The Being (1983)

Toxic waste dumping in a small Idaho town turns a young boy into horrible mutant monster. The town's police chief and a government scientist team up to stop the monster, which is quickly ... See full summary »

Director:

Jackie Kong

Writer:

Jackie Kong

Stars:

Martin Landau, Marianne Gordon, Bill Osco

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Martin Landau	...	Garson Jones
Marianne Gordon	...	Laurie
Bill Osco	...	Detective Mortimer Lutz (as Rexx Coltrane)
José Ferrer	...	Mayor Gordon Lane
Dorothy Malone	...	Marge Smith
Ruth Buzzi	...	Virginia Lane
Murray Langston	...	Arn
Kinky Friedman	...	Willis
Johnny Dark	...	John
Kent Perkins	...	Officer Dudley
Ellen Blake	...	Jenny
Roxanne Cybelle	...	Suzie (as Roxanne Cybelle Osco)
Jerry Maren	...	The Monster
Eric Helland	...	Doper #1
Bill Rawlinson	...	Doper #2

Storyline

Toxic waste dumping in a small Idaho town turns a young boy into horrible mutant monster. The town's police chief and a government scientist team up to stop the monster, which is quickly killing off the town's citizenry.

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Plot Keywords:

monster | mutant | toxic waste | police | title directed by female | 

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Taglines:

The ultimate terror has taken form

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 November 1983 (USA)

Also Known As:

Easter Sunday

Filming Locations:

Boise, Idaho, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Astral Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was made in 1980 as "Easter Sunday," but sat on the shelf for three years and finally received a brief theatrical release as "The Being."

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Goofs

In the first scene where the creature is chasing the boy it starts off in broad daylight, but when he reaches the junkyard and steals a car it is night time.

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Quotes

Garson Jones: Dumping toxic waste into the aquaduct does not, and will not, affect the water supply for this town.
Detective Mortimer Lutz: [watching Garson on the TV] Yeah, right. Pretty soon we'll all be glowing in the dark along with that fool.

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Connections

References The Silent Scream (1979)

User Reviews

How did stuff like this ever get made?

Dump a few barrels of radioactive waste on the outskirts of a small Idaho town and—Hey presto!—hideous slimy mutants are springing up out of the ground to attack the locals.

Martin Landau and Jose Ferrer get top billing in this ridiculous piece of 80s trash, but it is the likes of Kinky Friedman and Rexx Coltrane (AKA Johnny Commander) who are the real stars, which should give you some idea of the true calibre of this film. With writing and direction from Jackie Kong, who also gave us the execrable Blood Diner, this is one of the sorriest, most random pieces of garbage you're ever likely to witness.

The film opens in promising style, a Twilight Zone narration leading into a splatteriffic scene in which a teenager gets his head yanked clean off by a mutant. From then on, it all goes seriously pear-shaped, with a daft attack at a drive-in (the on screen movie provides some female nudity, so it's not all bad I suppose), a terrible children's easter egg hunt with the prize hidden in a monster's pit, a traffic cop having his heart ripped from his chest, a surreal dream sequence, and the revelation that the whole thing is part of an official cover-up to protect the town's potato industry. While some of the hokey gore is admittedly fun, The Being is just too scatter-shot, disjointed, and slapdash to work as a whole, even as a lightweight piece of tongue-in-cheek schlock.

NB. Look out for the bit where a guy runs in front of a Union Pacific locomotive—a surprisingly risky stunt (or brilliant special effect?) considering how crap the film is.