A small town Louisiana sheriff (David Janssen from The Fugitive) suspects he may have a werewolf problem. Several townsfolk have been killed and the crime scenes are a suspicious mix of beast and man. 

This is a TV film that aired in 1972. Because it’s pretty good and scared a lot of kids, it now has achieved a little bit of a cult status. 

While it definitely often feels like a TV movie, I enjoyed this. Character actor Geoffrey Lewis shows up and I’m always there for him, even though every time the camera catches his eye, I see his daughter Juliette. They literally have the same eyes. 

The werewolf is pretty cheesy, kind of looking like the old Universal…

"Moon of the Wolf" is a 1970's made-for-television film that exactly feels like a made-for-television film in all its merits. There are no real issues with it, and it tells a somewhat spooky story about werewolves, but it definitely is held by constraints to be advantageous. It's a simple story involving a smaller town setting and an assortment of locals that turn up dead due to what seemingly appears to be wolf attacks. Naturally people have disbelief in the supernatural until the deaths become more violent. Being a town in Louisiana, there is some flavorful elements of voodoo and Cajun sensibility, but essentially, it's a very basic Werewolf movie that does nothing exciting.

One interesting note is that it's directed…

I do love a 70s curio. And this is one for sure. A made-for-TV version of a regional b-movie. Neat. But if you go into it, based on the title, thinking you’re in for a wild werewolf gore-fest, then you’re going to be disappointed. Because this isn’t that.

This is bloodless. With very little creature action. Really. We don’t even see the monster for at least the first forty minutes or so (out of a total of seventy-five minutes). Instead, what it gives is more of a Louisiana detective story. We follow along with Sheriff Whitaker (David Janssen) as he interviews poor leathery bayou folks and rich plantation folks to try and find out who the town murderer is.

There’s…

I can understand being disappointed by this 1972 TV movie by Daniel Petrie; it's bloodless, has a low body count and we don't even see the werewolf kill anyone until past the 40-minute mark. It's absurd that only one character in the Louisiana-set film can speak French, and that nobody knows what a loup-garou is. The film focuses on David Janssen for the entire running time then switches allegiance to Barabara Rush for the climax, leaving him with nothing to do but wander around in the woods. Much like Petrie's better A Howling in the Woods from the year before, the leading man is rendered inert. There is no mystery at all about the identity of the killer, either.
But…

Made-for-TV and very clearly so, but not due to lack of craft. It looks great, making ample use on the on-location Louisiana shooting, and the nighttime scenes effectively add some chilly mood as well as obscure and frame the few shots of werewolf.

As they should, because when its clear; its just a well-groomed but heftily hairy face, with a very dirty nose like they dipped it in the flowerpot. The attacks and kills of the wolfman all occur offscreen and we don’t get to seen any aftermath beyond some bright red splats of alluded gruesomeness on the ground.

There’s a decent POV hunting scene, that ends in a freezeframe because either buy budget or censors; that’s all they could…