The Being

Plot synopsis:
In the fictional town of Pottsville, Idaho citizens begin disappearing. Young Michael Smith, son of Marge Smith (Dorothy Malone) is the first to vanish. A young man is decapitated while fleeing from an unseen assailant, and patrons in a drive-in theater are brutally murdered inside their vehicles. At each scene a pile of green slime is found. Wanting to get to the bottom of the disappearances but afraid that the publicity might damage the town’s potato business, Mayor Gordon Lane (José Ferrer) hires Chemical safety engineer Garcon Jones (Martin Landau) to investigate. Also investigating the disappearances is Detective Mortimer Lutz (Bill Osco), who senses that something terrible has befallen the town.
Meanwhile, more and more people disappear, with a puddle of green slime found at each site. With this new string of disappearances Lutz begins to suspect that Jones knows more than he is willing to tell. His suspicions grow when he is attacked by something monstrous while at home, with Lutz barely managing to escape from his attacker. Lutz confronts Jones about the incident but is told that there is nothing wrong in the area. The following night while Lutz his waitress girlfriend Laurie (Marianne Gordon) home they are suddenly attacked by a hideous creature. After holing themselves inside a diner they manage to lock it inside a freezer. The couple then contacts Mayor Lane, however when he arrives they discover that the creature has vanished, leaving behind a puddle of green slime.
In light of this recent attack, Lutz confronts Jones again who then admits that a highly radioactive creature is responsible. It’s revealed that the town is home to one of 2,000 nuclear dump sites in the U.S. and the creature (who is implied to be young Michael Smith) is the resulting mutation due to repeated exposure to the site’s radioactive materials. The mutant, while intelligent, is completely psychotic and sensitive to light and is inactive during the day. Arming themselves with shotguns the two eventually manage to track the creature down to an abandoned warehouse where they are stalked by the hungry mutant. Jones is soon attacked and disemboweled by the creature, leaving Lutz alone to fend off the creature. Donning a gas mask, Lutz attempts to kill the creature with poison gas but it seems unfazed by the poisonous fumes and tosses Lutz around like a ragdoll. As the creature advances Lutz manages to toss a beaker of acid into the creature’s face momentarily stunning it. Taking advantage of the creature’s distraction, Lutz grabs a nearby axe and hacks the creature to death, ending the creature's reign of terror. However a new mutation is seen bursting from the ground as the credits roll.

Tags: cult, revenge

Review:
ripoff of some earlier toxic waste monster movies.
Martin Landau plays a 'scientist' who is heading up a toxic waste dump research project who tries at first to stand in the detective's way, but then conceded that 'yes in fact, there is a problem in Pottsville...' Along the way we meet some awful actors and actresses and we are treated to many cheeseball performances and some lame killings.
Hmmm....well, I was surfing around an internet video store, and I came across "The Being."  After reading it's description, I thought this movie would be pretty good, and also full of gore, so I bought the factory sealed tape.
The film is about some stupid monster that lurks within a toxic disposal dump, tearing off the heads of its victims.
A cheesy old-fashioned monster movie that has camp value and little else..
If you like bad movies, you have to check it out.
My favorite scene is the one at the drive-in, where people are watching a movie with a cheesy monster  attacking a bimbo, while the "being" attacks people in their cars.
There's nothing like seeing the name Ruth Buzzi during the opening credits to give a film some star quality.
It's really one of the best "it's so bad it's good" movies..
Dump a few barrels of radioactive waste on the outskirts of a small Idaho town and—Hey presto!—hideous slimy mutants are springing up out of the ground to attack the locals.Martin Landau and Jose Ferrer get top billing in this ridiculous piece of 80s trash, but it is the likes of Kinky Friedman and Rexx Coltrane (AKA Johnny Commander) who are the real stars, which should give you some idea of the true calibre of this film.
With writing and direction from Jackie Kong, who also gave us the execrable Blood Diner, this is one of the sorriest, most random pieces of garbage you're ever likely to witness.The film opens in promising style, a Twilight Zone narration leading into a splatteriffic scene in which a teenager gets his head yanked clean off by a mutant.
