Burning Bright - Senza via di scampo

I rarely get scared anymore when watching what others would call an on the edge of your seat thriller; not so with Burning Bright. One scene in particular was very intense. If you've seen the movie then you no-doubt know the scene I'm referring to. If you haven't, then give the movie a chance. The acting was good, especially by Tahan. I say "especially" because he was just a kid and did very well. Overall the movie caries itself and once the plot unfolds it really holds your attention. I feel it deserves more than the three stars it was given. The only problem I have with the movie, unless I missed something, is the title makes no sense. Other than that, enjoy!

"Burning Bright" is a straight-forward, simply told, thriller. With a hurricane approaching, a house gets boarded up for the night. Problem is, it's also the site of a future safari park, complete with a tiger, which gets locked in the house with a young woman and her autistic brother.

The title must surely come from the William Blake poem "Tyger". "Tyger Tyger. burning bright, In the forests of the night." In which, one of the significant themes is the question of how can God create such beautiful things and destructive things at the same time? If that theme is explored in this movie, only in the most simplistic way. Blake also touches on evil and its many forms. Here, we definitely see evil, and I found it interesting how they combined all its different configurations. The film presented us with nature's evil, man-kind's evil and evil from the animal kingdom. However, that is the extent of anything beyond a simplistic thriller.

"Burning Bright" gives us a damsel in distress and a young boy living in his own world. The tiger is hunting them down and our heroine experiences her fair share of close calls, ingenuity, and love for her younger brother. Briana Evigan plays the damsel, and exactly as you would expect her to - with sexy clothes, lots of sweat, fear in her eyes, and she becomes her own hero. She may now be relegated to the horror/thriller genre. Her autistic younger brother is played by Charlie Tahan, you will recognize him as the younger brother in "Charlie St. Cloud". The film does a good job of characterization to open the movie, and then we actually spend the majority of the movie with a real, live tiger - "burning bright, in the forests of the night."

Wow...finally...a movie that actually thrills.

Set in predominately one location, and with a minimal cast, this is one of the best examples at making not only a movie, but also making it entertaining and thrilling, captivating and memorable.

Scary from many aspects, the writers, actors, director and all involved did a spectacular film in developing what I can only state as a real thriller.

Out of all the thrillers and horror movies I've seen...this is possibly in the top 3 and with a small budget while always ensuring suspense and tension.

Awesome

I had absolutely no idea what to expect of this movie, which has a rather odd title that has nothing to do with its weird plot.

After the death of her mother, Kelly is the only person who can take care of her young autistic brother but she has tough decisions to make as she is also contemplating college as an option. When she takes her brother to their stepfather's house to discuss money matters. Things are hectic as a hurricane is on the way and the house is being boarded. He informs her that whatever money their mother had left, he has used to buy a tiger for his next project: turning this property into a safari park. Later, Kelly wakes up to find out the stepfather's gone, she and her young brothers have been boarded in the house and the tiger has been left loose inside...

Yup... this is actually the premise of this film. It stretches believability in so many respect that it detracts a little but the actual film is rather entertaining once you get past that. For much of the remainder of Burning Bright, it's all about Kelly trying to survive in this house, evade this huge tiger... and of course do all that while having to care for Tom.

Briana Evigan is really great as Kelly. She does well portraying a caring, older sister, she definitely has charisma on screen and she adds a certain physicality that is vital to the action taking place, as she has to crawl, climb, twist and run in several scenes. It doesn't hurt that she is easy on the eye and spends most of the film scantily clad but really, I see legitimate actress talent there and her deep voice coupled with her looks reminds somewhat of a mix of Demi Moore and Jodie Foster. I had no idea who she was (never seen her previous mainstream credits, which are impressive in some way) but she is definitely the number 1 reason to watch.

Christine Coyle Johnson and Julie Prendiville Roux have penned a story that has some heart but has obvious plot holes that Il will not reveal to avoid spoiling things. I think it is admirable how autism doesn't take a complete backseat in the story. It's not just a cheap plot device and there is an attempt to address this, while still keeping this an action thriller. Director Carlos Brooks is able to walk the fine line too.

Without a doubt, the star of the film for many will be the tiger. Everybody knows cats of any kinds are somewhat difficult to train and are considered dangerous at all times. Most of the scenes in this movie do a decent job at making us believe the tiger IS in the house WITH our actors but some technical shortcuts had to be taken. Brooks wisely elect to use a real tiger and has little CGI as possible but few scenes show any interaction between the tiger and its potential preys. The result is still a very organic film with some stunning scenes featuring our big cat (one in particular, where he licks sweat off the floor, was memorable to me).

Credit to the filmmaker, this is an old school movie featuring a live animal, some character development in what is otherwise a by the book action thriller. Bonus points for having actor Garret Dillahunt play the creepy stepfather. One more creepy role for this fascinating actor.

The whole thing plays out like a mix between a wild animal movie such as The Edge (1997) and claustrophobic thrillers like Panic Room (2002).

Are there plot holes? Yes. Could this have gone to theatres? Probably not. But if your expectations are low, you love tigers and enjoy decent thrillers, you will probably find this entertaining enough.

I also want to command the producers for providing information regarding autism and also regarding the possible extinction of tigers we are facing during the end credits. If only one person goes to those websites and find information, then the movie will have done more than its job as far as I'm concerned.

It is a pretty predictable but still enjoyable little movie we have here. This comes down to the actors themselves and a decent script, from which the director did get a few nice scenes out from. Those scenes are really well shot and executed. Nice framing and editing as well. You can watch it once and it will do it's job, even if you start thinking about the things that just seem to happen conveniently.

There are logical errors and you might argue that the moral is a bit too much, but then again this could also be called nit-picking. Can you oversee those obvious flaws and enjoy it as little movie that could? If so rent it and watch it