Today, we have a special guest post written by our friend, Author C.G. Williams! She takes a look at a double feature DVD of The Beast Within and Bat People.
C.G. Williams loves films, in her youth she cut her teeth on the old Hammer Horror films and has enjoyed the horror genre since. She's been a fan of Dollar Bin Horror since first reading about it in a Total Film Blog a few years ago. C.G. Williams enjoys writing and taking the dog on on long walks in the woods. You can find C.G. on Facebook by clicking HERE!
The
Beast Within
First
off ‘The Beast Within’ does not pass the Bechdel test. However, it was made
before 1985, the year that Allison Bechdel created this simple but really cool
tool to measure certain film standards on how dimensional their female
characters are, so right off the bat ‘The Beast Within’ is no Alien. However I
recommend viewing ‘The Beast Within’ at least once because it has some pedigree.
First off
‘The Beast Within’ is written by Tom Holland, a renaissance man of horror; he
acts, writes, produces and directs. You might know him from such work as
Child’s Play, Psycho II and Fright Night. Fright Night alone took the vampire
genre on a stylish teen swerve preceding Near Dark and The Lost Boys.
The
Beast Within is not as stylish as the latter mentioned films, but it has heart
and I must credit the fine roster of veteran character actors for making this
film what it is. If you haven’t seen a movie or watched TV in the last forty
years it’s possible you might have missed the great roster of character actors
in this film. Many of them can be seen on MeTV in reruns of Star Trek the
Original series and Bonanza.
The two main characters are Caroline and Eli
McCleary, they are portrayed by Bibi Besch and Ronny Cox. You may remember Besch
that same year in ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’ as Carole Marcus, a
scientist and also the mother of David Marcus, the son of James T. Kirk. Ronny
Cox has portrayed several presidents, generals and doctors, you might recognize
him from ‘Deliverance’ or ‘Robocop’, he’s a musician as well.
The film
starts out the dark and rapey, full moon night in 1965 as newlyweds Eli and
Caroline MacCleary miss their turn and get stuck in the mud trying to turn
around in a town called Nioba, Mississippi. Meanwhile the beast escapes from a cellar.
Eli walks back to last gas station while Caroline waits in the car. You see the
muscular hairy legs of the creature walking through the mud. The dog goes crazy
and Caroline lets it out the car. The creature kills the dog and chases
Caroline through the woods until she trips, hits her head and passes out cold.
While passed out the creature rapes her.
17 years
later we pick up again with Eli and Caroline, their adored son is in the
hospital with a mysterious and life threatening illness due to an overactive
pituitary gland. The doctor thinks it’s genetic disease but neither parent is a
carrier. Eli and Caroline embark on a journey back to Nioba, the place of her
attack, to find out information about who attacked her.
Caroline
talks to the Newspaper Editor/owner Edwin Curwin portrayed by Logan Ramsey you
may know him from his portrayal of Claudius Marcus in the episode ‘Bread and
Circuses’ in Star Trek the original series.
He brings the same zeal and enthusiasm into his portrayal of Edwin
Curwin. Caroline tells Edwin she is writing a paper on crime in rural America.
Left alone with the archived newspapers, Caroline rips the front page off, with
the headline “Lionel Curwin murdered last night”.
Eli
visits the court house and talks with Judge Curwin getting nowhere. Judge
Curwin is portrayed by Don Gordon, you may know him from such manly film
classics as ‘Bullit’ or ‘Papillion’.
The
MacCleary’s next visit Sheriff Pool played by L.Q. Jones. If you haven’t watched TV in the last sixty
years you may have missed him, he’s been a busy actor, doing work in ‘Charlie’s
Angels’, ‘The Virginian’ and several Sam Peckinpah Films. The Sheriff tells the
couple of unpopular Lionel Curwin and how he was found partially eaten and his
house set afire.
