Customer Reviews

Beast Within [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

First caught this film on HBO some years ago. Loved it. Since then have had it on CED, Beta, VHS, and now I'm anxiously awaiting my copy on DVD -- 2:35 ratio and all! It's definitely not for the young ones -- it starts off with a rape scene. Some may consider it dated by today's standards, but it's just an old-fashioned horror movie which holds up very well. Eerie, scary fun with a few surprises. Would never expect the all mighty Leonard Maltin to like it -- actually, I wonder if he even has any taste in his mouth!

This was worth renting. The original box says: We dare you to sit through the last 30 minutes of this film without covering your eyes, screaming, or running from your seat! A good movie for its day. I added this one to my collection.

This is the original frightfest that my sister and nephew bragged about sooo many years ago about. That was 1982 folks! i purchased this dvd a couple of years back just because i thought of them. I remember all the chats about how horrible the scary parts were. well, it was laughable now but i bet really gross then? this is the kinda flick designed to keep you company on a lonely Friday or Saturday night folks! the story involves a woman who had been raped one night and eventually got pregnant from her attacker...a weird bug cicada creature. The reason for the attack stemmed from him wanting to secure his revenge on his enemies. Only by returning via his offspring can he carry about his malevolent plan. Cicadas sleep under the earth for 17 years and then return in the summer to eat and spawn and that's the basis of the creature in this flick. Unfortunately for his son life will be shortlived and rather ugly since he never gets to live out his dreams, love his girlfriend nor get out of such a boring town? Just where in the world is this town anyway? The directors and creators of this wacky freight fest state that "absolutely no one will be able to widthstand the last few minutes of this film!" Well, I did and it was nice to see a shoe string budget horror flick be both gross and disturbing while still maintaining a somewhat cohesive plot? There are no REAl stars but it did include actor Meshach Taylor (from Designing Women fame) who plays a minimal part in this wacky fest. I recommend this weird movie to all of you who enjoy cheesy horror movies and the like. I just wish the plot would have been a little better but that's ok. I just wanted to know why Meshach always played bit parts in horror flicks? At least he didn't get split in half like he did in THE OMEN 2. Yikes!

All these other reviews citing lack of logic and bad plot must be deaf or not watching close enough becuase all the questions had easy answers i found while watching this movie. And kids sometimes in a horror movie answers are left unaswered cuz its better and more scary that way. It make you do something called think or invent your own answer, as in be creative, which the other reviewers here seem unable to do. Most horror films will disapoint you if you cant think. For gods sake dont rent a foriegn film you would really be lost. The plot is about a boy who was concieved during the rape of his mother by a monster. The couple who bring thier son with them in the car, LOL cant believe someone said how did the son get there. That reviewer must have been in the bathroom during that scene. They all go to the town together years later and scary fun things happen. Horror movies are not about good taste so dont expect it. In fact i get insulted when they get all pc on me. If i wanted that i would rent some lame soap opera like stepmom. This is just a fun monster in the backwoods fun gory fright flick. Its well worth the money horror fans of that you can be sure.

In 1963, An couple who get got married (Ronny Cox & Bibi Besch) caught a flat tired on the Road of their Honeymoon. Once her Husband leaves his Wife to get Help. Minutes Later, He came back to find his first-wife, who is Naked in the Woods. She was been raped by a Mysterious Person, who seems to be Monster. Almost Two Decides Later, thier Son (Paul Clemens) has grown-up to be their loving son but Once he becomes Sick & has Vivid Nightmares about the Thuth of himself. He decides to go Back, where his Mother been brutally Raped but Once his does, He finds the True Nature of himself.

Directed by Phillipe Mora (Communion, The Howling 3, Mad Dog Morgan) made a Scary, Distasteful but Entertaining Horror-Thriller. This film has a Terrific Music Score by Les Baxter (Black Sunday, The Raven, Tales of Terror) & an fine Cinematography by Jack L. Richards. Make-Up Effects Creator:Thomas R. Burman (Halloween 3:The Season of the Witch, Cat People-1982, Teen Wolf) are the Highlight of the Film. DVD has an terrific anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer & an strong-Dolby Stereo 2.0 Surround Sound. DVD only extra is the Theatrical Trailer. Not for the Faint of Heart. Screenplay by Tom Holland (Child`s Play, Fright Night, Stephen King`s Thinner). Based on a Novel by Edward Levy. Panavision. Grade:B+.

