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Eli and Karen are newlyweds whose car stalls outside
the swampy, Mississippi berg of Nioba. While Eli goes
into town to look for help, Karen is attacked and
raped by a shadowy being. Seventeen years later,
their son Michael is confined to a hospital, suffering
from a mysterious disease that the doctors cannot treat.
Eli and Karen decide to go back to Nioba, in hopes of
learning more about the rapist who is probably Michael’s
father, and who may unlock the key to his illness.
Meanwhile, Michael begins having dreams of a force in
Nioba, beckoning him to go there…and that’s when the
bodies begin piling up on Main Street. Michael is about
to find the true meaning of who, and what, he is.
Horror movies that bend and blend subgenres can
sometimes be a fun experience. Rarely do they ever get
the praise of being considered original, but if the
heart is in the right place, the results can be quite
a treat for the seasoned horror buff. For example,
1982’s “Superstition” (a.k.a. “The Witch”) mixed
elements of seventies occult movies, a devil possessed
house a la “The Amityville Horror”, and just the right
amount of teenie-kill thrills to create a somewhat
satisfying (if not somewhat sloppy) horror sandwich.
Lucio Fulci followed a very similar route with his
“House By the Cemetery” (also from the same year),
which practically steals ideas from “The Shining” and
“The Omen”…of course Fulci was gracious enough to
throw in a few gory slasher-esque kills, a zombified
murderer, and his trademark surrealism…all of which
make for a uniquely un-unique viewing experience. The
point is that no matter how silly or unfocused these
movies could be as a result of borrowing heavily from
others and no matter how many directions they went in
trying to toss a nod to this subgenre and that… they
managed to be fun.
And that’s what brings us to what I think is the main
problem with “The Beast Within”. On one plateau, it
goes for the 1950’s teenage monster movie (think “I Was
a Teenage (fill in the blank)”) that serves as an allegory
for the growing pains of adolescence. On another we
have a sort of demonic possession flick (think 1977’s
“Ruby”) that allows the story to take a few supernatural
liberties. Lastly, we have a semi-gory body count film
with a slight giallo-feeling central mystery that dwells
on not who the killer is, but why and how. All sound
familiar, yes? Unfortunately, the one film that unites
all these elements can’t decide whether to tie them
together or let the chips fall where they may. In one
moment we are pressured to be shocked and in the next
are forced into complete boredom.
To be fair, there seems to be a little potential
lurking in the corners of “The Beast Within”. You get
the feeling that the original story (upon which Tom
Holland’s script is based on) might have been pretty good…
but there’s no real attempt to wring any suspense out of
the central mystery of whom Michael’s father is and what
this means for Michael…it’s done so ham-fisted, that
you’ll wonder why they’ve tried to make it a mystery at
all. What’s worse is that what passes for plot feels
rushed through to get to the show-stopping final twenty
minutes where the special effects artists get to do their
stuff. Another thing that “The Beast Within” has got
going for it is some creepy atmosphere…the town of Nioba
looks as crippled and repressed as its history suggests…
the air itself looks damp and moldy as if the outlying
swamp held the town in a stifling grip…dilapidated houses
and storefronts that are decaying just as much as the
skeletons its inhabitants are hiding in their own closets.
Some decent scenes come out of this atmosphere, which
creates a mood that is, if anything, unsettling.
There’s less to praise on the technical end: Ronny Cox
and Bibi Besch play Eli and Karen like hopelessly twangy
Southern dimwits with emotions ranging from hysterical to
impassive. Given that they’ve both starred in bigger and
better things before, they seem to be giving it the old
college try, but still seemed confused as to how they wound
up starring in this. As Michael, Paul Clemens seems to be
going for an apt duality, alternating between scared
innocence and aggressive boy on the cusp of manhood…but
even this is hard to sort out when the movie can’t decide
whether to give him a real personality or just use him as
a showcase for effects. Philippe Mora’s direction seems to
be lacking as well. Scenes are choppily edited, and quite
a few of them are so darkly lit that you can barely define
what you are looking at. There are some pointless flashbacks
thrown in, and some truly irritating title sequences that
mark chapters of the movie as “The First Night”, “The Second
Night”, and so on.
A couple of men have their throats torn out (one of which
is shown kneading a bloody hunk of hamburger meat beforehand)…
one man is stabbed to death with an embalming needle…another
victim takes a bloody gash to the head (and lives)…a severed
hand is found by a dog…a decent beheading…some bloody gunfire.
The coup de grace of the whole film is the infamous
transformation scene toward the end wherein Michael turns into
“the beast”…makes ample use of the “bladder effect” which was
considered pretty cutting edge for the time.
Not bad, eerie stuff that echoes a lot of the music that
popped up in horror movies of the time…synthesizers, severe
violin and piano stuff. Musical score was done by Les Baxter,
who also created the “Lassie” theme song as well as quite a
few Roger Corman productions (“Dementia 13”, “The Terror”, etc.).
Ronny Cox wrote and performed the country music in the film
(so hey, maybe the guy wasn’t all that confused about being
in the film).
Disappointing, and I’m not really sure why. My expectations
were minimal to begin with, but there are quite a few reviewers
out there who seem to deem this one as an unsung cult classic…
but hey, that’s the chance you take when you get into horror
films. For me, it was borderline watchable and not something
I can ever see wanting to sit through again. Take that for
what it’s worth.
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