Beware

I'm usually wary of ethnocentric horror movies. I've watched my share of all-black horror and these count among the worse horror movies ever made (and I've seen "A Night to Dismember"). So when the all-latino cast unrolled, I was almost instantly persuaded that I would lose again 90 minutes of my loser life. Never judge a book by its cover.

A group of friends ride to a nearby latino festival but their trip comes to a halt with car problems and one creepy garage help. Like the majority of modern slashers, "Beware" suffers from the how-could-they-be-friends symptom. The tough leading lady and her no-bullshit boyfriend, I can fathom, but her cheap-tease BFF and said-tease's super-heavy boyfriend ? I'm not mentioning the dorky brother. Anyway, when & why did these 5 people become friends and lovers ? Past that disappointment, the movie starts off early with the requisite introduction murder and another couple of redneck murders in the 1st 20 minutes. Then the characters establish themselves at a local's secluded house and the carnage keeps on at a steady pace.

As mentioned by another reviewer, the special F/X are top-notch for that kind of low-budget movie and the crew must be commended. One particular pyrotechnic stunt really blew me away. The director also has a good sense of pace and thankfully kills off the most grating characters first. I'll also say that the killer's backstory is one twisted piece of work. References to the "Friday the 13th" abound and keeping on with Jason's tradition, there's more than one pair of boobs on display. If you can get past the lead actors and their irritating characters, this slasher is safe bet.

Five Latino teens celebrating what could be their last weekend together, fall prey to a fabled killer by the name of Shane, after running out of gas and hitching a ride from a local to a peculiar little backwoods Florida town in the middle of nowhere

Not much new here and it doesn't reinvent the (slasher) wheel in the least, but still manages to become better than average thanks to some pretty good practical special effects and a modicum of suspense. The film does falter a tad in the beginning (the sheriff and especially the two 'comedic' hicks are simply awful) and the movie takes a while for the real action to start, but once it does all my gripes about the film disappeared

before i go any further let me just explain a couple or so reasons why i gave this a 5 instead of a lower rating like many will probably give this. OK, the sheriff and the 2 rednecks out in the woods. they were a riot. now don't get me wrong, they were pretty bad. but bad in a way that they were funny. lol.

1st redneck - sheriff, there is a killer out there! sheriff to both rednecks - im sure there is son! got any evidence? what about you shaggy? how bout a clue scooby doo?! ahahaha. shakes head...

and that is just one of the few bad comical moments that you will laugh at just out of sheer insanity. and to be honest, if this movie was listed as a comedy-horror i might have even bumped it up to a 6. maybe. but since it wasn't listed as the such.. well im being generous here with the solid 5.

and sorry to skip ahead but if/when you watch this then you'll see why i almost totally forgot to mention the main 4 in the car a few minutes into the movie. boy were they bad. especially Alex Livinalli. lord i hope and pray i never watch anything with him in it again. that guy is.. never mind, i'll bite my tongue. and i don't like to be harsh! but if you could combine all 4 of them into one person you'd still be just as bad off as before. except maybe better! you'd just be dealing with one disaster instead of 4 at once! yes, they were that bad. they are definitely what hurts this movie the most.

now. were there decent/good moments in this movie? yes. like i said, the sheriff and the 2 rednecks. also the owner of the mechanic shop {Joe} was good as well. he was funny when asked if he spoke Spanish. lol.

also i seriously can't give the production-film crew enough credit for the budget they were working with. the camera work and the effects look way beyond the budget. you won't think so at the very start but it is meant to look that way; so keep watching because it doesn't stay like that. so yes, an amazing job in that dept. i for one was very impressed. i seriously think a lot of film makers {especially horror} should hire this crew or least find out the secret because i've seen movies with much higher budgets that have not even came close to this.

now, onto the killer. "Shane" im just going to say the killer looked awesome! not to mention he is pretty damn brutal and creepy! and it also had a twisted ending! no spoilers. you'll just have to watch and see for yourself!

so would i recommend this movie? sure. but probably only to the true hardcore horror fans. i definitely think it is worth a one time watch. if you can look past some of the god-awful acting then there are quite a few nice sick/gory moments and a few random funny moments. not to mention a pretty decent storyline. one other good thing about this movie, unlike with so many other low budget horror movies; is that the acting isn't bad with every one. just half the cast this time! so it's tolerable! lol. and i also feel you will be very impressed with what they did with the money they had to work with. so hey, give it a shot! if you are a true horror fiend then you got nothing to lose. hey, i promise you have seen much worst!

A couple is frolicking in car in the woods. A woman covered in blood shows up. The guy goes after her and is killed and so is the girl later.

5 kids are traveling through Florida. The car suffers some damage and they make it to a gas/repair station. The creepy mechanic tells them the car needs a part that will arrive the next day and they can walk 10 miles to a motel or sleep in the garage. At the station arrives a nice girl all by herself. The nice, single, and innocent guy of the group approaches her for help. She agrees to take them to her place to spend the night.

Meanwhile we witness a couple of deaths by a guy in a red shirt and black mask. As the kids talk they find out where they are, a town that is somewhat well-known for some killings. The homeowner herself tells them how all this came about. A woman cheats on her husband. He discovered her with the other guy and flips out. She tells him her son isn't his but the other guy's. So he kills them both and dumps the bodies in a makeshift grave. He chains the son and keeps him in a cage. He also tells about the affair to the wife of the cheater. And builds this mask and killer outfit.

While the kids are in the girl's house of course the killer will appear. And we learn about him. There are a couple of slightly expected twists. The story ties in with the intro as well as some loose ends, for example the sheriff who has been out there worried looking for the kids.

Beware has a very good story and it's also told well. It also avoids the formula of who has to survive and who doesn't. Despite the story you can't really care much for it because the characters are weak, there's no lead, and you can't get yourself to care about any of these people. Another weakness is the poor look of the movie. The lighting is off, at times too bright, at times too dark, and the color isn't appealing. In the behind the scenes segment we see they had some fancy filming equipment, instead it looks like it was filmed with an old cell-phone. Not sure why the went for this look. It doesn't help the movie at all. The casting is also fairly poor. If you're going to film in Florida, why not cast some attractive locals? Instead we get a rather unphotogenic Mexican bunch. And I have no problem with this being a movie geared toward Latins, but you might as well learn from the Mexican entertainment industry the importance of sex appeal. The casting of the secondary characters is oddly enough much stronger. In any case, there are also some problems with the camera-work. For instance, the gas station looks like and is supposed to be out nowhere in the country. But some camera shots show this thing in the middle of a city. In turn it does have a surprisingly cool shot of the villain smashing through a window as a girl runs past him.

Beware suffers from poor cinematography, casting, camera-work, but has an excellent story. It's occasionally bloody and has a bit of nudity. It's not particularly scary and this isn't the kind of movie where the villain is cool. For all that we know about him, he doesn't really convince. For the tiny budget this movie has to be an accomplishment, but they could have made better choices that would have dramatically improved the movie.

Let me start by saying Im an independent horror nut. I rented this movie not knowing what to expect but maybe some good kills and something to past the time, but found myself watching what I think could be history in the making. Low budget slashers that fall in this category come and go and a few stick with you and deserve a sequel. This movie is one that deserves to be seen and to have sequels. This movie was made fro 75thousand dollars but feels bigger and is better then a lot of others with a bigger budget and no Soul. This movie has something special to it. the Killer is great hes a mysterious, menacing and pretty cool looking. It follows every slasher movie pattern, kids, town with a bad history, and Its not the best movie ever made but I watched it 3 times with friends and it just has something other bigger movies are missing. You heard it hear first. Matthew J