Meanwhile
the MacCleary’s son Michael, leaves the hospital as the titles “The First
Night” appear on screen. Driving around wearing his cool Lettermen’s jacket,
Michael starts groaning and panting. The car veers off the road and Michael
walks to a house that he’s seen in his dreams. He has a conversation with a
ghostly voice and opens a door to the root cellar of the ramshackle house. He
explores the cellar and has a conversation about being released with whatever
presence brought him to that cellar, there is no physical person there.
Michael
leaves the cellar and walks to the next house where the Newspaper man, Edwin
Curwin lives. Thinking that he is the
grocery delivery boy, Edwin invites him
in. Michael begins his transformation
into a beast when Mr. Curwin is preparing some hamburger for them to eat. The
sounds of cicadas fills the room. The beast takes over Michael and Edwin Curwin
dies at the hands and teeth of the beast, as he flails in the raw hamburger.
Michael
wanders the woods in a daze, and after the murder of Edwin Curwin he returns to
his normal teen boy form. A girl by the name of Amanda Platt comes to his
assistance when her dog corners him. Michael collapses.
Michael
is back in the hospital and the Doc, his parents and the Sheriff check in on
him. While he sleeps he dreams of the hamburger murder of Edwin Curwin.
Miraculously Michael’s medical condition is also in remission.
The newspaper fails to open the next day and
Dexter Ward says such a thing hasn’t happened since Lionel’s house was torched.
Judge Curwin goes to Edwin’s house and finds him dead in a bloody mess.
Michael
awakens and tells his parents he wants to stay there. At that point, Deputy
Herbert played by the wonderful Mesach Taylor, asks them to meet with the
sheriff. Michael left unattended goes to
the house of pretty Amanda Platt. He invites her on a walk.
They
walk and talk in the woods and Michael tells her that she is beautiful. He
points out Black Pine bog, Amanda tells him he doesn’t want to go there, that it’s
full of briars. Being teens, they go to
the bog. Amanda Platt is the daughter of
Horace Platt, the deceased Lionel Curwin’s cousin. Michael has an attack and then calms down.
While Michael and Amanda make out, her dog Tipper digs up a human hand and
brings it to her, halting their make out with screams of horror.
The
Sheriff and his crew show up to do some investigation. Amanda’s father, Horace
Platt, shows up as well, portrayed by John Dennis Johnston. You may remember him from ‘Close Encounters
of the Third Kind’, ‘St. Elsewhere’ and ‘The Blue and the Gray”. Horace Platt is angry, warning Michael to stay
away from Amanda. He drives off in a huff, shouting, ‘God Damn you girl’ at
Amanda in the car.
The titles
“The Second Night” appear over a lovely shot of the Black Pine Bog at sunset.
The Sheriff and his crew begin to come across a skull and a rib cage. No fancy
forensic team here, just dudes with shovels. They unearth thirty-six
bodies. The Doc identifies a body of Emily
Oldenburgh, by the stainless steel implant he put in her hip joint. She had had a funeral and was buried, why is
she out here in Black Pine Bog?
They
decide to have a talk with Dexter Ward the coroner. Lionel Curwin was the
undertaker when Emily Oldenburgh was interned. Dexter Ward was the assistant to
Lionel Curwin.
Michael
awakens at the hospital from a bad dream and goes out again. Michael comes
across Tom the town drunk, drinking a bottle out of a brown paper bag in front
of his shack. Michael asks Tom if he recognizes him - using a voice like
Christian Bales uses for Batman. Tom looks around and says Billy Connors. Tom
reminisces about Billy and the magic he did with Locusts and Cicadas, how he
could become something else, changing, being reborn. Michael tells Tom that he’s come back for
them, for all the Curwins.
We then
cut away to the mortician Dexter Ward blackmailing the judge for more money so
he can get out. He hangs up the phone
and finishes his work on the now deaceased Edwin Curwin. He hears the door shut
and then goes to investigate glass breaking. He comes back to find Edwin
Curwin’s corpse sitting up. Thinking it is kids up to mischief, Dexter follows
the sound and looks over the corpses in the other room. At this point Michael in Beast mode stabs him
with the embalming tool and embalms him- not quite as gruesome as the embalm-you-to-death
scene from 1981’s ‘Dead and Buried’ but still creepy. Again the room is filled
with the sound of Cicadas.
