The Beast Within
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| The Beast Within | |
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| Directed by | Philippe Mora |
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| Produced by | Harvey Bernhard Gabriel Katzka |
| Written by | Novel: Edward Levy Screenplay: Tom Holland |
| Music by | Les Baxter |
| Cinematography | Jack L. Richards |
| Editing by | Robert Brown Bert Lovitt |
| Distributed by | MGM United Artists |
| Release date(s) | 1982 |
| Running time | 90 min. |
| Country | U.S. |
| Gross revenue | Domestic Gross: $4,700,000 |
The Beast Within is a 1982 horror film directed by Philippe Mora. Screenplay by Tom Holland, based on the novel by Edward Levy. Starring Ronny Cox, Bibi Besch, Paul Clemens, L.Q. Jones, Don Gordon, R.G. Armstrong, Katherine Moffat, Meschach Taylor.
Its release came the year after the horror-comedy An American Werewolf in London, but before Teen Wolf, both of which have similar plots. It is rated R in the United States.
The film is a very loose adaptation of Edward Levy's 1981 novel. The screenplay was written by Tom Holland, his first feature film script. It was dismissed by critics upon release as being cheap and exploitative. In more recent years it has gained a cult following.
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[edit] Plot Summary
While driving through Mississippi on their honeymoon, Caroline and Eli MacCleary (Bibi Besch and Ronny Cox) are stranded on a deserted road when their car is stuck in the mud. Eli is forced to walk several miles down the road to a service station they stopped at earlier to get a tow. While he is gone, Caroline is attacked and raped by a mysterious creature.
Seventeen years later, their son Michael (who was conceived as a result of Caroline's rape) has become gravely ill, and the doctors have no idea what is causing the sickness, only that a pituitary gland has gone out of control. Theorizing that the sickness might be genetic, Eli and Caroline finally confront the past and return to the small town where she was attacked to hopefully discover some information about the man who assaulted her. The local townspeople are reluctant to help, with both the newspaper editor and the town judge brushing aside their questions. But then Eli and Caroline hear a story about a local man who was murdered 17 years earlier, his body partially eaten and his house almost burned down.
Meanwhile Michael has escaped from the hospital and returned to the same town, unbeknownst to his parents. His personality undergoes a frightening transformation, and he quickly begins to attack and kill specific people in the community, including the paper editor and the local mortician, both of whom were related to each other.
After several more revelations, including the discovery of a swamp filled with bodies whose bones show signs of having been gnawed on, Caroline and Eli finally discover the terrible truth about the creature that attacked her those many years ago. And what's worse, it appears that the creature is about to be reborn through Michael, and its murderous actions are the direct consequence of a carefully concealed secret.
[edit] Cast
Ronny Cox ... Eli MacCleary
Bibi Besch ... Caroline MacCleary
Paul Clemens ... Michael MacCleary
Don Gordon ... Judge Curwin
R.G. Armstrong ... Doc Schoonmaker
Katherine Moffat ... Amanda Platt
L.Q. Jones ... Sheriff Bill Pool
Logan Ramsey ... Edwin Curwin
John Dennis Johnston ... Horace Platt
Ron Soble ... Tom Laws
Luke Askew ... Dexter Ward
Meshach Taylor ... Deputy Herbert
Boyce Holleman ... Doc Odom
[edit] Trivia
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (May 2009) |
- The names "Curwin" and "Dexter Ward" are characters from the horror novel "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" by Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
- Actor Ronny Cox, who plays Eli MacCleary, also wrote and performed the country music featured in the film.
- One shoot, at an abandoned hospital, fell on Friday the 13th. The crew became convinced the location was haunted as throughout the evening the lights and the elevator turned on and off by themselves.
- Along with Joe Dante's The Howling (1981) this film pioneered the trend of air-bladder special effects makeup. For Michael's transformation scene small plastic sacks (often condoms or balloons) would be embedded into the layers of makeup and face castings. Later while filming these sacks would be inflated through tubes and it would help to give the appearance of the skins distortion.
- This was the final feature-length score for composer Les Baxter, who considered it to be one of his finest.
- Star Paul Clemens was very enthusiastic about having the role of Michael MacCleary because he was an avid fan of the horror genre. Clemens would even enjoy the extensive makeup work that would take hours to apply to him.
- This film became a staple on Joe Bob Briggs' Monstervision series, though the network would heavily edit the film.
- This was the feature film debut for horror genre regular Tom Holland - who wrote the script.
