The Beast Within

Plot synopsis:
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 walks several miles to a service station they stopped at earlier to get a tow. Meanwhile, a strange creature, held captive in the cellar of a dark house, breaks its chain and escapes into the forest. As it nears the MacCleary's car Caroline's dog jumps out of the window to confront it. Caroline chases after the animal, but flees in terror when she stumbles across the canine's mutilated corpse. She knocks herself unconscious by running into a tree. The creature tears off her clothes and rapes her. Eli and the service station attendant find her lying alone in the forest. As they all drive off two gunshots are heard from the forest.
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 why his pituitary gland has gone out of control. Eli and Caroline confront the past and return to the small town of Nioba, Mississippi to discover some information about the man who assaulted her, in case Michael's illness is genetic. The local townspeople are reluctant to help; the town judge, Judge Curwin (Gordon) claims to have no information, while newspaper editor Edwin Curwin (Ramsey), a relative of the judge, is nervous and angry when Caroline finds a newspaper clipping about a man named Lionel Curwin who was killed seventeen years earlier. Eli and Caroline visit police station and ask Sheriff Poole (Jones) for information bout the death of Lionel Curwin for a book which they say they are researching. Poole tells them that Lionel, the town undertaker, had been intensely disliked by almost everyone in town, that his corpse was found partially eaten, that whoever was responsible had tried to burn his house down, and that the culprit was never apprehended.
That same night Michael (Clemens) escapes from the hospital and drives a stolen car to Nioba. He drives to an old, dilapidated house. Upon entering he goes to the cellar door, addressing something lurking underneath the floorboards. A voice calls to him, and he descends into the cellar. Sometime later Michael wanders to the house of Edwin Curwin and, under the influence of a malign presence, murders and cannibalizes the old man. He then stumbles in a daze to the home of a young woman named Amanda Platt (Moffat), where he collapses. Amanda calls the police and Michael is taken to the hospital. After examining him, Doc Schoonmaker (Armstrong) tells Michael's parents that he just needs rest.
The next day a horrified Judge Curwin discovers Edwin's corpse. Michael leaves the hospital again and goes to Amanda's house to thank her for helping him. The two go for a walk in the forest, and Michael discovers that Amanda is the daughter of Horace Platt, Lionel Curwin's cousin and he is a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic. As the teens begin to kiss, Amanda's dog arrives with one of Edwin's severed arms. They alert the sheriff, who begins to search the area. A distraught Horace arrives to pick up Amanda, and angrily tells Michael to stay away from his daughter. Poole reveals that two years earlier Horace had caught his wife in bed with another man and killed both of them, but was never prosecuted because he is a relative of Judge Curwin.
Caroline and Michael go back to the hospital, while Eli, the sheriff and some volunteers search for clues. Soon they uncovered a swamp full of human bones which appear to have been gnawed on by human teeth. The doctor recognizes a bone as belonging to one of his patients, but the sheriff reminds him that the woman had been dead for many years and that he went to her funeral. Eli, Poole and Schoonmaker go to the mortuary and question Dexter Ward (Askew), who was Lionel Curwin's apprentice at the time the woman was prepared for burial. Ward denies that anyone else could have been buried in her place, as he personally embalmed her. The three men leave to exhume her grave. Ward calls the judge and demands blackmail money to continue to keep his silence. He is soon thereafter killed by a possessed Michael.
Eli, Poole and the doctor find the coffin filled with rocks. They then return to the mortuary to question Ward, but find his body. At the same time Michael, still under the influence of that angry spirit, finds a man named Tom Laws drinking in the street. The spirit in Michael addresses Tom as an old friend, and the alcoholic seems to believe that he is talking to someone named Billy Connors. Michael/Billy tells Tom that he used ancient shaman magic taught to them by Tom's father so that he could come back to wreak vengeance on the Curwin family.
The next day the judge tells Poole to do whatever is necessary to find out who is responsible for these murders. Tom tries to tell Poole that Billy Connors, who died seventeen years ago, is responsible for the deaths, having used old magic to resurrect himself in the MacCleary boy. The sheriff thinks he is drunk and gives him money to go get something to eat. Michael/Billy, who again escaped the hospital by knocking Schoonmaker unconscious, tracks Tom down and kills him for betraying him.
Caroline and Eli ask the doctor to tell them about Billy Connors. The doc says that Billy was a quiet young man who was handsome and loved the forest and animals.
