The Beast of Bray Road

This Wisconsin werewolf movie is supposedly based on a local legend, however, it appears to take massive liberties with the original fable. Unflattering stereotype hicks abound, and at some point, almost every character has a beer in their hand. Now some of this is actually amusing, as almost every monster on the loose film out there has been "borrowed" from. There is some gratuitous nudity involving a couple parking for some "business" and perhaps capturing a werewolf cell phone picture, that borders on the ridiculous, but does add to the fun. The ending is a real rubber band job (stretch). Not bad of it's type, and marginally recommended. - MERK

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.

A nice little and a little too easy going indie' B-movie, The Beast of Bray Road, is, allegedly, based on factual reports of sightings, circa 1989, of the legendary sasquatch and werewolf myth, or cryptozoology as the scholars would pronounce, and wild as the beast itself, the over active imaginations of the peoples' of Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Directed and written by Leigh Scott (b.1972), aka Scott Slawner, brings his extended family together for another outing, this time to do battle with modern folklore and superstition. Released by Asylum Home Entertainment, whose category embarks on the wonderful B-movie drive-in genre as Snakes on a Train (2006), Vampires vs. Zombies (2004) and The Fanglys (2004), all straight to video, and all for sale at the bargain basement bin at your local video rental shop. Most here, at least, have worked together in other projects, Jeff Denton (as Sheriff Phil Jenkins), working in Leigh Scott's Art House (1998), Sarah Lieving (here as Kelly), and Andrew Lauer had played against said director in the T.V. movie H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds (2005). Ms. Noel Thurman (playing Sheriff Pamela Fitske) in Mr. Scott's The 9/11 Commission Report (2006).

Mr. Scott's movie is very light comedy; too many weak points to be taken seriously, The Beast of Bray Road could be taken for a Saturday morning T.V. matinée parody at best. If it were not for the gross out flesh eating scenes and, once, light nudity and some coarse language, but not often. We can forgive Mr. Scott for trying too hard, but try he has and he has, forgivingly, done reasonably well. The attention to detail can be somewhat lacking, sadly, and it is this that has The Beast… looking a little too unprofessional and unfortunately this gives it its comical look, the desired effect perhaps or a bad dose of laziness and complacency.

The beasts makeup, on the other hand, is impressive, and done by Eva Lohse, regrettably, the only highlight of the movie, and not really seen enough, and Dizzworks Design too played their part. Ms. Lohse is credited as key makeup artist and having worked on Rent Control (2002), Employee of the Month (2004), plus many others as Dead Men Walking (2005) and Dracula's Curse (2006), which coincidently has five members of The Beast…co-starring.

The poor attention to the editing, again by Leigh Scott, has given The Beast…more plot holes than Emmental cheese, we are left scratching our heads and left feeling the efforts are rather curdled in the process and that this could, if at best, have been a half decent movie. This could, and to be fair, be down to a lack of proper funding, if so then the parodying of the major American beer companies and their logos that are seen in "KELLY'S Roadhouse" might be understandable.

The clichéd character development, too, is feeble and the lack of originality only separates its need to be taken seriously. All in all The Beast of Bray Road is a group of new family and old friends making movies, if it doesn't workout, then fine, lets make another. If one should hit the jackpot and stir up peoples imaginations then all the better for them, but in the meantime The Beast…will remain an okay movie, but it will never walk down the road of being a good movie.

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-

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.