From then on, it all goes seriously pear-shaped, with a daft attack at a drive-in (the on screen movie provides some female nudity, so it's not all bad I suppose), a terrible children's easter egg hunt with the prize hidden in a monster's pit, a traffic cop having his heart ripped from his chest, a surreal dream sequence, and the revelation that the whole thing is part of an official cover-up to protect the town's potato industry.
Though it has its faults, this movie has several core messages that make it work as a horror film.
Second, the philosophical question of the innocence of children: The monster in this movie is just a mutated child who has little to no control over their actions, which brings into question the ethical validity of killing them/..
This one was pretty bad, I bought it simply because of the names of Ruth Buzzy and Martin Landau, I could just see a cheesy horror movie being made of these two and becoming more funny like a cheap William Shattner movie or something but what this movie turned out to be was one big bomb.
First of all, Buzzy's character was more like annoying than ever and the short role that she did play as a charismatic church lady I was glad when she was finally killed off in this film.
And the rest of the characters were just all over the place and the whole movie just did not make any sense at all and the film ended with an abrupt ending and I was just sitting there thinking about how much I wasted my money with all the other cooler videos I could have bought at that video store.
An Average Horror Movie Worth A Watch.
As always, with the plethora of horror films, this could have been better, especially the story which is only there to create The Being.What this film has in its favour is it's cast, though not the cream of the crop there are some very good masters of their craft involved.
In fact, most of the cast give good performances with the material they have, even Roxanne Cybelle Osco, who is the little girl in the Easter Egg Hunt scene (one of my favourites in the film).
Though Jackie Kong's story isn't too bad for an '80's horror film his directing skills aren't up to the same standard.
Kong is also good at filming in the dark as he opts to make everything visible (there's nothing worse than when a scene is so dark you cannot see what's happening).
The small town of Pottsville, Idaho (self-acclaimed potato capital of the world, mind you) has an unwelcome new arrival in the shape of a gooey & bloodthirsty mutated monster.
He clearly likes cars, as he always hides in them, and he's undeniably the result of years of pollution even though the local scientist openly claims that it's safe to dump toxic waste in the water reservoirs.
The mayor's wife is on a sole mission to banish all pornography, the potato export business may under no circumstances get in danger, there's a lonely woman wandering around the streets without apparent motives, the deputy is too busy arresting Mexican immigrants who're fishing without a license and the local radio DJ blames all the missing person files on the tornadoes even though I didn't notice the slightest sign of bad whether.
Rexx Coltrane  his name makes him sound like a porn actor  is probably the most wooden actor I ever saw and his lack of talent particularly becomes transparent when he tries to convince the mayor something stinks in Pottsville.
Some of the gore was alright in this, but this was just a big let-down of a monster horror film.
A very bad disappointing 80's horror, that I really thought was going to be good.
This is truly a very horrible film simply about a big glob of green mess that creates all kinds of problems for all kinds of people in a small town of Idaho where Jose Ferrer, (Major Gordon Lane) runs a big potato processing plant.
"The Being" is a schlocky creature feature made by female director Jackie Kong.I remember seeing her horror comedy "Blood Diner" many years ago and I didn't like it one bit."The Being" is a better horror film which has its share of flaws.A hideous mutant is running rampant in the small town of Pottsville,Idaho.It seems there has been some disposing of nuclear waste in the town dump,thus spawning the bloodthirsty being.There are some neat gore effects in "The Being" including a juicy decapitation and ripped out heart.The monster looks cheesy and the acting is atrocious.Overall,Jackie Kong's debut is a harmless piece of trash that provides some laughts.5 out of 10..
PLS DON'T BEGIN TO WATCH THIS LIKE A GOOD HORROR-MOVIE, BUT ACCEPT IT AS A HUMOR-MOVIE.
It's got a few distinguished thespians slumming badly, crude direction by cult favourite Jackie Kong ("Blood Diner", "Night Patrol"), a routine and silly script, and enough hilarity to keep bad movie enthusiasts chortling for 82 minutes.Kongs' then-husband Bill Osco, the producer of this thing, also co-stars under the name Rexx Coltrane, as small town detective Mortimer Lutz, trying to solve the cases of missing people in his small town of Pottsville in Idaho.
The perpetually cranky mayor (Jose Ferrer) doesn't want anything to hurt local business, while Garson Jones (Martin Landau), a scientist who is a fairly slimy one himself, does some snooping around.One is certain to smile watching the ineptitude play out as "The Being" tells its tale.
