Moon in Scorpio (1987) Reviews

• Confusing B movie - OK timer filler, nothing more

  rinter-12007-03-21

  This is a below average movie that at best could have been an average thriller. The plot is confusing and has more holes than all the golf courses at Myrtle Beach. Britt Ekland is in a mental hospital relating her story to a psychiatrist about multiple murders on a boat. Her story starts as the newly weds (her and John Phillip Law, both trying to play characters 20 years younger) decide to spend their honey moon on a boat with 2 of his ex Viet Nam comrades and their sexy girlfriends. There are flashbacks of some Viet Nam war action thrown in. There are a few murders at the hospital with some one investigating the murders. Once on the boat people begin to get murdered one by one by what appears to be the ghost of a Viet Cong soldier. There are 2 people eventually left on the boat, Britt Ekland and a very sexy, spooky girlfriend of one of the other men. The 2 women left standing I suppose believe the other person is the murderer so Britt Ekland ends up killing her and that is the end of her story. The psychiatrist sort of says "well OK" walks away and hey its all over. You can watch this movie straight through without missing a second and still feel as though you walked away from it several times for 5 minutes.

• not very good... possibly a victim of reediting by producers

  FieCrier2004-12-30

  Well, the video box was nice. The color is primarily blue, a dusk or night scene of a ship with tattered sails, clouds suggesting the form of a skull, and the shadowy shape of a giant scorpion rippling in the water. The movie's title on the front and back covers and both spines is embossed. The ship on the front cover, and a detail of the scorpion on the back cover are similarly raised. According to the director's website, Moon in Scorpio is a "supernatural thriller set on the high seas with a vampire and astrological plot involving several decadent characters was re-edited many times by the producers." The producers must have reedited it, because it was not supernatural at all, nor was there a vampire. The plot didn't seem astrological, though one of the characters says about four times that the "Moon is in Scorpio" which she explains as being a time of fear, retribution, etc. Reediting might also be to blame for the movie's structure. It begins (and ends) with a shot of a ship bobbing with its sails down. From there, someone kills a doctor, and then kills someone in the hospital's parking garage, stealing his car. Then, the hospital hires someone to find the killer. He winds up on the ship where he gets killed by the only woman they find on board. The woman is hospitalized and she tells her story of how she came to be the only person left on the ship. She and her husband are going on their honeymoon. They are joining two other couples on a ship. The three men had been in Vietnam together. There are some stock footage clips of Vietnam, and we also see them there. At one point, one of them seems to struggle with a gristly skeleton in water. Perhaps that was part of the supernatural plot that got dropped? A man in the harbor gets killed by someone dressed in black, by an odd spiked weapon. Later, people on the ship get killed by an odd spiked weapon worn on a hand or by a spear-gun and pushed overboard. At no point do people know there is a killer on-board, until there is only the killer and the survivor left. Throughout this back-story, the survivor breaks in as a narrator, often repeating things we just saw and heard. The ending is quite bad, as a hospital official ushers the survivor out, suggesting she might be able to get married again sometime to have the kids she wants. The ending might also have suffered as a result of reediting. Not recommended, unless a director's cut comes out in which case this might deserve a second look, maybe.

• Oh man, I got seasick just watching it

  udar552013-08-10

  Newlyweds Allen (John Philip Law) and Linda (Britt Ekland) spend their honeymoon sailing to Mexico on a boat. Along for the trip are two of Allen's old Vietnam buddies - Burt (William Smith) and Mark (Lewis Van Bergen) - and their respective girlfriends. The bad news is one of these folks is a psycho who just escaped from a mental asylum and has been going around stabbing folks. I wasn't quite sure where to put this review, but I guess the "horror" thread works due to the multiple throat slashing. This VHS was purchased solely for the great cover art and that is easily the best thing about this flick. Director Gary Graver took a break from porn to make this thriller. He assembled a decent cast, but doesn't know what the heck to do with them. The story is told via flashback (Linda talking to a doctor played by Robert Quarry) and you'll get confused right away as the asylum breakout is shown before Linda is discovered and telling her story. This results in a total mess that comes off feeling like two movies edited into one at points.

• I'd love to see the movie this could've been . . .

  smittie-12006-10-28

  but I had to watch it as is. As is, it's awful. I can definitely buy that it was cut to pieces in the editing room, because the characters don't even get onto the boat until about 30 minutes in - the time before that being taken up by about three different, and inconsequential subplots that fail (in my opinion) to enhance the story one bit. And once they're on the boat, we get treated to the killer's ludicrous stalking about . . . seriously, you're on a small boat, why can't you 'hear' the crazy slasher coming? Once people start dropping dead, aren't you going to be a teensy bit more careful about everyone's comings and goings? And the 'Nam flashbacks are laughable. The peasants look like they're wearing day-glow rags, while the lush Southeast Asian forests are represented by someone's back forty. To be fair, the cover art's impressive, although at least one of the screen caps on the back wasn't even in the movie.

• Piece of garbage!

  HumanoidOfFlesh2001-03-27

  "Moon in Scorpio" is one of the worst slasher flicks I have ever seen.Everything in this picture is by-the-numbers,and even undemanding horror fans who only ask for competent gore will be disappointed,as the numerous murders(mostly stabbings and throat slashings)are practically anemic.Shot on a very low budget,the production values are almost nonexistent and the story moves at a snail's pace.This is truly bad horror film full of meaningless scenes which do nothing to the plot.The acting is completely awful and the direction by Gary Graver is even worse.An absolute trash-avoid it like the plague.My rating:2/10(for some nice murders).