A great short film which I can totally see becoming a feature film. Cool and creepy idea behind director Ryan Graff’s 8 minute short.
Involves a rather simple story, though simple is often the way to go. Especially when you are dealing with a short film. No fuss, no muss. We pretty much get right into it from the opening seconds here.
The idea behind this being that on rare occasions there are months with two new moons. For example, in the United States this recently happened on July 31 and is going to happen shortly in Canada (and other parts of the eastern coast of this continent) on August 30. As you can imagine there is some mythology which has cropped up involving this occurrence. Supernatural mythology. Cool source material for films.
Being hidden in plain sight is a big part of the creepy factor in Black Moon. It is nighttime and a mother (Fabienne Tournet) makes a call on her cell informing the person who is with her kids that she is on her way home. Suddenly her phone cuts out and she is not able to really complete the conversation. As she is looking quizzically at her phone she hears a cry coming from the pedestrian tunnel she has stopped near.
It is the crying of a young girl. Of course, this draws the attention of the mother. Despite the fact that it is probably not a very safe or smart idea for a woman alone at night to head into the tunnel, she does out of concern for the child. Once she is deep inside the tunnel it becomes apparent that things are not as they first seemed. The mother realizes she is in danger and is not there alone.
The unknown. We humans don’t like that. Creeps us out. A big part of what makes Black Moon scary is that exact feeling. This in conjunction with the rather dark and tension boosting visuals makes for a rather tense 8 minutes. You are never sure what is going to happen though you feel it is not going to be good.
All emerging out of a rare natural occurrence. Humans have often tried to explain things like this and myths have been born out of this. Guaranteed after seeing this film you will be checking your calendar or the Internet for the next double moon happening in your area.