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Your thoughts on The Beast Within (1982)

posted 8 years ago by AlamoScout210
9 replies | jump to latest

The Beast Within (1982)

trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJ3zhUobdRg

Growing up, The Beast Within was and still is one of my favorite 80’s video nasties.

To those unfamiliar with The Beast Within, the movie is about a guy who meets a girl then marries that girl and on the way to their honeymoon, their car breaks down on deserted stretch of highway at night, the boy goes to look for help while the girl stays behind and eventually runs into the woods to look for her dog that got away and is then horrifically violated by a strange creature, years later the offspring of that union returns to a small town near where the assault took place to search for his origins.

It's a fun drive-in flick that would have gone perfectly as a double feature with Humanoids From the Deep and one of the first movies ever that made me lose my lunch and sleep with the lights on!

Stars Ronny Cox of Robocop & Beverly Hills Cop fame and Bibi Besch who played Capt. Kirks old flame in The Wrath of Khan. I'm unabashedly biased towards this film so I rate it 7/10.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Wmo60KuSE

[–] yakko362002 8 years ago

I quite liked it. It had an insect theme, and was pretty bloody and creepy. Bibi Besch was hot, and there were some H.P. Lovecraft references with characters named "Curwen" and "Dexter Ward."

Paul Clemens, who played the lead role, is none other than Eleanor Parker's son. He also had the lead role in A Death in Canaan, a movie based on the real-life case of a kid accused of the brutal murder of his mother. Also in that movie were Tom Atkins and Stefanie Powers. These being his two main starring roles, Clemens later went into make-up and special effects.

Ronny Cox also did a portion of the soundtrack for The Beast Within. He is an accomplished musician (as we know from the Dueling Banjos scene in Deliverance). He actually performed here in my hometown once, though I didn't get there to see him.