It's pretty suggestive looking, for one thing.One could savour the casting mix here: also among the people wasting their time here are Marianne Gordon (wife of Kenny Rogers at the time), Dorothy Malone as a woman desperately searching for her son, Ruth Buzzi as the mayors' annoying wife, comedians Murray Langston & Johnny Dark and author / actor Kinky Friedman as a trio of cannon fodder, Jerry Maren as the Being, and Kent Perkins (Buzzis' husband) as dopey Officer Dudley.
The adorable tyke who gets too close to the Being at one point is played by Roxanne Cybelle, the daughter of Kong and Osco.Originally filmed in 1980 under the title "Easter Sunday", when capitalizing on the concept of holidays in horror was in vogue.This is a special kind of bad; my corresponding rating applies not to quality, obviously, but simple entertainment value.Seven out of 10..
A second testament to the picture's pathetic, yet oddly irresistible sub-par allure is the slumming and suitably embarrassed Hall of Shame Faded Name cast: a dour Martin Landau as a shady, spineless, untrustworthy scientist, a cranky Jose Ferror as the gloomy mayor, a highly annoying Ruth Buzzi as Hizzoner's nagging shrew wife, a haggard Dorothy Malone as the harried mother of a missing little boy (said tyke may just be the monster, but thanks to the murky script this particular plot point dangles unresolved throughout the film), the eternally goofy Murray "The Unknown Comic" Langston and saturnine country-and-western satirist Kinky Friedman as ill-fated local yokels, former porn filmmaker turned lousy thespian Bill Osco as the charmless good ol' boy sheriff, and Kenny Roger's hot babe "can't act for spit" wife Marianne Gordon as the constantly shrieking heroine.
Toss in Jackie Kong's fumbling (mis)direction, witless attempts at broad humor (two stoner guys are attacked by the monster while watching a cheesy fright feature at a drive-in theater), fake-looking gore, dimly lit cinematography, across-the-board cruddy production values, a meandering pace, a hilariously hokey and unconvincing titular creature, and one of those always irritating "it ain't over yet!" sequel set-up non-endings.
Oh boy, 1983 was a magical time to be alive, because this movie may have seemed stupid to critics when it came out way back when, but I loved every single minute of this.Much like Jaws, the authorities - including Mayor Lane (José Ferrer, The Sentinel) are covering everything up so that they don't damage the town's potato crop.
Osco produced this film, as well as plenty of more adult titles like Flesh Gordon and Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy.
He also worked with Jackie Kong, who directed The Being, to bring Night Patrol to the screen.Toss in Kenny Rogers' wife (at the time) as a love interest and a mutant who is totally influenced by Alien and we've got ourselves a movie.
Will Martin Landau and the film's producer be able to stop it in time?
Or that at the end of the movie, we get to learn what happened to every character after the film with title cards and then get to see every major character with a super of who played them (and anyone who has died, we get to see them die all over again)?
For these reasons and so many more - like a creature that has one eye and hundreds of teeth, this movie is a must see..
From the hilariously solemn voice-over narration at the film's opening to the tongue-in-cheek epilogue dialogue at the film's close (proclaming each surviving character's future fate), I enjoyed the hell out of this no-budget monster movie.
Take away the brief nudity and gore scenes and the resemblance would be uncanny.Along with all the problems listed above, the film has further flaws (it's kind of like the runt of the litter - maybe that's why I take pity on it).
For example, most of it is filmed at night (the monster only comes out at night, you see - gee, that's helpful for the special effects crew) and many scenes are so damned dark that you have to squint real hard in order to make out just what the hell is going on.
Also, the cheesy monster-on-the-loose stuff was very old, even when this film was made, and all it offers up are clichéd scares and broadcastable shock sequences.
There's even one of those damned jumping cats living in a cupboard scare scenes.It's a definite bad movie all right, but that doesn't stop it being unenjoyable.
His next hit is at the local drive-in theatre which seems to be showing a similar movie to this one (except with more gratuitous nudity thrown in for good measure).
Amid the monster attack sequences (which take up more than half of the film), we have the typical plodding police investigation.
It turns out that local scientist Garson Jones is responsible for dumping nuclear waste into the local river, which has in turn spawned the toxic monster.
