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58 reviews in total

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14 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Overlooked 80s cult horror., 17 November 2001
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

Philippe Mora does has made lots of very strange movies in his underrated career, some good, some truly awful. This is one of the better ones. If you analyze the plot too much the holes become big enough to drive a truck through, but just ignore the urge to do that, and you'll find you're watching an near-classic of transformation horror.

A newly-wed (Bibi Besch) is raped by a mysterious beast on her wedding night. Seventeen years later her son (Paul Clemens) is dying of an unknown illness. She and her husband (Ronny Cox) return to the scene of their past trauma to try and get some answers. They find some strange townsfolk who appear to be hiding some mysterious secret. Exactly what it is I won't say. It would not only spoil the movie, but I must admit I'm a trifle confused myself at the "explanation" for the weird events depicted on screen! Like I said, think about it too much and you'll ruin it. Just go with the flow...

'The Beat Within' contains plenty of creepiness and some gruesome murders. An added attraction for film buffs is the interesting supporting cast, which includes Peckinpah veterans R.G. Armstrong ('Predator'), L.Q. Jones ('Casino') and Luke Askew ('Easy Rider'), and character actors Don Gordon ('Out Of The Blue') and Mora semi-regular John Dennis Johnston. ('Flesh & Blood')

'The Beast Within' rarely gets mentioned in discussions of 1980s horror movies, but it should. It may not be up there with the best of Cronenberg, Carpenter, Romero, or Raimi, but it's well made, original, strongly acted, and damn good fun!

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10 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Vastly underrated, 29 September 1999

Author: david-345 from Charlotte NC

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The Beast Within is without doubt one of the most underrated Horror films of the 1980s and also probably of all time. I still don't understand why this film ranks so low on the totem pole with most fans and critics. Some say that the film's premise is ludicrous but legendary Horror author H.P. Lovecraft used similar ideas of degenerative mutation in his classic story "The Lurking Fear." Beast features a strong cast with top acting honors going to Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch while excellent support comes from top character actors R.G. Armstrong and L.Q. Jones. Paul Clemens gives a very impressive turn as the title character, at one point a tortured young man, the next a murderous killer. He is really quite good, what happened to this guy? Also good is the cute Kitty Moffat who plays his ill fated girl friend. Director Philippe Mora does an excellent job of capturing the look and feel of an eerie little southern town with a dark secret and he keeps the action moving but never at the expense of the atmospherics. Particularly impressive are the scenes in the swamp after the human remains are found and the part where Clemens checks out the house where his Father was imprisioned. Much is made over the film's over the top effects work by Tom Burman particuarly the wild transformation scene at the fim's climax but give them credit for doing something different with the tired transformation sequences that populated 1980's Horror films. The part were Clemens' head blows up like a balloon is foreshadowed by a funny moment earlier in the film where Armstrong fiddles with one of those plastic dolls whose heads would expand when you squeze their bodies. And the film has a nice sense of symetry as Clemens, reborn as the monster who raped Besch is in turn killed by her at the film's end while Moffat who suffered the same fate as Besch is now going to carry the next beast. The Beast Within does not deserve the poor reputation it has and is ripe for rediscovery by discerning Horror buffs. Give it a try.

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6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
A Beastly B Movie, 2 March 2008

Author: Jonny_Numb from Hellfudge, Pennsylvania

"The Beast Within" was a staple of TNT's MonsterVision many years ago, and its unique (yet often convoluted) premise reveals why: how many movies have featured a bloodthirsty cicada monster? Based on the novel by Edward Levy (adapted by future "Child's Play" director Tom Holland), the plot has happy newlyweds Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch running afoul of terror along a backwoods Mississippi road, where Besch is raped by some vague, subhuman creature; 17 years later, son Paul Clemens is exhibiting some extreme growing pains that include the occasional ghastly murder when his parents return to the scene of the crime looking for answers. While the plot never really comes together as well as it should, "Beast" is a model of B-movie efficiency that utilizes atmosphere, location, and some supremely grotesque special effects to leave the viewer rattled (director Philippe Mora also has an excellent grasp of light and shadow to create mood). In hindsight, the film has the type of contained, small-town-America aesthetic that has become the watermark of Stephen King's prose, and the cast is appropriately comprised of rather typical faces, not marquee stars. In the end, "Beast" is a wonderfully ghastly little flick with a creepy story that's executed just well enough to overcome some poor acting and an occasionally sluggish pace.

