Superbeast

Borrowing from both "The Island of Dr. Moreau" and "The Most Dangerous Game", the Filipino horror flick "Superbeast" is no great shakes, and one may simply have to be a loyal aficionado of Filipino horror flicks to derive much entertainment from it. Most of the time, it tends to be talky, uneventful, and unremarkable. But it's not completely lacking in assets, which I'll get to in a moment.

Antoinette Bower ("The Evil That Men Do") stars as Dr. Alix Pardee, a renowned pathologist who investigates the case of an animalistic character named Cleaver (John Garwood, "Hells Angels on Wheels") who goes on a robbery / murder spree. After he has died and she has performed an autopsy on him, she goes to the scene(s) of his crimes in the Philippines. Eventually, she discovers a jungle-dwelling mad scientist, Bill Fleming (Craig Littler, "Barquero") who's basically responsible for Cleavers' condition. Involved in Flemings' research is a mysterious benefactor, Stewart Victor (Harry Lauter, "Escape from the Planet of the Apes") who funded Flemings' work on one BIG condition.

"Superbeast" does benefit from great atmosphere and effective prosthetics devised by John Chambers of "Planet of the Apes" fame. The music by Richard LaSalle is good, and the film does have a reasonably suspenseful, sinister finale with one character hunting another - as well as a rather nasty twist near the end. The acting is variable. Bower is MUCH too aloof and bland to be of any use as a protagonist, while Littler and especially Lauter fare better. (This was the final feature credit for Lauter, the prolific, under-rated character actor.) And, of course, this being a Filipino-lensed exploitation-horror movie, you're not a bit surprised that the equally prolific Vic Diaz turns up - and he's a hoot, as always.

You can definitely do better than this if you're in need of a monster movie fix, but there is also worse out there. "Superbeast" (one would assume that Rob Zombie has seen this one, and is a fan) does deliver some mild pleasures if the prospective viewer is not too judgmental.

Five out of 10.

My Ratings: Story 0.75: Direction 0.75: Pace 0.5: Acting 1.25: Entertainment 0.75: Total 4 out of 10.00

After seeing the reviews and the rating on IMDb I was putting off watching this film. However, upon reflection, this was a bad idea. For me, this isn't that bad of a movie. It's not too great and isn't worth a second viewing, but I'm not upset I watched it... and at no time did I think, I've got to turn this crap off.

Firstly, George Schenck (who wrote and directed this picture) had a great story concept. A scientist who has grown dispirited with mankind and their aptitude for violence takes himself into the desolate South America jungle. Here, he's taken it upon himself to find a cure for humanities brutality. Thanks to the help from the local police authorities, he uses violent criminals for his experiments. Unfortunately, his experimentations have drastic side effects, and he has to call in a hunter to rid himself of these errors.

Now, that is a good concept.

Regretfully, Schenck isn't a great, or even good, writer and the story suffers from bad construction and characterisations. There's not enough in this story to keep you engrossed.

And, he doesn't add any visuals to the film to keep your interest piqued, either. I have to admit there were times I found myself dozing. Strange, because the opening escape sequence is well filmed and thought out. But, as soon we get into the jungle, the attention to detail drops.

So much could have been done with this section. Particularly with the hunt scenes. There's one scene where the hunter, Stewart Victor, rushes into Dr Flemings room raving about his latest conquest. It would have been great to see this hunt. Feel the excitement, the fear, the exhilaration. Having said that, when we get to the final climactic hunt I can understand why Schenck chose not to shoot such a scene. Stewart Victor doesn't come across as a great white hunter. He's more of a sweaty, gasping, old git, who's trying not to have a heart attack. This end hunt needed to hold all of the elements mentioned, and then some... but it comes nowhere near, and this is a shame.

And because there's no real atmosphere to the film, it's hard to call it a horror even though it has monsters. I would consider it to be more of a Sci-Fi Adventure movie... without much adventure.

As for the acting, Antoinette Bower as the lead Doctor Alix Pardee is decent in her portrayal. For the first half of the film, she comes across strong and unwavering. I wanted to see how she would develop. But when we get to the jungle, as with the story, her characterisation gets weaker. This is down to the story writing and the direction, and not her acting. She does well with what she's given.

As does, Harry Lauter with his portrayal of the hunter, Stewart Victor. Until he goes out on the hunt, I would think twice about messing with this guy.

In fact, most of the acting is above par, until we get to Craig Littler as Doctor Bill Fleming. Littler doesn't appear until the jungle segments, and though he starts well enough, it soon looks as though he's bored of the whole thing. Unlike his fellow cast members, Littler's acting does drop and adds to the dullness of the story.

I do have to say though, I loved the effects of the beasts. I'm not too sure how they accomplished the effect, but for some of the scenes, it appears the "beast-men"'s face is swollen. I'm not sure if somebody injected them with something, but it looks realistically painful. Then when they add the latex and rubber, they do it in such a way that it's reasonable. In some cases, like with the native "Beast-men", especially the escapee at the start, it looks almost lifelike... almost. I doff my cap to you.

Should you need something to watch to waste a smidgen of your lockdown time, you could do worse than this. And should you be curled up in bed, it may drift you away into dreamland. There are a lot of worse movies than this one. But, don't rush to buy it, or to watch it. If you miss it, you're not missing too much.

Swing on your vines and come see where this Superbeast landed in my The Final Frontier list.

Take Care & Stay Well.

But for all those elements there is too much time spent with the dull lead actress walking silently around and some travelogue footage to pad out the proceedings. She just rarely changes expression and quickly sinks any hope the movie has.

Production values are decent(if you can make them out through a poor copy) the music isn't bad and main element of note is probably John Chambers (Planet of the Apes) make up design for the mutants and final superbeast. They are pretty much just cave man looking things though decently done.

So this is in some ways above average Phillipino production which seems to use mostly production sound, rather than being redubbed in post production. But it just becomes a bore, unless there is gore or nudity cut from the version I saw there's not much in the way of excitement or suspense.

The turning the tables on the bad guy element is pretty lame as well and the final battle doesn't even develop until the last ten minutes. One odd ball dream scene with the lead, still with the fixed facial expression, having a erotic encounter with one beast man, is odd indeed but not erotic.

People complain about this movie It was never intended to be a cinematic masterpiece. This B movie was meant to be ran as rhe 2nd movie of a make out session at the drive in. Its suppose to be playing in the background and not actually watched.

This whole movie was absolute garbage. Did anyone else catch the hand-grenade being thrown and then the floor of the plane exploding before it actually hit the ground. One other thing I would have to wonder is, what the hell was the last ten minutes of the movie? I mean I even tried watching it after extensive drinking and still didnt understand it. Weird stuff. Just stay away from it...far away...