The
Sheriff, Doc and Mr. MacCleary arrive at the coroner’s office after finding
rocks in the Oldenburgh grave. They find Dexter the mortician dead. Michael
meanwhile is creeping around Amanda. He sneaks into her room while she is
sleeping and handles a paperweight as if intending to crack her head. The
MacCleary’s rush over to Horace’s place and ask if Michael is there. Amanda
screams. They rush in and pull Michael out of the room with Horace threatening
to kill them. The MacCleary’s leave. Horace slaps Amanda and then embraces her,
saying he’s sorry.
The Doc
is looking at X-rays of Michael pointing out the subcutaneous layer beneath his
skin. They don’t know what it means.
Michael’s
parents check him out of the hospital but he refuses to go with them. He comes
right out and says his father is Billy Connors.
Michael wants to be left alone.
Judge
Curwin finds out about the death of Dexter the mortician at the Sheriff’s
office. He tells them to call the state police, someone is killing the Curwins.
Tom the town drunk just happens to be at the Sheriff’s office. He tells the
Sheriff that it was Billy who killed the Curwins only it wasn’t Billy, it was
the MacCleary boy come back as Billy. The Sheriff tells him to go eat
breakfast.
Michael
has something going on with his upper back. He covers it with a bandage. When
the Doc tries to look at it Michael attacks him and flees.
Tom
tries to warn the MacCleary’s about their son and is warned by Mr. MacCleary to
stay away. Tom the drunk runs to some kind of waterworks building. Michael
appears from his hiding place and begins a monologue about where they used to
hide when they were kids. It took him seventeen years and just like the Cicadas
he is back. Tom flees but Michael now transformed into the Beast catches him
and throws him on high voltage equipment. The Sheriff and the deputy go to
investigate the power outage.
The
MacCleary’s ask Doc about Billy Connors. They hear about his love of the woods
and communication with animals. The sheriff shows up wanting to talk to Michael
after finding Tom Laws dead.
The
Third night –this title finds us back at Amanda’s home with Michael lurking
about and then just walking right in without knocking. He finds Amanda in the
kitchen. He tells her to drive away, to leave and go until she is far away. He tells her whoever killed the others is
going to come for her because she’s a Curwin. Michael hears the Cicadas and
says soon they will be shedding their skins.
He tells her to leave right now. Amanda runs up stairs to change.
Michael
unable to resist tears the doorknob off her door and barges in. He stops
himself from killing her, and like Zhora the replicant in Bladerunner, he
crashes out the door on the second floor in a hail of glass and lands on the
ground.
Once
again he’s back in the hospital, with an audience of Deputy, Sheriff, the
MacClearys, Amanda and Doc. The doc removes the bandage on his upper back revealing
the weirdness. Michael asks his parents to kill him, in an hour it will be too
late. He tells Amanda to go. Michael explains to his parents that he needs to
die to save everyone. He says – he killed Edwin and Dexter. They deserved it,
but not Tom, Tom had been his friend.
He’s gone crazy. Kill me or you won’t be able to stop him. They strap
Michael to the bed.
The full
moon is out and Michael tells them to go to Lionel Curwin’s house. Visit the
root cellar and then they’ll see. So the sheriff and Mr. MacCleary go to check
it out.
Meanwhile
Horace is telling Judge Curwin he wants to kill that boy to keep him away from
Amanda. The judge tells him it could be another victim of the maniac killer.
Michael
starts seizing at the hospital.
The
Sheriff, Deputy and Mr. MacCleary find another skeleton in the Root cellar of
Lionel Curwin’s house.
Amanda is
an upset and inexperience driver. She ends up crashing through a roadblock.
Michael
awakens and begins the final transformation. Some fun uses of special effects
bladders. Horace and the Judge are just in time to witness as he rips out his
restraints. Horace shoots him twice and everyone runs out of the room except
Horace who is killed by Michael the beast. The Beast escapes.