Afraid of his own behavior, Michael goes to Amanda's house and warns her get out of town. He manages to convince her to leave, but while she is packing Billy takes over and approaches Amanda to kill her. Michael's personality reasserts itself and he throws himself out of a window in an attempt to protect Amanda from harm. Back at the hospital Michael begs to be killed, fearing it will soon be too late to stop Billy, who has gone insane in his desire to kill the Curwin bloodline. Michael tells the sheriff and Eli to go to Lionel Curwin's house and look in the basement. When they descend the cellar steps they find a skeleton with a chain wrapped around its leg, and they assume the remains to be those of Billy Connors.
At the hospital Michael dies and Billy is gruesomely reborn, bursting through Michael's dead tissue into a powerful flesh-and-blood being. He kills Horace Platt, who had arrived at the hospital with murderous intentions, and then starts to hunt the judge. Judge Curwin makes his way to the sheriff's station, where Poole, Eli, Caroline, Schoonmaker and one of the sheriff's deputies have taken shelter after witnessing Billy's resurrection. Curwin at first professes ignorance, but after Eli threatens to throw him to the creature, he confesses that, contrary to popular belief, Billy did not run way with Lionel's wife Sarah. When Lionel found out about their affair, he went berserk, killed Sarah, and chained Billy in his cellar. Lionel kept Billy imprisoned for years, feeding him the corpses of the dead and weighting the coffins down with rocks instead. Lionel's relatives did not discover the truth until Dexter found his body. The judge tells them that after Billy broke his chain they went after him and shot him, thinking they had killed him, not knowing about his encounter with Caroline. Poole advises Curwin that Billy managed to make it back to the cellar before dying.
At this point Billy attacks the police station, kills the judge, and is pursued into the forest. He comes across Amanda, whose car had broken down, and rapes her. Soon afterwards he is discovered by Eli and Caroline, and after a brief struggle Caroline blows his head off with a shotgun. At the end of the film it is implied that Billy could potentially have impregnated Amanda after she was raped like Caroline 17 years ago, thereby resurrecting himself yet again.

Tags: cult, grindhouse film, murder

Review:
If you analyze the plot too much the holes become big enough to drive a truck through, but just ignore the urge to do that, and you'll find you're watching an near-classic of transformation horror.A newly-wed (Bibi Besch) is raped by a mysterious beast on her wedding night.
One of the better, and most overlooked, monster films of the 80's is this fun and effectively creepy B horror film.On a dark and stormy Mississippi night, a woman is attacked and raped by a mysterious monster.
Now, seventeen years later, her ill teenage son is starting to display some murderous behavior that keeps getting worse...The Beast Within (based on the Edward Levy novel of the same title) is too often bashed by critics.
Supporting performances from Don Gordon, R.G. Armstrong, Katherine Moffat, and L.Q. Jones are good too.The Beast Within is one under praised horror film.
"The Beast Within" was a staple of TNT's MonsterVision many years ago, and its unique (yet often convoluted) premise reveals why: how many movies have featured a bloodthirsty cicada monster?
Based on the novel by Edward Levy (adapted by future "Child's Play" director Tom Holland), the plot has happy newlyweds Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch running afoul of terror along a backwoods Mississippi road, where Besch is raped by some vague, subhuman creature; 17 years later, son Paul Clemens is exhibiting some extreme growing pains that include the occasional ghastly murder when his parents return to the scene of the crime looking for answers.
While the plot never really comes together as well as it should, "Beast" is a model of B-movie efficiency that utilizes atmosphere, location, and some supremely grotesque special effects to leave the viewer rattled (director Philippe Mora also has an excellent grasp of light and shadow to create mood).
A strong visual stylist, he's struggled with poor choice of material such as the infamous sequel Howling III: The Marsupials.The Bug - sorry, BEAST Within is definitely worth a look for horror buffs, but when you watch the big transformation scene two-thirds of the way through, I guarantee you'll be scratching your head afterwards.