THE BEAST WITHIN (1982) is an obscure horror film that has a very small cult following. The film is directed by Philippe Mora (Howling 2 & 3) and written by Tom Holland (Thinner) based on the novel by Edward Levy. The film is about secrets, familial sins and vengeance. The film has a very small budget, and as amazon friend Karen Shaub would say; "it's not fair to compare a B-flick to a high profile film, but B-movies have their charm..".

A married couple, Eli and Caroline MacLeary (Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch) is driving down a lonely Mississippi road in the dead of night. Suddenly, their car spins out of control and they get stuck in the marsh land. Stuck in the mud, with no traction, they couldn't get out. Eli decides to walk back to town which is only a couple miles away to get a tow truck. Caroline protests but Eli insists that she be left behind to watch the car. Before Eli could come back, his wife is brutally attacked and raped by an unknown assailant.
17 years later, Eli and Caroline now have a son named Michael. Michael is stricken by an undetermined disorder in the Pituitary gland and he is dying. Desperate, the couple remembers what happened years ago and decides to return to the small town to find an answer. Michael breaks out of the hospital and follows his parents to the town; but for some reason he feels drawn by an unnatural force to a small house in the woods; particularly the cellar. A day later, Michael is found and confined in the hospital. However, strange and brutal killings have began to occur. The MacLeary family's lives are about to be changed forever.

The film may have all the clichés inherent in a horror film in its first act. Leaving your wife alone in the night in the woods to get help? Too cliché. The first act also has a lot of flaws in the script, certain details were unexplained as to how Caroline knew what to look for in the newspaper's back issues and just how Michael was able to drive to the small town by himself. Some scenes were also too convenient, such as his meeting with Amanda (Kitty Moffat). At first, I thought I was in a exploitation film, a monstrous unknown attacker raping a beautiful woman seemed straight out of J-horror sexploitation.

But the film does OVERCOME its lackluster first act soon enough. I noticed ambition in its direction, when we see the woods in the attacker's first person view and only the hand was revealed when this thing undresses the younger Caroline. Surely signs of calculated direction by Mora. What also got my attention is the film's foreshadowing. The town undertaker, newspaper man were being killed; one by one. What was the killer's motivation? The killer's identity is not at all subtle, we all see him do the deed but the mystery lies in the why rather than in the who. The cellar door being opened also serves as the evil being unleashed.

The direction and cinematography is quite competent and succeeds in the build up of its characters. You see Michael suffering as he exhibits very peculiar behavior and obscene acts. The film also has some clever bits of "First Night", that gave me the impression that I was watching a werewolf movie, but no, we don't get away that easy. The so-proclaimed "Beast within" is quite more sinister in its own way. In a way, it can be seen as the representation of raw fury and savage rage; the links between Michael and his mother's attacker may seem obvious but what isn't so obvious is just what exactly he is changing into.

The direction manages to keep me very intrigued. Michael's slow transformation first affects his boyish features, slowly giving him signs of lack of sleep that results in his youthful looks to change into something very different. Now, when the final transformation does occur, it embodies all the film's hard work in generating restrained suspense that ends with an exclamation point. The transformation is a cross between "The Howling" (nope he's not a werewolf) and something totally "Alien" to me. The use of prosthetics were used to emulate the transformation; eyes were sinking under and his skin becomes part of gooey, slimy features--but it's not over, once Michael sheds his youthful skin then we see just what exactly the attacker was. Effects Supervisor Thomas Burman deserves a pat in the back. Rick Baker (An American Werewolf In London, Thriller), Stan Winston (R.I.P) and Thomas Burman have the stuff before to match today's standard CGI.

Now the film does succeed in certain aspects of its premise. Restrained suspense, some blood and gore, full frontal nudity that all have the makings of a cult classic. The so-called secrets actually have some credibility but SOLID answers as to the causes of the transformation are never given. Biological failure due to cruelty, Hereditary causes or Possession? The answer is left to the viewer.

Overall, I found "The Beast Within" a very creepy and suspenseful monster feature despite its flaws. The film's cinematography and direction were solid enough that it was able to make the argument that it is a good movie, and I was able to ignore the weaknesses in its script. Of course, the fact that the film is low budget gives it some elbow room. The film had an intriguing story, decent performances, the plot is mapped out quite well. If you compare it to the recent garbage the horror genre has been plagued for the past 3-4 years, it holds up quite well and may prove their better.

Recommended! [3 ½ - Stars]

This movie is just really dull. You just can't take the movie seriously, and this movie tries hard to be some kind of serious revenge story. By the time it gets to the monster scene, you ended up not caring and just want the movie to be over. I have to say, this movie does have one of the funniest monster transformations I have ever seen! At one point, I thought he was about to turn into ET!

