Black Moon is a 1975 experimental fantasy horror[2] film directed by Louis Malle and starring Cathryn Harrison, Joe Dallesandro, Therese Giehse and Alexandra Stewart.

It was shown at the 1975 New York Film Festival and was distributed in the United States by 20th Century Fox.

Lily is attempting to seek refuge amidst an apparent gender-based civil war in which men and women are systematically killing one another.

She abandons her car, fleeing on foot, and falls asleep in a meadow, where she hears the flowers beneath her crying in pain.

Moments later, she witnesses a brown unicorn pass by, followed by a woman on a horse, and a number of naked children who begin herding a pig.

Lily climbs out the window and down the wall, and chases the unicorn around the sprawling property as it continuously eludes her.

The unicorn appears again, and Lily chases it until she trips over the pig and is set upon by the band of nude children.

Malle hired Sven Nykvist, Ingmar Bergman's cinematographer, to shoot the film, and wanted there to be no scenes in which there was direct sunlight.

[3] Thinking that the film would be difficult for audiences to sit through as a full-length feature, Malle considered releasing it in a shorter version, and prepared a one-hour cut, removing scenes that he felt did not work.

"[1] Time Out wrote, "Malle offers no explanation for his heroine's visionary odyssey through a world in which all history runs parallel with all realities.

"[6] TV Guide gave the film a positive review, calling it "'[a] haunting, disturbing picture that is half-fantasy, half-reality, but we are never certain which is which.

"[7] Joseph Jon Lanthier of Slant Magazine rated the film three out of five stars, concluding, "Suckling as it does from the budding teat of preadolescent sexuality, it’s not surprising that Black Moon is a tad Malle-nourished.