The plot revolves around, well, what I just said above. That’s all you need to know about Nightbeast. The alien starts killing the residents of a small town. The residents become alarmed, but they’re at least being protected by the determined Sheriff Jack Cinder (Tom Griffith). Oh, there's also a love triangle that leads to the non-Nightbeast-releated death of one woman and no small amount of bad blood between Jamie Lambert (Jamie Zemarel) and Drago (Don Leifert), the local bad apple.
The first thing that you will notice about Nightbeast is the design of the titular creature. If Rawhead Rex and Pumpkinhead had a baby together, and that baby was birthed into a paddling pool full of faeces, then the end result might look something like this. It's a strange, laughably mis-shapen, creature that you would expect to spend most of the movie hidden in shadows, or by objects in the foreground.
Writer-director Don Dohler has no time for your low expectations, however, and proceeds to show off the creature at every opportunity, with the exception of a surprisingly dull middle section. It's a bold move, and some might say a foolish one, yet it is one of many goofy decisions that help to make this film more endearing than so many other low-budget efforts that lack any heart.
The cast aren't great, there's no point in pretending otherwise, but they're all entertaining, for different reasons. Sometimes that is due to the dialogue that they're made to speak, sometimes it's due to their performances, and sometimes they're clearly just having fun. Sometimes it's all of those things combined. As well as those mentioned, I'll also namecheck Karin Kardian, George Stover, Anne Frith, and Richard Dyszel (very funny as Mayor Bert "don't call me Bertie" Wicker), who all deserve recognition for their contributions to this bit of fun.
Judged by the normal standards of moviemaking, Nightbeast is sorely lacking. The script is terrible, the special effects aren't always too special (although there are one or two good moments), and that middle section I already mentioned needed some more packed in there to stop it feeling too much like flabby filler. But judge it by the amount of fun you can have while watching it and, well, it's still not actually that good. Which doesn't mean that you can't still enjoy it, especially with the right company (AKA like-minded friends or plenty of alcohol).
4/10
Available to Amazon Prime members here in the UK, Americans can also buy this shiny disc.
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