Bibi Besch is raped by a monster on a Southern road,and 17 years later,her son(very convincing Paul Clemens)begins showing signs of change.Pretty soon,he's rampaging through a small town of Nioba killing people,and(in an excellent transformation scene)changing into a slimy fanged beast.The acting is great,the music is really spooky,and the special effects by Thomas R.Burman("Prophecy","Invasion of the Body Snatchers")are simply outstanding.Tom Holland("Fright Night")wrote the screenplay from an Edward Levy novel.Director Philippe Mora creates a fair amount of suspense and atmosphere,and there's enough gore and violence to satisfy all the gore hounds.So if you like horror genre,check out this gory shocker.Cult classic indeed!.
What wasn't so great was some of the acting and some of the things people do to get themselves in trouble.The film starts off with Ronny Cox and his wife traveling down some lonely Mississippi road in the dead of night.
Perhaps people will say that it is dated because now a days they use computer graphics to make everything look real but let me tell you, give me guys like Rick Baker, Stan Winston and Thomas Burman and I would rather watch them at work than a chip and a computer program that does the same thing.
But Michael is slowly changing to a monster himself and there's no turning back.Directed by Phillipe Mora (Howling 2 & 3, Communion, Mad Dog Morgan) made an entertaining if graphic horror film with plenty of shocks and gore.
The highlight of this film is the transformation of Michael, which it's still look good after all these years.
His parents, played by Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch, try to learn more about what happened seventeen years ago and venture to the town where she was raped by the monster: a sleepy, backwoods Mississippi community.
The Beast Within (1982) based on the novel by Edward Levy, is a very scary movie right out of the starting gate through to the end of the film.
I like the small town with a secret stories though so that is probably why overall I enjoy it and there are some good makeup effects near the end of this one, it just needed twists that fitted the situation better..
The character of Amanda, Michaels' sort-of girlfriend, was annoying - not through any fault of her own, but simply because she seemed like a nice girl and went through the entire film cringing from everyone, and with good reason, as she is repeatedly slapped, yelled at, humiliated and ultimately, horribly violated.It is not a pleasant movie to watch, to say the least, as the movie comes full circle and the "beast" seems to triumph.
This horror film, about a woman brutally attacked one night, and years later has to relive the memory when her son becomes the suspect in a series of brutal murders, is appalling trash, utterly without value.
Good actors wasted in this junk, further ruined by some dreadful F/X, especially the big transformation sequence in the hospital, which looks like it was made for 25 cents, so unintentionally laughable is the end result.Directed by Philippe Mora, who would go on to direct the equally bad "Howling II & III"..
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the young man in the film isn't struggling with transforming into a werewolf, but into some sort of mutant swamp-creature that has a knack for rape!
Well, seventeen years earlier his mother was raped by some other swamp creature, and lo and behold, this poor young man is going through the cycles of maturing into such a thing now.The good: --Special effects aren't too shabby for 1982, today, however, they're a little dated.--Monster-on-woman rape scenedidn't see that coming!--Decent atmosphere.--Some gore, good for horror fans (like me), though nothing even remotely comparable to a Romero film.Didn't hurt it, didn't help it--The acting is pretty averagetakes place in the American south with thick accents everywhere.--The music is very average, nothing special, nothing really gooddoes an alright job with the atmosphere.--Unique story that quickly reveals that the werewolf you likely thought you were going to see is something else entirely.--Ronny Cox plays a good guy, Paul Verhoeven fans will recognize him as playing a villain most of the time.The Bad:--Let's face itthe story is all over the place.
Where they were going with this is beyond me.--Music is occasionally annoying.The Ugly:--While attempting to solve the murders (which occurs in every horror film of this nature), the kid's Dad (Ronny Cox) is always with the cops helping themnever once is he mentioned as having any reason to help, and for the most part, his son isn't even suspected of the murders!
Acting: 6/10 Story: 5/10 Atmosphere: 6/10 Cinematography: 4/10 Character Development: 4/10 Special Effects/Make-up: 6/10 Nudity/Sexuality: 2/10 Violence/Gore: 6/10 Music: 5/10 Direction: 5/10Cheesiness: 3/10 Crappiness: 4/10Overall: 5/10Good for horror fans looking for some filler.
so so flick has its moments but is very uneven and suffers from dull stretches and bad acting but has lots of gore and a creepy looking monster or werewolf whatever lol the transformation is downright creepy gave me the willies this is worth a rent though ** out of 5.
In the beginning, Bibi Besch gets raped by a giant cicada monster (which actually looks more like a giant pickle).
Fast forward a number of years, and Bibi and Ronny have a son, Michael, who is starting to exhibit some very anti-social behavior, like killing various people around town.