The
Sheriff, the MacClearys and Doc find Horace dead in a tree while looking for
Michael the Beast. They also find the Beast’s shedded skin.
The
Judge empties his safe and heads for the Police station to ask for refuge after
driving away from the beast. Mr. MacCleary asks why the Curwins. The judge
tells him it was Billy Connors. Lionel apparently turned Billy Connors into the
beast. Lionel caught Billy with his wife
and killed her and then took Billy and locked him in the cellar and starved him
into a state that he ate corpses, first Lionel’s dead wife then Lionel’s
clients at the funeral home.
Judge
Curwin locks himself in a cell to protect himself. The beast beats at the door
then stops. The room fills with the sounds of cicadas and the Beast breaks
through the wall and decapitates Judge Curwin.
Amanda
awakens from her accident and sees the Beast. In a repeat of the beginning of
the film, she runs through the woods from the monster, trips and is knocked out
cold. The monster rapes her. She comes to and screams seeing the beast.
The
Sheriff, the Deputy, the Doc and the MacClearys track down the Beast and find
Amanda. As the MacClearys venture further they find the beast and a struggle
ensues as the beast tries to kill Mr. MacCleary. Mrs. MacCleary is forced to
shoot the beast through the head. And that is the end of ‘The Beast Within”
There is
a bonus
On the
flip side of the disc is Bat People!
I think
bats are cute, but if you find them terrifying then this is the movie for you.
Maybe a double bill with 1979’s ‘Nightwing’.
John and
Cathy Beck are on a honeymoon/work weekend, visiting beautiful Carlsbad Cavern.
Foolishly jaunting off on their own they slip into a small cave full of bugs.
It’s pretty gross to see that many mealworms and cock roaches writhing around.
While in the cave they are attacked by a bat. The husband is bitten.
The
couple hit the slopes. While riding the ski lift John is hit with visions of
bats attacking his wife. Shaking it off the couple go swooshing down the
slopes, having a great time. As they end their night in the hot tub with slushy
cocktails, proclaiming their love, John chokes on his cocktail and crushes the
glass. His wife insists he get medical care.
The next
morning he stops in at the medical clinic. The ski bum doctor bandages his hand
and at Cathy’s urging they go to hospital five miles away for rabies treatment.
He prepares a big old hypodermic needle and injects John’s stomach. John has a
reaction and starts seizing. The doctor
injects him with something else to counteract the allergic reaction. John Beck
gets admitted to the hospital.
Cathy tracks down Doc Kipling the ski bum on
the slopes to hear what happened. Cathy explains John’s episodes worrying he
may have rabies.
A killer
swarm of bats attack a girl outside her trailer. John is writhing in his bed
and his hand begins to transform into a bat claw. The night nurse is
interrupted and then investigating the sound she is attacked.
John
finds out the next day that the night nurse died in an accident. He tells Cathy
he needs a psychiatrist immediately and he doesn’t want to leave the hospital.
Next,
John is shopping for something for Cathy, he’s seized for a moment and contains
himself when Sergeant Ward asks him if he’s alright and asks him if he heard
anything while in the hospital last night and shows him John’s hospital wristband
found near the crime scene. John tries to force it back on.
That
night John sneaks out of his hotel room and steals a sweater off of a
mannequin. A couple smoking grass and making out, part company. After the woman
is left alone a bat creature chases her through the trailer park and corners
her.
John
wakes up screaming. Cathy comforts him. Sergeant Ward comes knocking at their
motel room door early that morning, asking to talk with John while leering at
Cathy. He tells John about the trailer park girl getting her throat ripped out.
He shows John a bandage found at the crime scene.
The next
day John sees the ski bum doctor who gives him some prescriptions to help John
with his nightmares that “would knock out an elephant.”