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12 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
Excellent,overlooked horror., 9 January 2002

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

Bibi Besch is raped by a monster on a Southern road,and 17 years later,her son(very convincing Paul Clemens)begins showing signs of change.Pretty soon,he's rampaging through a small town of Nioba killing people,and(in an excellent transformation scene)changing into a slimy fanged beast.The acting is great,the music is really spooky,and the special effects by Thomas R.Burman("Prophecy","Invasion of the Body Snatchers")are simply outstanding.Tom Holland("Fright Night")wrote the screenplay from an Edward Levy novel.Director Philippe Mora creates a fair amount of suspense and atmosphere,and there's enough gore and violence to satisfy all the gore hounds.So if you like horror genre,check out this gory shocker.Cult classic indeed!

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7 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Might be an incoherent mess, but it's never boring, 22 July 2003
Author: squeezebox from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

**SPOILERS** The biggest problem with THE BEAST WITHIN is that about a third of the story appears to be missing. There seems to be an entire subplot about the man/thing who rapes Bibi Besch in the opening of the movie that is just not there. I have heard rumors over the years that an entire reel of the negative was lost or destroyed before post-production began, and they did not have the money to re-shoot the lost footage. If this is true, it explains a lot.

One night in the late fifties, a young newlywed couple (Besch, Ronny Cox) get stuck on the side of the road. Cox runs for help, while Besch senses that someones lurking in the woods, so, naturally, she goes to investigate. A monstrous humanoid creature appears and rapes her.

Seventeen years later...

Cox and Besch have a seventeen year old son (Paul Clemens) who is suffering from some mysterious illness. Knowing that there's a real chance the father is Besch's attacker from years earlier, they go to the small Southern town they were passing through to investigate, hoping the key to curing Clemens may lie there.

They venture to the town, but Clemens follows them, and starts picking off men who knew the man/thing that raped Besch. As best I can figure, the guy ("Billy") was so rotten and evil that he eventually turned into a monster, sort of a giant cicada. His buddies locked him up, but he escaped and raped Besch. Now seventeen years later (get it?...seventeen years?...cicadas?...no neither do I), he has come back in the form of Besch and Cox's son, apparently to seek revenge for being locked up in that musty old basement.

This may have made sense at some point, but it sure doesn't anymore. There's a lot of Southern Gothic mumbo jumbo, and people repeatedly mention cicadas. The one thing they don't talk about is exactly WHY "Billy" turned into a cicada in the first place, or exactly why he's p***ed off at all these people. I would almost be willing to accept this movie on an existential level, but there's too much exposition pointing at something more going on for that approach to work.

However, if you can get past the incoherent plot (or lack thereof), THE BEAST WITHIN is actually a pretty weird little flick. The acting is amusingly overwrought, there's some great, over-the-top music by Les Baxter, and some impressively gruesome gore sequences.

The infamous highlight of the movie, though, is the grotesque transformation scene. Clemens lays strapped to a hospital bed, while a dumbfounded group of people stand there like idiots and watch him slowly turn into a monster. His head swells up like a balloon, his tongue grows to an enormous size, his eyeballs grow into huge orbs. It's pretty freaky and genuinely frightening.

He then breaks out of the hospital and rapes a local girl, thus starting the whole vicious cycle all over again. The movie ends on a decidedly grim note, with Mom blowing his head off with a shotgun as he tries to kill Dad. The fact that he's not really her son anymore doesn't seem to console her as she breaks down. The sheriff comes walking up carrying the girl, now impregnated by "Billy". The end credits unceremoniously roll.

It's all pretty nonsensical, but the movie is bizarre enough to hold my attention. If anything, it's a nice reminder of old school horror. It may not be very good, but they just don't make them like this anymore.

