The Beast of Bray Road

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.

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

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?

OK I felt the need to stick up for this movie a little bit. You have to take it for what it is, it's a low budget independent werewolf movie. With that in mind this movie really wasn't as bad as another reviewer has claimed. I purposely rent low budget indie horror flicks to see what people can do with a low budget, and sure there were things that could have been better, but there were a lot of good things about it too. For one, the fact that it didn't look like a kid grabbed his mom's video camera and started recording is a big plus, considering the picture quality on many indie horror flicks out right now is absolute CRAP. Most of the effects weren't bad. If you are like myself and can enjoy a mindless horror movie than you might like this one.