The off-color-orange blood looks like it just came out of the Dutchboy can, and the climactic transformation scene where Michael turns into a giant pickle is an air bladder-induced laugh riot.
The doctors notice several strange things about the boy and the mother and father decide to try and find out more about the man who raped her in order to ascertain the problem with their kid...The film does have plenty of problems; mostly owing to the story as huge chunks of it don't make a lick of sense.
The last 30 minutes of 'The Beast Within' turned this film from being a poor to an OK horror movie.
The husband (Ronnie Cox) runs off for help, leaving the wife (Bibi Besch) to be ravaged and raped by an unseen monster.Flash forward 17 years and the child offspring of this non- consensual mating is very sick and on life support.
But there's no werewolves here; the 'beast' of the title is somehow a cicada, something that, due to studio butchering (when will they learn?), remains unexplained and confusing, putting a bit of a downer on what is a perfectly passable 80's horror.The movie begins with happily married couple Eli (80's rent-a-b*****d Ronny Cox) and Caroline MacCleary (Bibi Besch) breaking down near a small town in Mississippi.
17 years later, and Michael MacLeary (Paul Clemens) is the result of that rape, and is in hospital dying from a strange condition that has left the doctor's baffled.
Michael escapes hospital and, apparently driven by an external influence, murders and cannibalises Edwin Curwin (Logan Ramsey), a man possibly involved in what happened 17 years previously.It will hardly give the likes of John Carpenter, David Cronenberg and Sam Raimi sleepless nights, but Beast is very well-made, with care taken to develop an intriguing plot and a creepy atmosphere.
Although directed by Philippe Mora, the genius (detect any sarcasm?) behind trashfests Howling II: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch and Howling III: The Marsupials, early 80s creature-feature The Beast Within is, surprisingly, a rather watchable effort.The plot, based on a novel by Edward Levy, sees newlywed Caroline MacCleary (Bibi Besch) raped whilst on her honeymoon.
Seventeen years later, her son Michael—the result of the assault—mysteriously falls ill, and so Caroline, accompanied by her understanding hubby Eli (Ronny Cox), attempts to track down the boy's genetic father to see if he is able to shed any light on the problem.What they discover is terrible beyond their imaginations: Michael's 'real' father was Billy Connors, a man encarcerated against his will and driven crazy by the relatives of the woman with whom he had been having an affair.
Completely deranged, but possessing supernatural knowledge passed on to him by the insects with which he would often commune, Billy escapes and, by impregnating Caroline, ensures that he is able to wreak revenge in the future, using Michael as his host.Sure, the story might be a tad preposterous, and the direction rather stilted at times, but with a likable cast and some impressive make-up effects courtesy of Tom Burman (Happy Birthday to Me, My Bloody Valentine), the good marginally outweighs the bad.
Michael's painful metamorphosis into a mutant cicada thingy is generally regarded as the films highlight, and the scene is certainly memorable, making good use of that 80s favourite, the bladder effect; but also watch out for the bit where a dog drops a mouldy severed hand onto the face of pretty southern gal Amanda Platt (Katherine Moffat) as she makes out with Michael (for some reason, that bit made me chuckle), plus the really cheesy decapitation of one of the film's many unscrupulous characters.*that I am aware of..
Years later in a breakout from the basement Bobby killed Lionel and then while out in the woods found a stranded motorist Caroline MacCleary, Bibi Besch, who's husband Eli, Ronny Cox, was away looking for help, and raped her.
Michael like a Cicada insect who after 17 years started to morph into a new Bobby a monstrous like creature and began to go out at night to kill all those in the town of Nioba who did him in.
In a short time Michael goes on a gory rampage and murders against all the people involved in his suffering as Bobby Conners including Judge Curwin, who he decapitated, but ends up getting shot to death by his mother Caroline when Michael is just about to kill his father Eli!Meanwhile the person whom Michael raped Amanda, and who's father Horace was one of those that he killed, had in fact impregnated her with himself who's, the coming blessed event, now well on his, or its, way to be born in and start the ball rolling all over again.
It kinda added to the atmosphere, THE BEAST WITHIN was MADE for nights like this!Good taste being the furthest thing from Mora's mind (it usually IS!) it was almost fun watching Paul Clemens mutate into Mr Nasty and go about his business in backwoods US of A, dismantling helpless young things during his "Oh damn, its happening again" period.