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9 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
I didn't cover my eyes, scream or run from my seat, but still not a bad effort, 1 June 2000

Author: Dan Grant (dan.grant@bell.ca) from Toronto, Ontario

I am going to disagree with most of the reviewers in here and say that I found the story to be quite intriguing. Some of it was a little out there but the crux of it ( the town conspiracy ) was quite well done. What wasn't so great was some of the acting and some of the things people do to get themselves in trouble.

The film starts off with Ronny Cox and his wife traveling down some lonely Mississippi road in the dead of night. They spin off the road and the front of his car ends up on some moist land. His tires spin and spin but they will not respond. The car is stuck there. Now instead of A) trying to push the car out or B) both of them walking back to the gas station for a tow, Cox tells his wife that he is going back to that gas station for a tow. He playfully tells her to stay there and to lock the door ( he says it as though nothing bad could have ever happened on the side of the road in Mississippi. Does anyone ever remember MISSISSIPPI BURNING?)

Okay, we have all seen too many horror movies but that is just dumb, horror movie or not. You never leave someone alone, on a deserted road while you are surrounded by the dense bush. Anything could happen. Bigfoot could jump out. Jason could be close by. The thing from THE PREY could pop and get you or more realistically you would just be too afraid to stay by yourself because it is dark. But she does and of course something attacks her and rapes her and then the film jumps ahead 17 years where of course she had the baby. This is another part when we all go " Oh Come ON!!! What are you, stupid?" If some big disgusting swamp thing with calves the size of the Caveman in Scooby Doo episodes raped you, you get an abortion, right away. But again, this is a horror movie and people have to do stupid things to get themselves into the prediciments that they are in. If you can get past some of this sheer idiocy, the rest of the story is quite good. It is not on par with some of the greats but it is a worthy addition to the early 80's horror.

One by one, the slimy town folk are being attacked and devoured by a beast. Now we don't know why these people are being stalked, only that they are suspect looking to say the least. There is obviously some town secret that is being swept under the proverbial rug and these people are the main culprits.

The final thirty minutes is quite good. I can remember being about 13 when me and my friends rented this film for the first time. We accepted the challenge on the front of the box where it dares you to watch the last thirty minutes without chickening out. And when you are 13 and are challenged like that, you eagerly accept. None of us were horrified but we sure thought it was cool. Now that I have more of an appreciation for horror and the effects that go into it, I have to say that the creature effects were astonishing here. Rick Baker would be proud of Thomas Burman. This is on par with Baker's work in AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. The transformation scene is truly a work of art. Perhaps people will say that it is dated because now a days they use computer graphics to make everything look real but let me tell you, give me guys like Rick Baker, Stan Winston and Thomas Burman and I would rather watch them at work than a chip and a computer program that does the same thing. This is fun to watch and I believe more work and innovation goes into the process.

I would give this film a 6 out of 10. The story is intriguing and the plot is carried out quite well. And look at it this way. Take most horror films from today like URBAN LEGEND, I KNOW WHAT YOU DID..... and so on and compare them to this one and others like it from the 70's and early 80's. Most 90's films can't hold the director's Cole's Notes to how to make an affective horror film. The Beast Within is better than 95% of the horror that was released in the 90's. It is getting better now with stellar efforts like FINAL DESTINATION, BLAIR WITH, SIXTH SENSE, STIR OF ECHOES and even STIGMATA. Their roots lie with films like this.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
An atmospheric, underrated 80's creature feature., 22 December 2008

Author: AngryChair from Brentwood, USA

One of the better, and most overlooked, monster films of the 80's is this fun and effectively creepy B horror film.

On a dark and stormy Mississippi night, a woman is attacked and raped by a mysterious monster. Now, seventeen years later, her ill teenage son is starting to display some murderous behavior that keeps getting worse...

