel where he meets a bunch of oddballs. He doesn't know it but he is stuck in a kind of spiritual limbo and the eccentric figures he interacts with may determine his ultimate fate. The only real reason to watch this silly and generally boring movie is because the cast includes horror legend John Carradine, star of countless movies, Victor Buono ('Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?') and William Challee ('Five Easy Pieces'). Apart from that, there's very little to recommend it. Writer/director Allen Gadney never made another movie after this and after you've watched it you won't wonder why.