Bad Moon (1996)

While on a scientific expedition in the jungle, Ted and his girlfriend are attacked by a werewolf. He is the only surivivor. While he  manages to blow the creatures head off, he is still afflicted with the werewolf curse. 

He returns home and parks his trailer in an isolated spot near the woods. But people hike or work in the woods and he’s a werewolf. So it’s only a matter of time until the police are involved due to the bodies popping up in the area. Although there is a large police presence surrounding Ted’s trailer, they don’t seem to be interested in the man living in the murder zone. So Ted decides it’s time to park his trailer in his sister’s backyard.

Janet and her son Brett are excited to see Ted, although their dog Thor is a bit wary.  That’s weird, thinks Janet, Thor’s always liked Ted. She envisions everyone happily playing in the yard, but Thor knows he’s looking at a predator.

Contrary to popular werewolf lore, Ted turns into a werewolf every freaking night.  He combats this by going out for a jog before it gets dark, chaining himself to a tree and then coming back in the morning. This is super inconvenient since Janet is getting suspicious, Thor is sitting outside watching his trailer, and  Ted should be much farther away from Janet’s house to avoid any accidents.

Ted starts off thankful to be alive and grateful to see his family, but as the movie progresses he starts getting evil. He is mean to his nephew and sees Thor as an enemy.  Evil status is confirmed when he starts chewing toothpicks, and he’s truly chewing them based on the bent toothpick that he takes from his mouth.

At one point a conman who pretended he was bitten by Thor comes back at night for revenge. Silly conman.  Werewolf Ted kills him, but the next day the Sheriff thinks Thor did it.  But wouldn’t an autopsy reveal the man was eviscerated by some huge claws?  

The movie stars Mariel Hemingway, Michael Pare and Mason Gamble. The werewolf is decent but there is a transformation scene that seems fairly low budget compared to the rest of the film.  The conman is only in the film to show that Hemingway is a smart tough lawyer who won’t be pushed around - even though she’s kind of a dunce when it comes to the werewolf. 

The werewolf in the woods

Is that a dog behind me?

Chewing on a toothpick? Oh yeah, he’s turned evil