NateWatchesCoolMovies Summer's Moon, also given the slightly less exotic title Summer Blood, is a fascinating little family centered psycho sexual treat, starring an actress who previously hadn't ventures into such intense territory. Ashley Greene is a porcelain beauty best known for those Twilight train wrecks, and its that marketing style these filmmakers have latched onto because of her involvement. The poster has a hazy hue that almost hints at the dreaded vampiric sparkle we've come to loathe. It's picturesque to be sure, but doesn't really provide any warning to the disturbing, gritty and uncomfortably intimate nature ofnthe story. Greene plays Summer, a wayward drifter who arrives in a small bucolic burg, out to find the father she never knew. Enter the Hoxeys, an I'll adjusted family of serial killers claiming to be her long lost family, and beckoning her into depravity with all the charm and hospitality that small town folks can muster. Her brother Tom (Peter Mooney) keeps a kidnapped girl in the basement as a plaything and sleeps with his unstable mother (Barbara Nixon), and that's but a taste of the horror that Summer has waded into. The film takes on new virility when the resident patriarch Gant Hoxey blows back into town, played with visceral ferocity by veteran tough guy Stephen Mchattie. Intense is the word for this guy (ever catch his cameo in A History Of Violence? Christ), and he's a beast as Gant, Summer's estranged father, a man who functions on violence and feeds of fear. The film examines how a clan of murderers might indeed function, right down to twisted lover's spats and drama right out of an R rated Addams Family special. Greene nicely shatters her teen image by bringing us a broken protagonist who finds her dark passenger through resilience and torment, the blackness that sweeps over her soul clearly visible, loomed over by Mchattie's grim reaper influence. Murder and the desire to do so is regarded as a genetic trait in this film, passed along the line of kin, generation to generation, wreaking havoc in the process. A film that I underestimated going in, a terrific horror entry that takes its it's with character and suspense, slow burning up to a spectacularly gory third act filled with tension, blood and Mchattie, that icy voiced devil who steals every scene he's in. Well worth your time.

suite92 Summer travels to the small town of Massey, where she hopes to connect with her long lost father. After shoplifting in a convenience store where a cop is, the cop gives chase. Tom helps her escape the cop, and she goes home with him and has a one night stand. The next morning, though, Tom lets her know that she's not leaving. Tom's mother Gaia hits her over the head with a blunt object to drive the point home.When Summer wakes up from the head blow, she's staked, all four limbs, to a gardening bed full of exposed soil. She's not alone; there's another captive woman not far away. One version of the title is "Summer's Blood," and we can guess the origin.Darwin, Summer's putative father, gets out of jail, and comes looking for Summer. The Sheriff listens, but Summer has not left an impression that keeps his interest. He makes a few inquiries; Gaia is the first one whom he asks. Gaia tries to talk Tom into abandoning his 'gardening' and setting the girls free to avoid trouble with the law.Tom does some reading, which he shares with Gaia. They set Summer free, but keep her in their orbit. Soon after, Gant Hoxey calls, and there are a series of revelations.Then the emotional fireworks start. Who survives the gore fest? -----Scores------Cinematography: 5/10 On the dark side for the interiors, with better than VHS quality, but not by much. The colour palettes were often ugly to the point of looking like 1970s video shown during late night. The exteriors, fewer in number, were better, but still had the low-budget look to them.Sound: 5/10 For a Canadian film done in English, the actors seem to be lip-synching. Perhaps that's a Netflix problem, sound versus video. Music did not seem to be an asset.Acting: 4/10 Peter Michael Hilton and Paul Whitney were just horrible. Even as little as ten hours practicing reading lines might have helped. On the other hand, veterans Stephen McHattie and Barbara Niven were very good. Peter Mooney and Ashley Greene were just all over the map, occasionally believable, usually terrible.Screenplay: 2/10 The film is fairly open about incest, real or intended (Gaia and Tom, Tom and Summer, Gant and Summer), but does not seem to even try to capitalise on the shock value. The gardens did not make any sense. Was Tom just practicing protracted torture, or was there something to be gained from the plants? Referring to the original title, was blood actually involved there? What did the young women before Summer actually die from?

