Main Cast: Ronny Cox, Bibi Besch, Paul Clemens, Don Gordon, R.G. Armstrong
Release Year: 1982
Country: US
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
Tom Burman's innovative prosthetic special effects (used to greater effect in later horror films) are the saving grace of The Beast Within. The premise concerns a couple honeymooning in Mississippi. Caroline (Bibi Besch) is brutally raped by a hairy, sub-human monster and gives birth to a child named Michael (Paul Clemens), who appears normal until he hits his teens. At 17, Michael begins to feel strange, and his parents take him back to Mississippi to find out if his problems are related to Caroline's long-ago rape. Once in Mississippi, Michael transforms into a ravenous insect-like creature that roams the countryside, disemboweling innocent victims and feasting on their torsos. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
The Beast Within doesn't make a lick of sense, which is exactly what makes the film so deliriously necessary for horror devotees. The action charges out of the gate from the start and never lets up until the outrageously ridiculous end, which doesn't explain a thing but will satisfy gorehounds and all lovers of schlock cinema. It's a profoundly dirty film, which is not to suggest that it's pornographic, but rather that every frame feels coated in the dust and filth of an obscure Mississippi town's violent secret. Poor Michael's predicament begins when his mother is raped by a mysterious, hairy-legged stranger. By the time we meet him, he's already knee-deep into his inexplicable transformation. The Beast Within throws one ugly murder after another into our laps, tangled together with only the barest thread, and while the bewigged local official eventually owns up to the sinister truth, there's still a thousand questions pending. The wild deficiencies in logic, plot, and simple scene construction don't detract from the stupendously stupid pleasures to be had with this ridiculously staged horror show. With a sinister mortician, a bog full of skeletons, and a particularly gruesome skin-shedding scene, nothing else needs to be said. Keep an eye out for veteran character actors like Logan Ramsey and R.G. Armstrong, plus Meshach Taylor as the only African-American man for miles. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
Kitty Moffat - Amanda; L.Q. Jones - Sheriff Pool; Ramsay King - Edwin; John Dennis Johnston - Horace Platt; Ron Soble - Tom Laws; Luke Askew - Dexter Ward; Meshach Taylor - Deputy Herbert; Boyce Holleman - Doc Odom; Logan Ramsey - Edwin Curwin
Credit
Ron Fury - First Assistant Director, Philippe Mora - Director, Robert Brown - Editor, Bert Lovitt - Editor, Jack B. Bernstein - Executive Producer, Les Baxter - Composer (Music Score), Thomas R. Burman - Makeup Special Effects, David M. Haber - Production Designer, Jack L. Richards - Cinematographer, Harvey Bernhard - Producer, Gabriel Katzka - Producer, Al Overton - Sound/Sound Designer, Tom Holland - Screenwriter, Edward Levy - Book Author
The film is a very loose adaptation of Edward Levy's 1981 novel. The screenplay was written by Tom Holland, his first feature film script. It was dismissed by critics upon release as being cheap and exploitative. In more recent years it has gained a cult following.
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 is forced to walk several miles down the road to a service station they stopped at earlier to get a tow. While he is gone, Caroline is attacked and raped by a mysterious creature.
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 what is causing the sickness, only that a pituitary gland has gone out of control. Theorizing that the sickness might be genetic, Eli and Caroline finally confront the past and return to the small town where she was attacked to hopefully discover some information about the man who assaulted her. The local townspeople are reluctant to help, with both the newspaper editor and the town judge brushing aside their questions. But then Eli and Caroline hear a story about a local man who was murdered 17 years earlier, his body partially eaten and his house almost burned down.
Meanwhile Michael has escaped from the hospital and returned to the same town, unbeknownst to his parents. His personality undergoes a frightening transformation, and he quickly begins to attack and kill specific people in the community, including the paper editor and the local mortician, both of whom were related to each other.
After several more revelations, including the discovery of a swamp filled with bodies whose bones show signs of having been gnawed on, Caroline and Eli finally discover the terrible truth about the creature that attacked her those many years ago. And what's worse, it appears that the creature is about to be reborn through Michael, and its murderous actions are the direct consequence of a carefully concealed secret.
Actor Ronny Cox, who plays Eli MacCleary, also wrote and performed the country music featured in the film.
One shoot, at an abandoned hospital, fell on Friday the 13th. The crew became convinced the location was haunted as throughout the evening the lights and the elevator turned on and off by themselves.
Along with Joe Dante's The Howling (1981) this film pioneered the trend of air-bladder special effects makeup. For Michael's transformation scene small plastic sacks (often condoms or balloons) would be embedded into the layers of makeup and face castings. Later while filming these sacks would be inflated through tubes and it would help to give the appearance of the skins distortion.
This film's Lalo Schifrin-like score was the final feature-length score for composer Les Baxter, who considered it to be one of his finest. James Horner was rumored to have contributed to the film's score and his elements from his piece were used by Baxter, this was later proven false.[1]
Star Paul Clemens was very enthusiastic about having the role of Michael MacCleary because he was an avid fan of the horror genre. Clemens would even enjoy the extensive makeup work that would take hours to apply to him.
This film became a staple on Joe Bob Briggs' Monstervision series, though the network would heavily edit the film.
