Review: The Beast Within (1982)

A honeymooning couple in the 1960s (Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch) are stuck beside the road in a small town in Mississippi after their car gets stuck in swampy undergrowth. Whilst Cox goes in search of help, a prone Besch is raped in the nearby forest in the dark. Seventeen years later Besch and Cox are raising their son (Paul Clemens), who is in truth the product of that awful incident seventeen years ago. He has been stricken by very painful, unexplained illness. So the couple decide to head back to small town Mississippi for answers about Besch’s assailant, to see if the illness is genetic. Unfortunately, the townsfolk are a secretive lot, some even quite surly. Meanwhile, Clemens escapes from the hospital and heads for Mississippi too, whilst his body seems to be undergoing some very painful transformation. Katherine Moffat is a local girl Clemens meets and falls for, with John Dennis Johnston playing her lout of a father. L.Q. Jones and Meshach Taylor play the local sheriff and his deputy, R.G. Armstrong plays Doc Schoonmaker, Don Gordon and Logan Ramsey play Judge Curwin and newspaper man Edwin Curwin, who sure seem to be conspiratorial about something in the past. Luke Askew plays the local mortician, who was formerly an apprentice under a relative of the Curwins who is now deceased.

A werewolf movie without a werewolf, this 1982 Phillippe Mora (“Mad Dog Morgan”, “Howling II: Stirba, Werewolf Bitch”, “The Return of Captain Invincible”) horror film is actually about a cicada monster of sorts. However, it may as well be a werewolf for the scant difference it makes. Hell, the small town vibe of the film even reminded me of “Silver Bullet” which is a werewolf film. The performances are mostly good here in a cast full of familiar faces. Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch in particular are likeable as the parents. Young lead Paul Clemens has the trickiest role and frankly I think he does as well as anyone could under some very difficult and bizarre circumstances. We also get rock-solid work by veteran character actors Luke Askew, R.G. Armstrong, and L.Q. Jones as the sheriff. Askew in particular steals his every scene as the sinister mortuary guy. The one performance that doesn’t work – and in fact stands out like a sore thumb – is John Dennis Johnston as an overbearing father. He’s an unconvincing stereotype.

This is one of those frustrating movies that damn nearly works, but ultimately doesn’t quite work. Damn. Unlike it’s terrible reputation – Ebert referenced it in one of his zero stars films as a film he at least gave ½ a star to, I believe – I think it’s closer to being a good movie than bad, hence that frustration. I can certainly see why no one has really championed it as underrated since then though, as it’s certainly very far from a masterpiece. It’s also a pretty disgusting and likely off-putting film for audiences and critics at the time. That said, I did find that side of the film somewhat interesting myself, if rather gross. I mean, the premise here disgusting or not, is pretty wild. The mother gets raped by a monster, the son is inhabited by the spirit of that rapist monster. That rapist monster (or monster rapist?) now seeks revenge on those who had wronged him. And he’s also some kind of giant cicada. That’s definitely something, even though it’s not enough of something to quite drag it across the finish line.

For me the screenplay by Tom Holland (director of “Fright Night” and “Child’s Play”) is the source of frustration more than anything else. I hear Holland was unhappy with what was done to his original script so perhaps the blame for the script deficiencies lies elsewhere. The central premise may be wild and somewhat interesting (and it is), but a premise does not a script make, let alone a film. It feels like things have been cut out, especially in regards to the teen romance. These two seem to be necking almost on collision, it defies all belief in a film that already has a giant cicada monster. In fact, the character of the girl is just all-round badly written, she disappears for large chunks of the film. The cicada monster, or more specifically why Clemens is turning into one also could’ve used a bit more explanation, and apparently the original script did. So maybe Mr. Holland had good reason to be rather displeased, because there’s things here that aren’t explained enough nor developed enough for one to be satisfied. Either the script needed more work, or it needed less work on it.

I also think the night-time cinematography by Jack L. Richards (“The Monkey Hustle”) gets a little too dark at times. Richards does a great job with the lovely, foggy, swampy, day-set scenes, though. In fact, along with the performances it’s atmosphere among the film’s strengths. It’s just those night-shot scenes that detract a bit, so that’s a real shame. I was pretty impressed with the score by Les Baxter (“The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Comedy of Terrors”), which if you’ve read my reviews of anything he’s scored you’ll likely be surprised. Here he gives us a classic Hollywood horror score instead of his usual jazzy bullshit. I appreciated that. As for the FX, they really kick in around the 75 minute mark and if you like Rob Bottin, these grisly FX are along similar lines to his work in “The Howling” and “The Thing”. By far the film’s highlight, if in my view about 30 minutes too late in arriving. I’m not saying the FX could’ve saved the film if we saw the cicada earlier, but it’s still a shame that the film’s highlight takes so long to arrive. Pretty good climactic decapitation if you’re into that sort of thing. Of course you are.

In an era of empty-headed “Friday the 13th” films, this is a horror film with mostly good performances and some interestingly disturbing ideas. The execution isn’t good enough to recommend the film overall, but I was more interested and invested in this than I expected going in from its poor reputation. The bladder FX are top-notch if a bit belated, though it’s certainly never dull. There’s something here, it just doesn’t quite come together. This is still likely one of the closest to positive reviews you’ll ever find of the film. 

Rating: C+