Back to the monster action.One reason I enjoyed this movie was the cast of familiar faces.
Firstly we have Martin Landau (THE WARNING) as the local scientist who creates the monster unknowingly in the first place.
I like Landau's haunted performances and here he gives another good one.
But, although the special effects are cheap and awkward, I like this monster a lot.
I have a feeling that most people will hate this movie, and it's recommended to real monster lovers only, but I think it's a blast!.
In Jackie Kong's directorial debut, which was in fact shot three years before its cinema release, a small and peaceful town in the middle of nowhere (okay, Idaho) is overrun by destructive monsters spawned from irresponsibility (remember, this is years before "Gremlins", too), and it's up to the local lawman to save the day.
Woefully unprepared, he sets out.This film is unusual in that it attracted semi-major names (Martin Landau, Jose Ferrer, Ruth Buzzi and Dorothy Malone)to a project that clearly had no budget – no special effects, lousy sound and a script that has little to offer the actors or the audience.
It's not a good film at all, but I feel somewhat protective of it – despite the lousy sets, the repetitive action and one of the most wooden leading men (Bill Osco)of all B movies.
One eyed blob monster, a product of the usual toxic waste dumping(..as mayor José Ferrer put it so adequately, Pottsville was chosen by Industrial governmental scientist Martin Landau as "the most sophisticated dump site in the country."), with slobbery sharp teeth and terribly sensitive to light, attack the locals by wrapping it's lizard tongue around their throats, whisking them out of the camera frame.
Sheriff Bill Osco, who dresses like a truck driver, even when at the town station, is to the rescue, ready to kill the monster if he doesn't bore him to death first with his non-performance and monotone voice.
Marianne Gordon, who seems to escape the embarrassment in a low-key performance as a waitress and possible love-interest to Osco(..why she'd even be interested in someone as lively as a block of wood is anyone's guess), will be the woman in peril who would eventually walk Malone home and never be seen in the film again.Now, to take a moment to talk about Landau.
I actually think Ferrer, last seen in this film driving off, quite wasted and frightened after seeing the blob monster, plays his role a bit tongue-in-cheek as a constantly annoyed Mayor who just wants to grow his potatoes and make his little town a wealthy place to earn a spot in Washington.
I think Dorothy Malone is a sex icon thanks to her work with Douglas Sirk, specifically her delicious nymphomaniac in "Written in the Wind", but is handed a terribly thankless(..practically meaningless, if the script hadn't made her son the one effected by the toxic waste) role in this steaming pile.On Jackie Kong's directorial decisions come a narrative voice at the opening after a radio DJ tells us about rain showers and thunderstorms moving into the area, prophetically announces doom to the little town of Pottsville, Idaho.
The climactic showdown between the hilarious monster and Osco should earn some good laughs.
I did find the drive-in sequence near the beginning pretty fun..the movie playing equals "The Being" in quality which I find irony in.
There's an attack scene where the monster, in gelatinous form, oozes from the air conditioning vents and radio to somehow kill a couple making out.
Best kill is probably the poor kid who tries to escape the monster getting his head removed..
But Rexx Coltrane (aka Jackie "I'm the director folks" Kong's then husband Bill Osco) also shares a bit of lead.Toxic waste gets dumped into a local reservoir and creates a sci-fi monster.
Well, a B horror film with a couple of stars of note and a radioactive monster!
Still, while not a good film, it was entertaining in a way.
Some good kills to be had, though they brought out one of the best ones first and it also has that B movie charm of being so bad it is kind of good in a way.
Martin Landau is in the film too, and I have to wonder how the heck that convinced him to take this role.
There are a couple of other actors and actresses of note in it, but no one you will probably know by name, but rather the type you recognize them from something else cheesy.The story has a radio DJ always commenting on the weather and how bad the rain is, but come to think of it, I do not recall actually seeing it rain in the film...Well, a dude is getting chased right out of the gate and he tries to escape only to get his head torn off!
Then the film kind of slows down and it just is not as good as it seemed like it was going to be.
Literally, it looked like something was going to happen with the waitress at the woman's house and nothing ever came of it.So the film was a fun film to watch, but in the end it is a pretty bad film.
Seriously, that scene was really stupid as a cat startles the two leads as cats tend to do in these movies and they just life and hug each other and become good friends over a trivial thing.