15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Barely worth a rental, July 15, 2006
This review is from: Beast of Bray Road (DVD)
Ugh. Where to begin? When I watched this film I knew there would be liberties taken for dramatic effect, and as one of the researchers involved with the real-life Bray Road incidents, I had to keep an open mind. After all, the film uses savage murders as its key subject point, but in reality, there were no human deaths in the real Bray Road cases. Unfortunately even my suspension of disbelief was not strong enough to stomach this film. Had writer/director Leigh Slawner (also known as Leigh Scott) done any research into the subject matter at hand, he could have come up with a decent indie werewolf film, because mercy knows we need one. Unfortunately he follows "Hollywood Formula" to the letter. When I was watching it, I told a friend in disgust all we needed was a bar fight and a cat jumping out of a closet to make the stereotypical plot devices complete. We didn't get the cat, but midway through we did have the bar fight.
The "Beast of Bray Road" is a sloppy, lazy, and cliche-ridden farce that's completely untrue to the self-proclaimed "Based On A True Story" title, and a mockery of the situation as a whole. Absolutely nothing in the film is based on the real Beast of Bray Road aside from the name of the film, and that was probably ripped off from writer Linda Godfrey's book with the same title.
Even if we disregard the real-life events that "inspired" it, it sill fails as a film in general. With the exception of a few characters, the acting is juvenile, the camera work uninspired, and the glaring inconsistencies are so bright, you literally need sunglasses to watch it. Elkhorn, Wisconsin is a city, not a drunken shanty town. Wisconsinites do not speak with Southern accents. Walworth County sheriff patrol cars do not have California license plates. The list can go on and on and on...
The plot is predictable, most of the characters are shallow cardboard cutouts, pacing is inconsistent, and on whole I felt as if I was watching a freshmen college student's final exam project. About the only redeeming aspect was the score. While not groundbreaking, it was at least decent enough to listen to.
Overall, if you're a fan of werewolves or a fan of real-world cryptids, you'll be sorely disappointed. This film brings nothing new to the table, and it falls back on every single convention used a million times before in previous werewolf films, and it does it badly. Unless you're a werewolf film completionist, this film isn't worth a buy. It's barely even worth a rental. For those interested in the real-life mystery, your best bet is to read _The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin's Werewolf_ and _Hunting The American Werewolf_ both by Linda Godfrey. Unlike the film, these won't disappoint.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Look out CHANEY,Theres a NEW Werewolf in town !, October 27, 2005
This review is from: Beast of Bray Road (DVD)
I was enthralled with this monster flick ! The cast: Jeff Denton(Has a James Dean-ish bent ),Sarah Lieving has a great screen prescence and will go far, Totally believable. The special effects would gross you out, But logically. Wanna talk about the beast, Joel Hebner portrays the beast and he is great; the suit by Eva Lohse and Dizzworks design is different than earlier cinematic beasts . Producers push the envelope that this is a true story,And on IMDB a fan says he has photo of REAL Beast of Bray Road. I wanna talk about ending, It was innovative and yet pissed me off, And the irony is we cant discuss without a Spoiler Warning, See you on the message boards AND WE SHALL DISCUSS !
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Waste of Time and Film, September 10, 2006
This review is from: Beast of Bray Road (DVD)
First of all, I am not opposed to B grade films. You know what to expect from them and they don't disappoint. People watch these movies (almost always of the horror genre) to see who lives and who dies. There are characters you like and hope survive and there are complete idiots you cannot wait to see "get it" from the monster of the title. These movies pass the time late at night when insomnia creeps in or on those rainy Sundays when there is nothing else on and you have no interest in going out. Unfortunately, "The Beast of Bray Road" cannot see these B movies from the level of Hell it resides in.
Let's start at the beginning. The movie claims it is based on a True Story but this is only in terms of the title. Witnesses in a small town in Wisconsin claim to have seen some sort of mysterious creature but this is the extent of the story. There has never been reports of anyone perishing at the hands of the beast. Second, if I were from the town where this movie is supposed to take place I would be highly insulted. Everyone in town is depicted as either a drunk, and idiot, or an @$$hole (sometimes a combination of all three). As I stated before, people sometimes watches B grade films to see the villains get killed and the people we like to survive. I watched this film to the end hoping to see the entire town get slaughtered. Not one character in the film is likable or has a redeeming quality. Everyone and everything is a cliche of every other movie made and it is done poorly. People will get killed and no one seems to miss them or even find their bodies.
The story makes no attempt at professionalism. The police follow no proceedures whatsoever. An abandoned car from the first victim is found by the side of the road. There is damage and signs of struggle (not to mention large streaks of blood covering the passenger side door) and the cops just have the car towed. No crime scene integrity. Not even a search of the immediate area. At least other movies of low caliber try to make an attempt. There is even an "expert" who arrives in town to assist in the search for the beast and he delivers his lines with no conviction but plenty of contradiction.
The faults of the film are just too numerous to list. The characters are all one dimensional, the beast looks like a shag carpet with eyes and teeth, and the dialogue is a joke with no punch line. The ending of the film comes with a dedication to the people of Wisconsin. The Enthusiasm that must have come from having this movie dedicated to you would be right up there with finding out you have a venereal disease. Treat this film like it was VD and just stay away.
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