"The Beast Within" is representative of the 1980's monster-inside-a-man horror genre, although the film is the only one I can think of revolving around the life cycle of the cicada. The quick version is this: Eli and Caroline MacCleary (Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch) run off a country road at night. Caroline is pulled into the woods and a giant cicada beast mates with her while her husband is away. Nine months later she delivers a healthy boy, Michael (Paul Clemens,) who lives the first seventeen years of his life fairly normally. Cicadas are on a seventeen year life cycle and so is Michael, who was conceived as a horrible act of vengeance. Even though the details are summarized by Judge Curwin (Don Gordon) at the end of the film, the plot is still fairly confusing, especially since the first half of the film is lethargically paced, making it easy for the mind to wander. Michael is possessed by a spirit making him seek to destroy the entire Curwin clan, and he does so quite efficiently, pausing only to fall for Amanda Platt (Kitty Moffat), herself a Curwin and daughter of the biggest lunatic (and double murderer) you have ever seen.

Michael is admitted to the hospital where the local doctor doesn't know what to make of him. Still the killings continue, and get more creative ("He's been embalmed alive!") The film is way over the top, especially in scenes like the electrocution of the local town drunk, and the frenetic atmosphere is fronted foremost by Clemens, who could easily found an organization called "Overactors Anonymous," as he routinely chews the scenery and comes back for more ham. There are many distasteful things in the film, some related to the gore content (which, while significant, is tame by today's slasher movie norms,) with others just plain nasty. In the latter category I definitely put the "vampirism plate lunch special" scene after Amanda cuts herself with a paring knife. It's just creepy and revolting (and not in a good way.)

Michael tries to kill himself by throwing himself out of Amanda's window, but unfortunately he lives. He asks Sheriff Pool (L. Q. Jones) to investigate Lionel Curwin's root cellar, and sure enough, they find the skeleton of the former cannibal who now possesses Michael. The backstory is extremely complicated and requires an undue amount of attention, even when Judge Curwin methodically explains it. It involves affairs, murder, imprisonment, cadaver cannibalism, unethical undertakers, a massive coverup engineered by the Judge himself, vengeance, and general insanity. I paid close attention and went back and watched several parts of it a second time, and I am still not entirely satisfied I understand all the convolutions required to get fully up to speed on the plot.

Amid the frequent sounds of cicadas, Michael gets worse and worse, first losing his youthful looks, and gaining scary darkened eyes, all of which culminates in the hospital when he fully transforms into a hideous monster. The monster gets more and more ridiculous looking as time goes on, and even sheds his skin at one point (like cicadas do) before becoming the horrible cicada monster himself. (Surprise!) In an incredible plot contrivance, Amanda flees the scene of the action in a truck, and runs off the road and is thrown into the woods, but otherwise unharmed. (I bet you can't see what's coming next.) With most of the surviving cast in tow, Michael runs through the woods, finds Amanda, and in an utterly nauseating circle-of-life moment, repeats the cicada monster mating cycle. (It's been more than seventeen years since the film was made, so hopefully we are safe from a sequel.) In the stirring conclusion, Michael (now appearing more like a lichen monster) attacks his own father, and his mother has to take him out with a shotgun. They will be needing some therapy for quite a while I'm guessing.

I gave the film three stars overall. The first half was downright boring, while the second half was much more captivating. The acting was all over the place. Cox was great, as was Jones, whose performance as the Sheriff was the best in the film, and reminded me a bit of Dennis Weaver in McCloud. Besch was fine, and had one of the more difficult roles to play: fainting, terror, and killing your own son are hard to pull off and make believable. Clemens was fine when in character as pre-cicada monster Michael, but quickly went over the top as the character started to change. A little goes a long way, and a bit more subtlety in the acting and direction would have helped. The prosthetics and effects look very dated by today's standards, but they are still better than some computer generated graphics I've seen. The single worst effect was the prehensile tongue scene in the hospital. (Groan.)

This is an interesting film for horror fans: it's an excellent representative of modest-budget 1980's shock films. While parts are laughable, the last half is fairly captivating, and most of the actors turn in fine performances.

Nothing new here just rehashed and done so poorly. The movie gets 2 stars only because House of the dead holds the title for worst zombie flick. The birds in this movie apparently don't do anything but fly around you annoyingly, and you can fall 4 stories and walk away as long as you land on someone else.
Don't waste your time.

Ok movie for obviously being low budget, funny how you can tell that it's targeted at American viewers. I would say that if your a zombie movie nut you'll enjoy this one a bit. gets cheesey and drawn out at times, and the ending is nothing to write home about, but I spent a total of $5.00 with shipping so I'm not complaining about that!