October Moon Movie Review: A Gay "Fatal Attraction"

You know how some movies continue to haunt you as soon as the closing credits are finished rolling by and it's all you can think of for maybe a couple of hours? Well the indie "October Moon" will haunt you for a long time after the credits are done.

This independent feature never made it to the theaters but went directly to DVD and probably sat on the shelf awhile before someone actually took the time to either rent or buy it. And once that person watched it the buzz began ever so slowly.

"October Moon" is about a nerdy/creepy guy named Elliot who's controlled by his mother and fiancée. You can't help but feel sorry for Elliot since he never really had a life and still lives at home at the age of 30.

Unemployed Elliot (Jerod Howard) lands a job at an advertising agency as the assistant to Corin Buckman (Sean Michael Lambrecht) an openly gay account executive. On his first day of work, he notices a picture of Corin and his boyfriend Jake but doesn't say anything until it's brought up at lunch with their boss Nancy (Brinke Stevens).

Elliot feels left out since Corin and Nancy are so close and having never been a part of a crowd is thrilled when Corin invites him and his fiancée Marti to his place for dinner.

Still elated at the invitation of dinner and being part of the crowd, his overbearing mother (Judith O'Dea) asks how his first day went. Excited he tells her and Marti (Tina Ona Paukstelis) about Corin and the fact he's gay. His mother cannot accept the fact that he's working "for one of those people" and Marti sort of backs her up but tells her she knows some gay people and they are funny and "they dress well too." It still doesn't sit well with Mrs. Hamilton that her son would want to socialize with that type of person.

But what the two of them don't realize is Elliot is having doubts about marrying Marti once he starts to figure out he's been gay all of his life and won't admit it to himself.

Nancy and Corin figure it out right off the bat but it takes Elliot awhile to figure it out for himself.

When he and Marti do go to Corin and Jake's (Jeff Dylan Graham) house for dinner an agreement was made between Corin and Elliot that they'd have to go to a straight bar and a gay bar. At the gay bar Elliot is confronted by drag queen Chantal (Chad J. Morrell) who had been cruising him a few days earlier in a bookstore parking lot.

Chantal comes out and tells Elliot that he's gay, but Elliot still denies it until he starts to dance with Corin.

Slowly Elliot's feelings begin to grow for Corin and eventually he starts to reject spending time with Marti and more time with Corin. His obsession begins to grow over Corin and soon he's inviting himself over for no reason and while Jake and Corin are having problems in their relationship they decide to get away for a weekend and Elliot invites himself along just to be close to Corin.

Concerned over what's happening with Elliot, Nancy pulls Corin aside at the office and warns him about Elliot. He blows off her warning and within a few days fires Elliot.

Elliot tells Marti he's gay and she runs to tell Mrs. Hamilton who throws him out of the house never to return. With nowhere to go he goes to Corin who tells him he's ruining his relationship with Jake and to leave.

While there are flaws with this gay "Fatal Attraction" they are easy to overlook (except sometimes the dialogue is a little too gay) and in today's business world I don't think Nancy and Corin would be that casual at the office. Also, I don't think if you went over to your boss' house he'd be walking around in his boxers.

Even though the movie went straight to DVD, (a certain death for films as they're usually labeled as B), this movie is definitely an A and should have gotten the theater release it deserved. According to the official website www.octobermoonfilm.com distributors said America wasn't ready for a movie with two lead gay characters especially a horror film.

I wouldn't consider this a horror film per say but possibly an erotic thriller with a mesmerizing ending which leads into the release (sometime) this year of "November Son."