BEAST WITHIN *** USA/Canada 2019 Dir: Chris Green, Steven Morana. 80 mins
Heading out to a mansion party, video-game developers August (Steven Morana), Remy (Ari Millen) and Cheyanne (Holly Deveaux) are overseeing the final preparations for their boss Brian (Art Hindle) to launch his new video game ‘Werewolf Awaken.’ While having to deal with the usual hassles of trying to get the event going without a hitch as well as their own personal issues cropping up from time-to-time, a series of strange deaths and accidents soon befall several of the guests which look to have been done by something inhuman. Desperate to keep face amidst the launch and their growing hysteria over who or what could possibly be the culprit in the crimes, the slowly-dwindling group tries to keep the guests alive as they race to find the killer and stop their bloodsoaked rampage.
On the whole, “Beast Within” was an enjoyable enough creature feature. It works best when taking a fun who-done-it mystery approach to the storyline as figuring out the creature’s identity is the main selling point to their quest. Trying to figure out who among them is someone they can trust plays a big deal about the suspense of the film early on and leads to a fantastic approach trying to figure out who’s got the motive and opportunity to commit the murders. Finally realizing the creature responsible and their individual identity is all rather fun and contains some enjoyable attacks and confrontations, helping to overcome the minor flaws associated here. With way too much time spent on their romance angle at the beginning that makes for a struggle to get into this one and some odd behavioral issues with the creature when it presses the advantage in unusual measures, this gets dropped down slightly but not enough to deter the fun present elsewhere.
Review by Don Anelli
BEAST WITHIN is available on Amazon