complications123 First up, anyone reading this should be well aware that this movie is nothing but trash. And yet, there are degrees of trash. I'd rather fall in compost than rotting diapers. The acting is uneven, especially for our female lead, the camera work is dubious with its sort of floating grayness, and much of the dialogue is unnecessary, repetitive, at times inane, and narratively much is left to the imagination. The film did however hold my interest, purely because it so overtly dealt with perhaps the greatest modern taboo; incest.As other reviewers have mentioned, "Summer's Moon" walks the line between horror and thriller, but never quite commits to either making for a somewhat bland presentation. The best thing the film had going for itself was its bold and unapologetic prevalence of incest. Whereas a shock factor such as this should've been pushed to the extreme, evoking all sorts of disturbing and grotesque feelings, it's left on the backburner as sort of the "oh no!" of the movie. The implications of incest are what are so shocking and disgusting to people. These characters however are somewhat immune to it. Not ignorant of or oblivious to, but immune to. It never impacts any of the characters in the way that it would impact an audience. The implications of mother/son, father/daughter, and brother/sister are more than enough to have the film banned in several countries. "Summer's Moon" never exploits the atrocity the way it should have being that incest is such a focal point of the plot and indeed it would seem one or more characters' sole motivational force.I wish I could say that what the film passed up in the realm of psychological mayhem was made up for in gratuitous gore, but what little blood is shown isn't even as grisly as most prime time TV shows. There's never really any sense of dread or tension; certainly the script is to blame but the actors also had a very hard time emoting anything other than childish fear with such a whopping dose of abject curiosity thrown in that none of the characters are particularly convincing in their respective roles. Summer is just a little too nonchalant about being a prisoner, and Tom and Mom are just a little too aloof about keeping captives. There's just no indication that the characters themselves have any motivation, as if they had sprouted up in a vacuum and were plopped into this bizarre situation.Finally, initially significant portions of the film end up stuck with no context. The "garden" was at first a bit eerie, mysterious, weird enough I thought there might be some half-decent reveal later on, but Tom's revolving door of girl-slaves gets shoved aside with no explanation about any of it or its relevance to Summer, who is clearly serving another purpose. And while psycho-Dad was easily the best actor of the lot, what exactly was the mechanism of his lunacy? Did he methodically plan out this whole scenario just to rape his teenage daughter ad infinitum? What did ANY of the film have to do with him killing random women? What purpose did the kidnapping of the last girl play at all? So many incidents are isolated that it can be tough to piece together the arrow of causality.So, "Summer's Moon," you get a bit of a nod for diving right down into the incest, but somehow you got lost focusing on the murky reflection of the water rather than embracing it's depth and terror.

Girish Gowda Summer (Ashley Greene) has run away from home and is searching for her father who had abandoned her and her mother when she was very young. A policeman catches her red-handed while she is attempting to steal from a store. She escapes from the policeman with the help of stranger, Peter (Tom Hoxey). She hooks up with him for a one-night stand and to her horror, he and his mother happen to be psychopaths. Peter catches young girls off-guard and brings them down to his basement where he has a human garden which is downright horrific. Here he subjects them to inhuman torture if the girls try to escape. Summer tries to escape, but cannot and decides it is better to join them rather than knowingly inflicting harm. During the course of her stay, Peter's father comes home and she finds out he is her father also. But her long awaited fairytale reunion is marred by the cold-hearted father who decides to enjoy her young ripe body, rather than enjoying her presence. Peter is bodily harmed when he decides to intervene. Her father takes her away to a secluded area where there is only a woman, whom he plans to finish off. Can Summer manage to escape her monster of a father? Ashley Greene did a good job in portraying Summer & Peter as the psycho who makes her a pretty flower in his "Human Garden" with skulls & another girl were pretty disturbing. I liked this film more than I would have as it stars Ashley & I'm a fan of her from Twilight. (Now, that will get me some hate..). She's not the two-goody shoes here & its very fascinating. The film when it starts to slightly drag sees the introduction of Peter's father, who is rather entertaining to us audiences. How could any mother do that with her child? That's just gross. This film, though not awesome stands on its own & you will not get bored. The performances are quite realistic. Give it a chance people. Don't overlook it.7/10