Bloody Moon
At a language school in Spain, students become targets for a killer while an unstable man recently released from an institution returns to the orbit of his family. The film blends slasher conventions with Jess Franco's European exploitation style.
Film details
| Original / alt title | Die Säge des Todes; Bloody Moon |
| Year | 1981 |
| Director | Jesús Franco |
| Country | West Germany / Spain |
| Runtime | Approx. 85–90 min |
| Main cast | Olivia Pascal, Christoph Moosbrugger, Nadja Gerganoff |
UK status
A successfully prosecuted Video Nasty and one of the Jess Franco titles most associated with the UK list.
Later editions restored footage missing from older British releases.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- Jesús Franco directed more than a hundred films across many genres.
- Closer to the American slasher template than many Franco films.
- Olivia Pascal plays the central student character Angela.
- Its German title translates roughly as The Saw of Death.
- Set at a language school on Spain's Costa del Sol.
- British notoriety was disproportionate to its relatively obscure original release.
- Often cited as one of the more unusual entries in the DPP 39.
Distributor / VHS label
Archive cover shown is the user-supplied scan. UK distributor / VHS-label attribution varies by edition and is not asserted here without a verified sleeve imprint.
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
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