The Beast of Bray Road

Leigh Scott's "The Beast of Bray Road," released in 2005, is a very loose telling of the legendary "dogman" of SE Wisconsin. In reality, the beast has only been sighted and has never killed anyone. In the film, however, numerous people bite the dust in extremely gory scenes, heads getting torn off, the beast eating their innards, etc.

In the beginning it's unclear what type of beast the "dogman" is, is it a bigfoot? A werewolf? A cryptozoologist appears and helps the police pinpoint the probable nature of the creature.

POSITIVES:

• I liked the main protagonists, the police chief (Jeff Denton), the cryptozoologist, the beautiful bartender Kelly (Sarah Lieving) and the other police personnel.

• The story is generally compelling and moves right along.

• The killer creature looks excellent and you get quite a few good looks at it; no CGI.

• The story turns out to be a mystery. The beast may be a human being that transforms into the bloodthirsty creature. If so, who is it? If you've seen films like "The Howling V: The Rebirth" you know what to look for.

NEGATIVES:

• Although the story takes place near Elkhorn & Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the film was shot in friggin' California, near Los Angeles, likely to keep expenses down; they did fine, however, making sure the scenery didn't look too much like typical Southern California. It sorta passes for SE Wisconsin, I guess.

• The film is filled with gorgeous women from beginning to end but Mr. Scott fumbles the ball and doesn't truly take advantage (and I'm not talking about top nudity or sex scenes at all; the film has some of both). Scott does much better in this area in 2008's "Flu Birds" and 2009's "The Dunwich Horror."

• Until the last act the film has a we're-not-taking-this-too-seriously vibe. It wasn't so bad to ruin the horror experience, but it was there. This is a minor cavil, however; all-in-all the filmmakers did a decent job balancing camp with serious horror.

• Every Wisconsin yokel, male or female, is portrayed as a hip, dour, alcohol-guzzling sex-fiend.

BOTTOM LINE: "The Beast of Bray Road" is a worthwhile killer beast flick but contains enough negative elements to prevent it from being truly good. The non-CGI monster looks great, however, and is worth the price of admission, not to mention this is a must if you're a gorehound (I'm not; I can take gore or leave it; all I care about is that the story & cast be interesting and entertaining).

The film runs 80 minutes.

GRADE: Borderline C+ or B-

You can see a very good direction that this team is heading in. With this movie especially. A great flick all the way through. A monster film to keep your pants on. A fantastic time waster, and I mean that in a good way.

A new Sheriff is in town, not familiar with the back woods. The locals per say. Then strange things begin to happen, people are missing and there are no clues. Nothing but blood and parts. A Cryptozoologist comes to town after a string of rumors pops up on the internet. Rumors of a Werewolf devouring savage. Here to seek and destroy. People keep turning up dead, in grizzly fashion. The deputies band together to fight this deadly menace. They'll do whatever it takes to finish this nuance once and for all. The finale ends ??????????? I never give the ending away, what would be the point of you even renting it then when you know what is going to happen. Well, it doesn't really matter. Just know that it's kind of weak and not as surprising as you might think. Or not.

This movie followed the supposed accounts of an actual Beast on Bray road, Wisconsin style. Like the 13th Child based on flick also, the Jersey Devil type deal. There is a lot of bloodshed in this here film. Bodies are ripped apart, heads split open, arms, legs, you name it. No CGI effects here either. Good old fashion make up. I always buy that for a dollar. The usual actors and actresses are beginning to make appearances in each film as they go. A common bond, Hammer style baby. You need the brotherhood to maintain a tight production and team overall. Just like a band, you can only get better, well you'd hope so.

A behind the scenes featurette, commentary, Bloopers, Trailers and so on. They can only get better, and this is prime example.

After seeing this movie, if I were single, I'd be moving to Wisconsin. A small town full of smokin' hot women where all the men are drunken derelicts sounds perfect for a decent guy to move into.

But on to the movie. I thought it was a decent low-budget werewolf flick. Certainly worth the rental and far better than a lot of junk out there (Carnosaur, Alien Apocalypse, War of the Planets). Really, the acting was much better than I expected. The romance scenes were light-years ahead of Star Wars, Episode III (although that's not a huge endorsement).

The special effects were also pretty good considering the obvious low budget. The werewolf certainly didn't compare to anything from Underworld, but it wasn't nearly as cheesy as I was worried it might be.

I thought the plot moved along at a decent clip and even had a couple of unexpected twists.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie as a good, check-your-brain-at-the-door type flick. It was fun. What more do you expect from a low-budget monster movie?

Okay, I just watched Beast of Bray Road. It was the new werewolf flick from Asylum.

The film didn't really cover any new ground, it was a pretty much by the numbers werewolf flick. The story was similar to the Jaws story line. The acting for the most part was pretty decent. The beast looked like a cross between a werewolf and bigfoot. No cgi, which I liked, this was a good old school guy in a costume. We don't get any full transformation scenes, but considering the budget I would say that was for the best.

Nothing new here, but it didn't bore me either, moving along at a decent pace. We had a good amount of gore and a little bit of boobs. Don't go out of your way looking for this unless you need to see every werewolf movie, but there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

So what happens when The Asylum veers away from their Hollywood cheap send-ups and puts their heart into something original ? Well, a damn good b-movie, that's what ! "The Beast of Bray Road" is apparently based on local Wisconsin lore, but do not think this "based on true events" tag line means your next Lindsay Wagner & Robert Urich TV movie of the week. It's probably based on a true story told around a campfire. What this is is a fun, fast werewolf movie like you haven't seen in a while, better than recent submissions like "War Wolves" or "Never Cry Werewolf", shot efficiently on a tight budget. It has blood, beasts and boobs (well, just one quick pair) and makes for the perfect midnight movie.

The frequent and very clear views of the beast is a nice surprise for monster fans, and for the budget, I'll say it looks really good. The deaths are gruesome and plenty, sticking to a slasher template. All the actors make a good job and actually are given some basic development and dialogue to play with. I was completely taken aback when I burst out laughing at a one-liner delivered by a drunk bimbo just before her demise in a car. This is definitely not a comedy, but the joke was good and unexpected.

All in all, very recommended for B-movie fans.