The Beast Within (It WAS a toupee)

Score: 7 Out Of 10

          I have to hand it to director Philipe Mora (it should come as no surprise after watching this that he also directed the second and third Howling films), I was not expecting much from this movie. After I got about half way through it, I really started to like this one. I have to mention, though, that the film is pretty dark. Not in a metaphoric way, I mean I had a hard time seeing what was going on for good parts of the movie. At first I was some what annoyed with this, but after a while I started to see how the darkness actually served the film. The plot is a little weird, it focuses on a monster that rapes (again with the rape?) a woman and seventeen years later her son starts to go all kinds of sick house on a small southern town. The main cast (folk singer Ronny Cox, Bibi Besch and Paul Clemens) all put up some pretty good performances. Admittedly, the story is a little much but the fact that the cast turns in such a good performance really helps to sell the movie.

       So let me mention that this is not a werewolf film. What is really odd here is that a lot of the art associated with this movie hints that it's about a werewolf, but when you watch it, the word "werewolf" is never actually used. The dialogue actually keeps hinting that the monster in question is more like a half man half cicada. That, by the way, really bothered me much more seeing how I really dislike bugs! Also let me touch on the the two things that I'm sure most people reading this are going to be wondering (and no I'm not talking about whether or not there's nudity... there is).

 1) Is there a good transformation scene?

 2) Do they show the monster too much?

         The answers are yes, and unfortunately, yes. The transformation scene was one of the better ones I've seen over the years, and once again, Paul Clemens' performance is really what made it cool. Unfortunately, the last seven or eight minutes of the movie shows way to much of the monster, but I don't want to fault them too much because after a really good transformation scene, it's a little too hard to just leave it to peoples imaginations.

   Love,
      The B-Movie Guy

Twitter: @BMovieguy  #Bmovieblog   #Thebeastwithin

Horror Planet (Space Rape)

Score : 6 Out Of 10

               For nine months I have been waiting for the B-movie wife to go into labor with our first born. Today was supposed to be the due date (BTW, I really love the looks people give you when they ask when your wife is due and you say today), but after spending an entire day wandering around the nearest big city she still hasn't gone into labor. So this evening I decided to watch a movie for the blog to pass the time. When I came across "Horror Planet" (originally released under the title "Inseminoid") and read the description it seemed like a must see given my situation. The plot is as follows: A crew of space archaeologists come across an alien being who rapes one of their crew mates. Later she discovers she is pregnant and starts murdering and cannibalizing the rest of the crew. "Horror Planet" was released in 1981 and was directed by Norman J. Warren. It stars Robin Clarke, Jennifer Ashley, Stephanie Beachman and a bunch of other people I've never heard of.

               I have to give credit where credit is due on this one. It never lost my attention and the overall story and dialogue were actually pretty good. On the other hand, the film suffers from some pretty sub par acting and lame creature effects. I give them credit for coming up with the creatures they did for a budget of only two million dollars, but the film might have benefited more if the creatures were on screen less. The more you see of them the more disappointing they become. I would have been better off imagining the monsters. Once again the acting wasn't particularly good. Every single person in this film was either completely over doing it or was completely phoning it in. Not a lot of middle ground. As whole, I must say this has not turned me off to Norman J. Warren as a director. In the future I'll most likely be watching some of his other films.

      Love,
          The B-Movie Guy.

Twitter: @BMovieguy   #bmovieblog   #Horrorplanet

White Zombie!

Happy Friday!
    Love,
       The B-Movie Guy.
Twitter: @BMovieguy  #bmovieblog   #whitezombie