DVD Release
A newlywed couple visiting China for their honeymoon find themselves set up by a small-town tour guide as the sacrificial offering for his village’s Hungry Ghost Festival. Instead of fighting their way through tourists snapping pictures, the couple is forced to flee for their lives when Chinese moon demons come for their live offerings.
After the mega-success of The Blair Witch Project I remember quite a few people proclaiming that Eduardo Sánchez was one trick pony and he’d never go on to be a successful filmmaker. While it’s certainly true that neither Sánchez nor Myrick have gone on to see the same success that TBWP received, they have indeed become filmmakers known for solid, dependable horror cinema.
Eduardo Sánchez’s Seventh Moon is a nifty little J-horror-inspired flick that successfully utilizes the Hungry Ghost concept, offering viewers some thrilling sequences involving eerie locations, occasional gore and some visually stunning antagonists. I’ve seen the Hungry Ghost thing before, though not done as well, in films such as Kelvin Tong’s The Maid and Danny Draven’s Ghost Month and, in my opinion, Seventh Moon is the best thus far. The acting, especially from Smart, was quite good, the “ghost white” moon demons were spooky as hell and Sánchez did a bang-up job of weaving it all together into something alien and distinctly Chinese, despite being an American film.
Outside of The Children, Seventh Moon is one of the best Ghost House Underground films released. Admittedly the film could have used some history on the seventh month and hungry ghosts for those viewers not “in the know,” the moon demons could have been explored more and the film could have used a bit less vérité camerwork but it still manages to stand on its own two feet.
Though not blown away, I really enjoyed Seventh Moon; the demons and their underworld reminded me quite a bit of the DEROS and their dimension from Shimizu’s minor masterpiece Marebito. Go figure. Anyhow yeah Eduardo Sánchez did a damn good job on this low budget film and he didn’t need to remake or ride a bandwagon to do it. If you’re looking to grab a film or two from the 2009 Ghost House Underground series, do yourself a favor and purchase The Children and Seventh Moon.
