Beware

The movie starts out with a bang, then slows down a bit. Quite honestly, I thought about turning it off and cutting my losses. In the end, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised (as pleasantly as one could be watching a horror movie).

Some of the things are stereotypical: group of young people traveling in a car have to stop in a (strange) place where they are not too welcome, a stalker, scary story told outdoors at night. I will confess some of the acting is suspect.

But once it got going, it came around nicely. I do not want to give out any spoilers, but I think it is worth the watch. I have seen much worse with better actors.

There is some strong sexual content and crude sexual remarks, so if one is prudish, I would not recommend it.

I caught this film on Showtime last night for the first time, and was fairly impressed. Considering the shoe-string budget this film featured some very convincing gore effects. OK, the acting was very uneven,though there were a few good performances, but overall this was a pretty satisfying time killer. The maniacal killer, an abused child called "Shane", could possibly become the next Jason if the creators of the film play it smart. He has all the necessary qualifications: abusive childhood, driven to hatred by his years of being chained to a tree like an animal, and very cool weapons of choice! A sleepy small town in southern Florida where creepy legends abound, is the setting for this gory slasher flick. It also features an all Latino cast as the 'victims" of Shane's wrath. I recommend this for at least one watch, and you might get hooked 'literally". You might even start dreaming of the emergence of a brand new "slasher" killer franchise!

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.

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

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.