Some say that the film's premise is ludicrous but legendary Horror author H.P. Lovecraft used similar ideas of degenerative mutation in his classic story "The Lurking Fear." Beast features a strong cast with top acting honors going to Ronny Cox and Bibi Besch while excellent support comes from top character actors R.G. Armstrong and L.Q. Jones.
And the film has a nice sense of symetry as Clemens, reborn as the monster who raped Besch is in turn killed by her at the film's end while Moffat who suffered the same fate as Besch is now going to carry the next beast.
A monstrous humanoid creature appears and rapes her.Seventeen years later...Cox and Besch have a seventeen year old son (Paul Clemens) who is suffering from some mysterious illness.
17 years later, and the now teen aged product of that rape is going through some pretty ugly growing pains, periodically killing and eventually transforming into a monster himself.
The movie takes place years later when the child that returns to the town of the original creature and begins metamorphing into a slimy Cicada-like creature, and begins going on a killing spree and killing people that knew about the original creature that attacked his mother, almost twenty years ago.
"The Beast Within" isn't all that bad a creature feature.**SPOILERS**On their honeymoon, Eli, (Ronny Cox) and Katherine MacCleary, (Bibi Besch) are assaulted along the way by a strange creature.
Years later, Michael MacCleary, (Paul Clemens) their teenage son, is under attack by a strange virus that no one can figure out where it came from or how to treat it, leaving them to decide whether or not to admit the attack happened.
The plot:Conceived after his mum was raped by a strange beast (what a cheerful way to start the film!) 17 years ago, Michael MacCleary finds himself becoming very ill.
Something is growing inside of Michael, something that hates the entire Curwin family and wants to destroy them.The Beast Within is an excellent little horror film, based on a novel by Edward Levy.
The plot, involving a pregnancy with a monstrous origin resulting in a seemingly normal but still unusual child, and the small town conspiracy to keep the crimes of the Curwin family a secret are all quite Lovecraftian in nature.On a note of parenthood, I liked how Eli accepts Michael as his son even though he isn't.
I am giving this a 2 out of ten only because it's fun to watch for the bad effects.This starts out with the a rape then later the boy is like a cicada and goes through the change every 17 yeas, and his parents go back to this odd town to find out his true heritage.It is difficult to watch as most of the time with the bad acting, and the boy for the most part when he "gets angry" to kill this particular family, he just looks upset with bad teeth and super strength.It really is a slow film and only worth watching if you want to see the bad effects.
If given a extra 10 or 15 minutes to explain itself better and give more depth to some of the characters, this movie could have been something memorable.The story starts off with a woman being raped by a creature from the woods.
This uneven mess was all over the place and it didn't help when they finally revealed the actual: BEAST WITHIN.In fact, when they did show itany sensible person would laugh their ass off, though any sensible person probably wouldn't have even bothered with such trash in the first place.Let's see if I can sum up this mistake of a film: Newlyweds Eli (Cox) and Caroline (Besch) take the typical horror wrong turn in the woods (17 years ago, sorry, Plot Point) and while Eli goes after a tow truck after the inevitable crash, Caroline gets attacked by a man-beast.
Attacked by means of..rape?Yeah, it's the typical "werewolf" or "man-turned-beast" story – the creature did kill their dog first, after all – but when he got to the victim in the deep-dark-woods, it actually surprised me that the first thing it would do was: eat out verses eating her.
Somehow – and this is where I began my journey of being lost in this movie – the mom/dad/son trio made their way back to the scene of the original crime and Michael's going after a particular family, but as a rabid "beast." Actually more like a salivating drug addict.Either way, the small town's concerned and haven't the slightest clue on the obvious culprit.
Paul Clemens (as Michael, the son) came across as a bit wooden to me, but aside from that, things were pretty good in the acting department.
Basically, though, it's a decent B-movie sort of production which features an interesting creature (a cicada-type monster) and an equally interesting transformation scene.
The couple wonder if perhaps their teen is not actually the husband's progeny but that of the monster-like thing that raped the wife those many years ago.
Well, 17 years later Eli MacCleary (Ronny Cox) and his wife Caroline (Bibi Besch) are having their son Michael (Paul Clemens) checked out at the hospital after he starts having health issues.
If your looking for a reason to watch this film than that would be a pretty good one.