The Beast Within



In 1964, Eli and Caroline McCleary, a couple traveling on their honeymoon, end up having some car trouble one night right outside a small rural town in Mississippi. While her new hubby is off getting help, Caroline is attacked and raped by some mysterious creature out in the woods. Some seventeen years later, Eli and Caroline’s son Michael, the product of said rape, is suddenly afflicted by a debilitating illness and none of the doctors seem to be able to figure out what’s wrong. Thinking Michael’s illness may have some sort of genetic component, Eli and Caroline travel back to the small town she was attacked in, in the hopes of finding the man responsible so that they can try to figure out what’s wrong with their son. But instead of finding the answers they seek they not only wind up bogged down in the town’s biggest conspiracy, but also in a murder mystery, when Michael absconds from the hospital and ends up following them to Mississippi.


Yeah kid, you probably should have stayed in bed….

The Beast Within is a rather low budget American horror film from 1982. The film was the first horror outing for Tom Holland, who would go on to write other well-known horror films like Psycho II, the original Fright Night, and Child’s Play, the final two of which he also directed. Which, story-wise anyway, is a promising sign. However, this movie also just happened to be an early film directed by Philippe Mora, who is rather infamous in horror circles, because he’s also responsible for directing the first two Howling sequels (as well as Communion). So you gotta take some of the good with the, er, questionable, I suppose. Surprisingly though, I ended up liking The Beast Within, even though it’s littered with a lot of very rough edges.


And some oddly shaped edges, too.

Okay, so I fully admit that I liked the story going on here. You’ve got a creepy monster, you’ve got a bloody murder mystery, and it’s all wrapped up in a conspiracy that’s centered in a small rural town. In short, this is my type of film. That being said though, I’ll also admit that the story has its fair share of problems. Like, lots of problems. Namely, that it has a ton of plot holes, and many of said plot holes are big enough to drive a fleet of semi-trucks through. Most of the bigger issues center around the rapist/killer. And the problem isn’t even that we don’t know who the guy is. We’re given that answer fairly early on. The problem is that the movie spends a lot of time building up to giving us answers, and then after you’ve become invested it only bothers to give half-hearted explanations by the end. And I’m not going to go into too much detail, because that would be giving away way too many spoilers, but I assure you, none of it makes any damn sense. The only thing that’s properly explained is why the killer was after a particular family (They be evil and they done him dirty). Beyond that though, it’s essentially a bunch of hand waving. How did the family doing what they did to the killer turn him into some kind of swamp beast? No idea. Why was he able to ‘commune’ with nature in the first place? Who knows. What does that have to do with what he’s doing to Michael? No clue. How is he even doing this to Michael? *epic shrug* Why’d he kill his best friend if he’s only pissed at this one particular family? Never explained beyond your standard “he’s crazy”. And finally, WTF does any of this have to do with cicada’s? No. Effing. Clue. Like I said, they just breeze on by explaining this and essentially wave their hands in the hopes that you don’t notice any of these inconsistencies. So basically, the movie is intriguing and the story “works”…. Aaaas long as you don’t bother to think about plot specifics too hard or ever dare to ask the question: But why?


Seriously though, WTF are you supposed to be?

But as long as you don’t try to “think” too much, the movie has a lot of upsides. The film has a nice, dark and creepy atmosphere, and if you’re watching one of the newer transfers it’s even one you can actually SEE most of the time (always a plus in my book.) There’s a lot of gruesome, very bloody moments throughout the film, including a particularly gnarly transformation scene towards the end of the movie that’s a definite highlight of the film (unless you’re not into body horror.) The film also has a surprisingly strong cast, including Ronny Cox (of Deliverance fame), Bibi Besch (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), and supporting roles from veteran 70’s and 80’s TV and Movie actors Don Gordon (The Towering Inferno), R.G. Armstrong (Dick Tracy), and L.Q. Jones (The Wild Bunch). The only ding to that list may be Paul Clemens, who feels a little too melodramatic some…well, most of the time, really. But hey, the kid’s turning into a monster against his will, so I’m willing to give him a little leeway. Lord knows I wouldn’t be all that chill under similar circumstances.


This is actually one of his more chill moments.


And here’s everyone else, because I got tired of seeing pictures of Clemens.

I actually think The Beast Within is a rather overlooked 80’s effort. It’s a fun, bloody horror tale with some cool looking effects that I think most genre fans would likely appreciate. It sort of feels like they were going for a werewolf movie vibe, just with a different monster. But I also admit that it’s got its share of issues. I don’t like it’s lazy focus on rape, it has an occasionally annoying main character, some pacing problems in the middle, and that it’s also a strictly “you must turn off your brain to watch this” type of movie, because good god does it have some serious plot-related issues. However, it also has some pleasant surprises, like ignoring an all but expected ‘small town’ movie trope by not having everyone in town immediately blame the new arrivals for all the sudden uptick in ‘murderin’ going on. That’s a pretty unprecedented choice and was nice to see. Though they did also have a scene with characters pointlessly walking around in a darkened room instead of simply flipping on the freaking light switch (The lights were on in the hallway! I know there was power! Just flip the damned switch!), so you shouldn’t get too excited, because there’s still some standard stupidity mixed in there as well. Alas. Overall though, I liked it. So if you’re a fan of 80’s horror, feel free to give this one a try. Unless you’re a stickler for a well thought out story, because if so then the many unanswered questions in the film have a high probability of driving you crazy.

The Beast Within is available on a variety of streaming services.

The Beast Within is also available on DVD and Bluray.

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