John
starts having an attack and tells Cathy to leave. He fights against the attack
and sneaks out of the hospital, steals an ambulance and goes driving around all
sweaty. Creepy Sergeant Ward chases the ambulance through the picturesque
mountain community. Car chases were so popular in the 70s. As they race across
the flatlands John drives the Sergeant Ward off the road and continues on until
he rolls the ambulance. He runs across the scrub of the desert.
Cathy
gets questioned by Sergeant Ward as to John’s whereabouts.
John
startles a drunk, they talk. John diagnoses him. John starts puking and having
visions of bats. The Drunk is found dead
and John has hazy flash backs of killing the poor drunk as he walks into a
cave.
Sergeant
Ward continues to question Cathy. Cathy insists that John wouldn’t hurt anyone
and breaks down crying. Sergeant Ward consoles her and then kisses her and gets
aggressive telling Cathy he is the only that can help her.
John
lurks in a cave, watching tourists. He stalks and kills a girl in a cool plaid
jacket taking photos. He then takes her car and drives back to the hospital,
dons a lab coat and has a seizure near a nurse. He then attacks her and gets a
bag of plasma out and drinks it. The nurse escapes to Sergeant Ward who goes to
investigate.
They
find a recording made by John on a tape deck he found in some tourist’s car and
recorded in the cavern. He talks about what is happening to him, his
metamorphosis. This is actually an interesting montage as you hear John’s voice
describing his separation from society as he prowls Carlsbad Cavern and eats a
rat.
Cathy
comes back to the hotel and John is waiting for her. John lurks in the shadows
telling her to keep the lights off. He tells her to go home and that the caves
are his new home. Sergeant Ward checks in on her and leaves, while John hides.
Cathy convinces John that he’s having an allergic reaction. She professes her
love and they make love. While making
love John has an attack and transforms. Cathy sees him in Bat creature form, screams
and faints.
The
front desk checks on Cathy and finds her in the room alone. They figure she had
a nightmare. The next day Cathy lures Sergeant Ward to the Caves of Carlsbad
Cavern. There a normal looking John is lurking in the rocks. The sergeant does
some police brutality on John and then John transforms into the bat creature
thing and attacks him back.
Sergeant
Ward is pretty beat up and unable to explain what happened. He and Cathy drive
somewhere and there is a bat montage. Then bats are splattering Sergeant Ward’s
windshield. He drives off the road and gets stuck. Cathy opens the door and
says goodbye and bats swarm in and attack the Sergeant. Sergeant Ward blows his
brains out with a shotgun knowing there is no escape. Cathy walks into the dark
desert and enters a cave and the film ends.
Aside
from some great cinematography, Bat People is also populated with veteran
character actors. Sergeant Ward, who kind of looks like what I imagine Matthew
McConaughey’s dad would, is portrayed by Michael Pataki who has acted in Star
Trek, Rocky IV, Halloween and much more. The actor portraying John Beck has
also guested on ‘Star Trek the Original series’ as the sweaty guy who infects
everyone in ‘The Naked Time’. Also from Star Trek TOS’ Paul Carr in a brilliant
turn as the Ski Bum Doctor.
So both
of these films have a seasoned cast, central characters going through monstrous
transformations that require lots of sweating and seizure-like movements. They
also feature couples with an unbreakable bond. They are time capsules to their
eras and there are some pretty funny one-liners if you pay attention.
I really
want to thank the gang at Dollar Bin Horror, especially Rhonny for inviting me
to write this guest blog. If you are interested in
reading my fictional work and enjoy Greek mythology and Trojan war stories you
can check out the first novella in my three novella trilogy by clicking HERE!
3 comments:
Thank you so much for sharing this review. I am a writer focused on career and physical development to spread more issues and tips to develop and works through Professional resume writing service. I preferred The Beast Within to A Frozen Heart (different authors I know, I know) for the sole reason that The Beast Within gave a lot of background to the Beast's side of the story that we never saw in the movie. While a Frozen Heart have inside to Hans's side of the story, there was a lot of that book that was more unnecessary.The Beast Within gives you inside on the Beast's story before he officially becomes the beast.
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