The Beast Within (based on the Edward Levy novel of the same title) is too often bashed by critics. Many complain that the storyline is convoluted, but frankly if everything were explained it would lose its sense of chilling mystery. There is much to be enjoyed in this off-beat creature flick. The story is nicely creative with a hint of old school horror and a good dose of building tension - all of which is dotted with some startlingly good murder scenes. The gruesome makeup effects aren't bad, this film has one wild transformation scene. Direction wise Philippe Mora does well in giving the film a great southern Gothic vibe as well as an oppressing atmosphere of dread.

The cast holds their own too. Ronny Cox (of Deliverance fame) and Bibi Besch do solid performances as the understandably troubled parents of our title character. Paul Clemens is also good, and strangely alluring, as the teen with the savage side. Supporting performances from Don Gordon, R.G. Armstrong, Katherine Moffat, and L.Q. Jones are good too.

The Beast Within is one under praised horror film. So what if there's a few plot holes, so what if it doesn't follow the book it's based on to the letter - it's a truly memorable horror ride that never has a dull moment. Check it out creature feature fans.

*** 1/2 out of ****

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
It's Not Great But It's All In Good Fun, 15 March 2009

Author: sddavis63 (revsdd@gmail.com) from Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

In order to appreciate this movie you have to be able to accept it for what it is: not a top-flight, high budget star-powered horror movie, but an attempt to create some good, campy horror fun, and in that it succeeds in spite of a number of inconsistencies in the plot that are pretty glaring and do detract somewhat from the story's credibility. The somewhat cliché opening doesn't really draw the viewer in: a couple's car gets stuck on a lonely road in the woods and while the husband leaves to get help, the wife is attacked by an unknown creature. She isn't killed, though - she's raped and impregnated. Seventeen years later, the child born to her becomes ill, and the couple return to the place of the attack looking for answers.

The acting here was generally pretty decent. There were no mega-stars involved; the best known actors were probably Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch as the couple struggling to save their son. Paul Clemens (as Michael, the son) came across as a bit wooden to me, but aside from that, things were pretty good in the acting department. The plot had problems. For example, after Michael's first murder - which was very bloody - there was not a drop of blood on his clothes. Given the nature of the murder, that would seem highly unlikely. Also, MacCleary (Cox) - who as far as we know was not a cop and was a complete stranger in the town - was accepted far too easily by the sheriff, and actually seems to become part of the investigating team. Also, when Michael is caught in Amanda's room, the best the sheriff can say is "he was trying to protect her." Really? What about trespassing? Break and enter? So, there are plot problems. Basically, though, it's a decent B-movie sort of production which features an interesting creature (a cicada-type monster) and an equally interesting transformation scene. And, remember - it's all in good fun!

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Okay time-passer. *Possible spoilers*, 30 December 2003
Author: willywants

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

In the beginning of the movie you see a woman get attacked and impregnated by a bug-eyed man. The movie takes place years later when the child that returns to the town of the original creature and begins metamorphing into a slimy Cicada-like creature, and begins going on a killing spree and killing people that knew about the original creature that attacked his mother, almost twenty years ago. Fair horror film. The plot is non-existent and some of the acting is weak but that's made up for by some gruesome special effects and a suspenseful music score. The final beast is a bit underwhelming but the scene in which the main character transforms looks incredibly well-done and accomplished. Not a bad little horror film, but a predictable one. 6/10.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Spoilers ahoy..., 13 October 2002
Author: (ep.com@t-online.de) from Germany

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

An often overlooked entry to the early 80s-Horror genre, that's filled with atmosphere, an overall creepiness and great, great gore effects (by Tom Burman... I don't care what everybody says, this guy is at least as talented as Tom Savini and Rob Bottin. Check out that transformation scene, wow...), that sadly never manages to really take off, due to a extremely silly premise. You know, I always thought there was the potential for a much stronger, better horror movie, if the film makers had decided to give more room to the subplot about a guy held captive in a cellar and force fed human flesh... man, what a cool movie that would have made. Instead they run with all that silly cicada stuff. Overlooked opportunity, I'd say. And, concerning the final result of the cicada-transformation, while the transformation looks awesome, the monster in it's whole glory just looks like a guy in a suit. Still, a nice, creepy little movie that'll surely make a fine midnight viewing...

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