Vampiri dagli abissi

A made for TV movie that fails to deliver. SyFy has basically never delivered a good sci Fi movie. This is no exception. It isn't the worst movie of all time but it is definitely lacking. The premise of sea creatures feeding by exsanguination isn't a bad one but the movie execution is. The script is horrible, down right horrible. Acting is passable. Special effects are some of the worst I've seen for a more modern movie. As typical for low budget creature features, there is absolutely no character development. Thankfully it is not a long movie. If you have not seen this movie, I recommend passing it by.

RELEASED TO TV IN 2013 and directed by Don E. FauntLeRoy, "Bering Sea Beast" (aka "Beast of the Bering Sea") chronicles events on the Alaskan coast when gold dredgers inadvertently unleash bloodsucking sea creatures. When their father (Kevin Dobson) falls prey to the ravenous beasts, siblings Donna (Cassandra Scerbo) and Joe (Jonathan Lipnicki) unite with a stalwart seafarer (Brandon Beemer) and a dedicated marine biologist (Jacqueline Fleming) to kill or be killed by the monsters.

This is a snappy, action-packed TV creature feature with great ocean/gold-dredging location photography. Scerbo stands out in the cast mainly because she looks great in tight pants, which is offset by her feisty, stubborn obnoxiousness. Lipnicki is duplicitous; Beemer is palpably noble; and Fleming is intelligent, celestial and compassionate. Sure, the CGI creatures are cartoony, a meshing of stingrays, vampire bats and frogs, but they're formidable opponents. Unfortunately, the first half is better than the second, which seems to fizzle out despite all the action.

THE MOVIE RUNS 86 minutes and was shot in Slidell, Louisiana (but the mountains in the background show that some of it was shot in the Great Northwest). WRITER: Brook Durham.

GRADE: B-

Have you noticed that the more terrible the movie the more the lead characters are constantly saying," Go go go, Or bring up hurry up " All at the same time. This one is so bad you can see the wires on the creatures.

Bering Sea Beast (2013)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The Bering Sea has become so popular with "Deadliest Catch" I guess it was just a matter of time before SyFy used it for one of their monster movies. A family of fisherman team up with a scientist when they discover that the old legend of "sea vampires" are actually true and now the creatures are attacking people who work this part of the sea. BERING SEA BEAST is pretty much what you'd expect from a SyFy film as they take a name some know (Jonathan Lipnicki, the kid in JERRY MAGUIRE) and mix in a rather silly story and some of the worst special effects that you're ever going to witness. These awful effects are certainly the highlight of the film because it's clear that they either didn't have much money to come up with something better or they just wanted to make them so bad that people would talk about them and bring other viewers to the film. These effects are certainly among the dumbest you're ever going to see in a SyFy film but they did get me thinking that it would be pretty fun for a filmmaker to make a documentary about all the horrid effects these types of films have produced over the past decade. I will say that the effects are so silly and bad that they do somewhat keep you "entertained" by everything else going on. None of the performances are all that memorable but I will say that Cassie Scerbo helps keep the film moving. As for the former child star Lipnicki, it's certainly nice seeing him as he is today but his performance was pretty bad. The death scenes are all mostly forgettable but then again the bad CGI really doesn't help anything. What keeps BERING SEA BEAST from being entertaining is the fact that it takes itself way too serious. I've never understood how the filmmakers could give us such awful effects but at the same time expect us to take everything else serious.

Somewhere on the coast of Alaska, by the gold-rich Bering Sea, feisty blonde Cassie Scerbo (as Donna Hunter) gives new deckhand Brandon Beemer (as Owen Powers) the cold shoulder. He has been hired by her silver-haired prospector father Kevin Dobson (as Glenn Hunter), for reasons later revealed. Also on board is Ms. Scerbo's muscular blond brother Jonathan Lipnicki (as Joe Hunter). He has a bigger secret than his father does. This seafaring family and their crew like to dive for gold. In the opening minutes, Mr. Lipnicki discovers the first of several victims...

Apparently, divers have disturbed a hoard of hungry "sea vampires." Professor of marine biology Jacqueline Fleming (as Megan Arthur) wants to study the creatures and dastardly Lawrence Turner (as Travis Thorne) wants to outbid Mr. Dobson for diving rights. All of this begins as an interesting science fiction, but ends up being silly and tedious. The best part of the story is an interesting brother-sister relationship written by Brook Durham and performed very well by Scerbo and Lipnicki. They threw a little something worthy into this one.

***** Beast of the Bering Sea (11/9/13) Don E. FauntLeRoy ~ Cassie Scerbo, Jonathan Lipnicki, Brandon Beemer, Kevin Dobson