Welcome to the Scream Factory Crypt! In this binge series I will be watching all my Scream Factory titles I own alphabetically! Scream Factory is my favorite imprint of Blu-Ray’s because they take movies that studios and the public might not adore but have fans and deserve to be given respect. This will take a long time as I have over 120(!) titles and counting, I know I will have more before I finish, so stay tuned! Not only will I talk about them on the podcast but I will review them here as well so you can see how I feel about aspects of each release. Part 8 is, The Beast Within.
Being shocking isn’t always a great approach to horror. That’s because being shocking won’t help a film if you don’t care about the characters. Shocking things abound in The Beast Within, however the characters are not that well developed and the acting at times leaves a lot to be desired. The Beast Within opens with a monster raping a young woman, and impregnating her. Eighteen years later as the boy grows into a man he also grows into a horrible beast. Tom Holland of Child’s Play and Fright Night fame wrote the script, but it is one of his weakest. The movie is gory so it is satisfying in that regard. In a way The Beast Within is a werewolf movie that has a so-so transformation, but the effective gore saves the mundane and cliché riddled script. The Beast itself is some sort of cicada (according to Holland in the commentary track). The evil boy, played by Paul Clemons is lame and not scary so that makes him being evil somewhat laughable. Plus his romance with the town’s racist hick daughter feels forced and unnatural. I still think it’s a fun watch if you can get past its weak script and enjoy the monster mayhem.
The video looks great. The colors are very natural and I did not see any real scratches or imperfections. The film looks solid, hats off to Scream Factory for delivering a great looking disc.
The audio is good too. Dialogue comes through clear and the ooey-gooey monster effects sound great.
The extras aren’t plentiful but solid. You get two commentaries, one with the director and star, the other is a little more informative with Tom Holland the writer. Also included is a trailer and radio spot.
The Beast Within is an ok movie with great gore. Not really scary but there is some good 80’s fun to be had.
Film: C+
Video: B+
Audio: B+
Extras: C+
Overall: B