FULL MOON HIGH (1981), a little-seen jock-turned-werewolf flick, starred Adam Arkin (most recently seen as the divorce lawyer in A SERIOUS MAN), and featured Ed McMahon (as his film dad), Alan Arkin (his real-life dad), and Roz Kelly (who I know better as Pinky Tuscadero).
The film pre-dated the better-known werewolf-as-high-school-athlete movie TEEN WOLF by a good 4 years. And, it was directed by a personal hero of mine, Larry Cohen, just after It Lives Again (1978), and just before Q: The Winged Serpent (1982). Here’s a clip.
Sadly, although this movie is widely available on VHS, it was never released on DVD.
Very recently, Paracinema Magazine had an article on the films of Cohen and Full Moon High was brought up briefly. I had never heard of it, let alone knew that there was a werewolf comedy set in high school before Teen Wolf. Very surprised there was no lawsuits. That cover is great though…kind of reminds me of Where the Wild Things Are!
At Scarecrow we’ve got a different VHS box. It looks like this:
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/vhs-videos/1474-1.jpg
I kinda like the one you posted more. It’s sinister as shit. But the other one has a good Jack Davis vibe going on. Good movie!
Tommy: I hadn’t seen that version of the boxart. It probably more accurate to the tone of the film. I like how both versions take care to work in the bats to reference the film’s Transylvania connection.
Matt: Full Moon High tried to even the score by adding a “The Only School With a Team Wolf” tagline to later adverts:
http://reeldistraction.com/images/full-moon-high-alternative.jpg
[...] to pipe in on the ‘VHS covers I love‘ post earlier, be sure to check out Video Heat, the very awesome vhs cover art Flickr pool. [...]