Dawn of the Crescent Moon

**_College students venture to a remote lake in Texas to research a legend_** This is an indie that only cost $75,000, but the filmmaking and acting are proficient enough to disregard that potential limitation and enter into the world of the movie. While the set-up makes you think the youths are going to encounter a diabolical creature at the lake, or perhaps a mad slasher with a machete, the story takes a refreshing turn with quality insights. There are two issues which hold the production back. For one, the female cast is serviceable, but that’s about it. It needed at least one person of the caliber of Suzanne Davis in “Fear Runs Silent” or Cerina Vincent in “It Waits” and “Sasquatch Mountain,” aka “Devil on the Mountain.” Worse, the history and mysteries surrounding the lake don’t congeal: You have the Texas Ranger massacre of a group of Comanches, a cache of sacred gold hidden in the lake, and a collection of spirits guarding the treasure or the lake (I’m not sure which); on top of this you have miscellaneous ghosts manifesting. It’s like writer/director Kirk Loudon had DVDs of “Comanche Moon” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” on his coffee table, along with several issues of Marvel’s Man-Thing that dealt with the Nexus portal in the swamp, not to mention a volume or two of ghost stories, and thus he conjured up the plot with his cowriter. Nevertheless, the creativeness was unexpected, and the flick is sort of inspirational. I walked away with a good feeling. It runs 1h 35m and was shot Oct-Dec 2013 in Fayetteville, Texas, including the Fayette County Reservoir, which is located just northwest of the town. Meanwhile the opening college scenes were done in Houston, which is 95 miles due east. GRADE: B-/C+