El ojo de la bestia

If you accept the fact that this is a B-movie from the outset, this isn't too bad of a movie. The writing wasn't too badly stilted anywhere, the story is...well...a fairly predictable "sea monster" story, and the acting, while nothing to write home about, was certainly nothing to complain about. Of course, James van der Beek makes the movie a little easier to watch too. :)

My biggest complaint about the movie, other than the obvious low-budget quality, was the straight-forwardness of it. Establish the town, figure out the relationships, show monster to viewers, nobody believes monster exists, prove monster exists, deal with it, male and female leads fall in love and live happily ever after. Wow, now there's a story that hasn't been told about a million times before!

But in spite of its shortcomings, it was suitably entertaining for a Saturday afternoon where I had nothing better to do. I don't think I'd ever watch it again, but I'm not disappointed at having watched it a first time.

No, this one won't win any awards, but its not too bad either. Anyone who watches this kind of film from time to time has seen much, MUCH worse movies, acting and general film making... The plot is a near identical rip from the 1996 TV miniseries 'The Beast' staring CSI's William Petersen and Charles Martin Smith. If you like that, you'll like this... only less.

You can either take them or leave them, where the cheaply made straight to TV horror effort "Eye of the Beast" starring former teen idol James Van Der Beek turned out to be a neat, if unassuming b-production. It might somewhat get bogged down within the halfway mark and consist of some daftly cheesy clichés, but there's enough going on; you know tentacle action (you can't get enough of that), feuding fisherman, James Van Der Beek frowning a lot and to top that off 10 reasons are given to why fishing is a lot better sex. Quite convincing arguments too. The special effects for such a low-budget are well implemented, but actually there's very little (up until to the squid's glorious reveal) and the tentacles when they come into play are mainly prosthetic. It could have used a little more action and creativity in its attack sequences, but Van Der Beek and Alexandria Castillo are agreeable in their parts making it enjoyable to watch. Then there's the constant bickering (ecological messages) and dramas between the characters of this drably lit small ocean community to keep it moving, despite it's fairly laid-back pace. Mildly amusing, lazy afternoon entertainment.

"A giant squid in a lake"?

Out of all the really bad science-fiction creature features that I see quite regularly on the Sci-Fi Channel, there are very few of which I can describe as descent. "Eye of the Beast" is one of those few that is surprisingly good enough to be called descent. The acting is fine, the screenplay is more intelligent than others I can think of, the special effects are better than expected, and since they are mostly shown at night, they are easier to believe. The creature is effectively not shown mostly until the end. Before then, we see nothing of it except for its tentacles (rubber, inflated) that lash out and grab onto people. The plot is kind of ludicrous. A giant squid SOMEHOW gets into a lake and SOMEHOW is not seen until now when it just decides to try human fresh off the docks, but still, it's a B-movie, so can cut it SOME slack. The characterization of the characters is very good, there are some very well-done dialogue and dramatic moments, and the music score really aids it. Ultimately, we have a climax that we really care about, speeches that are actually well-written and don't outstay their welcome (as they do in another B-flick called "Sasquatch Mountain"), and overall, "Eye of the Beast" is a very well-done creature feature. I recommend it for fans of its genre.

but somewhere in between.James Van Der Beek has come a long way since his Dawson's Creek days.he was actually very good here.he plays a scientist sent to a small fishing community to find out why the fish stocks have depleted.Alexandra Castillo is also good as the local only)law enforcement in the town.the movie itself is entertaining enough.there's not really much excitement though.for a creature feature,you don't see much of the creature.most of time,you are shown only a tentacle or two.there is one scene which shows the beast(a giant squid)but it's not a really clear view.for me,Eye of the Beast is somewhere in the middle,so i give it 5/10