Review: ‘Beast Mode’ is a Zany Ride with Top-Notch FX

beast mode review
Devilworks Pictures

 

Hollywood will eat you up and spit you out. Everyone knows this, but the brave persist. They’ll do anything to thrive in Tinseltown. In Beast Mode (2020), they’ll need to do more just to survive. C. Thomas Howell seems to have resurrected himself as a physical comedian in this work that pokes fun at the film business and everyone involved: producers, actors, directors, assistants, the paparazzi, make-up artists, and even the occasional private dick.

The film begins somewhere in the South American jungle. Hang a left at Pueblo Tropo, and you’re there. It’s a bit confusing because the first few minutes of the film give expectations of a more sinister and serious horror. A young mother is tending to her sickly or injured daughter. She sends her son for “the flower” to revive the dying girl. Subtitles (they’re speaking Spanish, so we can rule out much of the east coast narrowing down “Somewhere”) are rarely used in the opening to a comedy-horror, but don’t let that throw you. It goes from Jacob’s Ladder-esque psychotic cuts and murder for possession of the aforementioned flower to a Hollywood-establishing shot and pull away of Howell’s skinny butt pretty quickly. If the visual didn’t clue you in, a suitable soundtrack perambulates you by hand to tell say, “Hey, you know that serious stuff we just showed you? That’s just set up. From here on out, we’re goofing.” Go in with that mindset, and you’ll be fine. But,the bloodwork is top-notch! Not the CGI stuff, but the practical liquid. They got the color and consistency right. That’s something to appreciate. And there’s a LOT to appreciate.

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C. Thomas Howell in ‘Beast Mode’ | Devilworks Pictures

Breen Nash (C. Thomas Howell) is trying to get his movie funded. Huckle Saxton, played by James Duval, is a spoiled rock star of an actor set to play the title role in Beast Moon. It’s a follow up to the critically panned Gods of Pluto (This is a movie I’d pay to see) which is collecting dust in a storage facility, and peddled by a homeless guy. Huckle is the real hero of this movie, or is it Duval? He plays Huckle and Huckle’s double. The range there is narrow, even with two distinct personalities, but Duval plays both characters using the Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer playbook. He also channels Terry Kiser as Bernie Lomax from Weekend at Bernie’s. Here’s your guy for part three of that series– Bernie III: I Learned it From You, Dad, in which Duval plays the unknown son of Bernie… and dies in the beginning of the movie.

A series of hilarious turns bring us to finding a double to play the part Huckle Saxton was supposed to play, and what do you think is going to get the job done? Why yes, that flower from earlier. Actually, it’s a “special lotion” derived from the flower. It’s not clear if it’s the same stuff mentioned later called MASQ, the synthesized version; but who cares about details? We’re making a funny picture here!

The situational comedy overshadows any hint of horror, but SFX artist Julie Hapney got her work in. The inconsistency was a bit tough to accept, but, man that blood! That practical blood! The lotion, as we learn from Ezequiel, the Charles Manson lookalike you might know as Douglas Bennett from Sons of Anarchy will make you “become what you are.” Apparently, or maybe obviously, everyone in Hollywood is a monster. The stuff seems to get everywhere, and anyone who happens to see the vessel its contained in is compelled to apply it, laugh maniacally, and wait for the director to yell, “Cut!”

The demon creatures they become are varied only in personality. They are designed in a generic style, but the point gets across. Just, next time an actor is masked up like that, maybe record their voice separately so they don’t sound muffled. I thought the last time we’d get that was when Zira asked Doctor Zaius at the end of Planet of the Apes, “What will he find out there, Doctor?” Zaius replies, “His destiny.” Maurice Evans’ voice still echoes in my mind, mingling with memories of saying “Trick or treat.” It’s okay. We’re goofing. This was intentional, right guys? This paragraph is not David Prowse-approved, but James Earl Jones is already soothing his throat for his voiceover.

Ray Wise in ‘Beast Mode’ | Devilworks Pictures

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Ray Wise plays Trammel Steadfast, a former Hollywood bigwig turned recluse. He’s here to deliver the line: “The parasite is native to the flower. It enters the host through the pores. It feeds on the basest of human emotions: anger, rage, jealousy, hatred, anything evil.” It really hammers home what we’ve already determined, but with a poetic flare that sells the premise.

In general, the characters are red shirts waiting for their fate, but there are a couple of unlikely cops who stand out like a sore thumb. I didn’t get the joke all along, as they play off each other as screw ups behind a badge sitting in their cruiser the entire movie. It pays off in the end with a Jules and Vincent (Pulp Fiction) moment. They strike down upon [redacted] with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to seek producer credit. Every star wants a death scene. And everyone in Hollywood wants to be a producer. Writers, Drew Fortune, Chris W. Freeman, and Spain Willingham, had to have been out for drinks when they conceived this one. “Let’s totally make a horror movie about how horrible everyone in Hollyweird is!” This script wrote itself, didn’t it?

Yes, you should waste your time seeing Beast Mode. It’s an intentional dumpster fire that will keep you eyes rolling, and your jaw dropping in chittery laughter until someone yanks it off. There’s at least one killing that should go in the top 100 ways a demon beast can disembowel one person and strangle someone else. Does that give too much away?

Beast Mode will be available on DVD and Digital December 1st from Devilworks Pictures in the U.S and Canada.


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