By Geno McGahee
The woods are a great setting for a horror movie and then when you throw in a monster, it is usually a winning combination. In the 2007 micro-budget horror film “PREY FOR THE BEAST,” we get a monster, the woods, a boatload of bad acting and a fun factor that makes this one worth a watch.
Frank (Jodi Pittman) is planning a weekend away with the boys, but his wife (Thea Nikolic) is trying to convince him otherwise, noting that they never see each other and she would gladly give up some sex if he stayed home. Perhaps the sex in the woods with the boys was more appealing, but whatever the case, Frank insists on going and is doing it mostly for his friend, Bud (Brett Kelly). Poor Bud found his wife cheating and was then booted out of his own house. He has been staying with friends and has been really depressed. This trip would cheer him right up.
Owen (Mark Courneyea) and Gil (Ray Besharah) join up with Bud and Frank and the trip is on. They get on a boat and row across a lake and we find out how much of a drag Frank is. Owen, Gil and Bud seem like OK dudes, but Frank is boring and his terrible “joke” of preventing Gil from grabbing his sack (of sunflower seeds) isn’t funny. He is one of those guys that are in your group of friends and you wonder how the fuck he got there. I think we all have one of those.
They get settled and begin small-talking when they hear a gunshot. Another group of campers, all attractive chicks, also hears it. They meet up with Frank and the group and they begin to hang out together and have a good time. Maybe one of them would like to cheer up Bud? Nope. Doesn’t happen. Apparently his ex-wife was onto something when she gave him the boot. Maybe he looked too much like Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
Kim (Amanda Leigh) has some knowledge of weapons and prepares herself for possible combat. She borrows the gun that Frank brought (wonder what he was trying to compensate for) and fires a couple rounds with her friend, Sarah (Anastasia Kimmett). Her other friends, Aria (Sonia Myers) and Annie (Lisa Aitken) are basically just there to complain. As Kim shoots, Frank notes that she has “nice form,” as he checks her out. This is coming from a married man! I wonder if it’s his wife’s fault though. Before he left, she was wearing a sexy teddy and made him acknowledge it. So, he automatically has blue balls. Then, he’s on the boat and Gil grabs for his sack. Now, he’s surrounded by hot babes. Frank, you get a pass on this one.
A reject from JURASSIC PARK, Jerry (Lenard A. Blackburn), is killed attempting to get evidence of this monster’s existence and the group finds the legless, mangled body. I feel bad that nobody in Jerry’s life told him that his fashion sense was bad. He looked so silly in the getup that he had on.
The group decides that they have to get out of the woods as quickly as possible to avoid the same fate as poor Jerry. Unfortunately, they only have a bow and a gun with seven bullets. They forge on and that is when the monster starts coming into play and the monster as bad as he looks, he looks tremendous. He is a hybrid of a Sasquatch and a boar and he takes no prisoners as he attacks. He rips his prey apart and even (spoiler) killed Frank. Frank should have stayed home and sexed up his hot wife. Now she’ll probably bang the guy that Bud’s wife was banging.
The monster, on top of being so vicious, can also infect people and poor Bud gets the monster STD. Well, it wasn’t sexually transmitted. So, I guess we can just call it “D.” The remaining members now have to deal with the monster and the fact that Bud is losing his sanity and is the one with the gun. Kim does her best to deal with him, but he is now a woman-hater. He yells at them that “women ruin everything!” I think he had a secret to reveal to Frank on this trip. I just get that feeling. When one gender sends you packing, you find another. Just a hunch.
A final showdown with this monster and some more casualties along with a semi-twist ending made this movie an overall pleasant surprise. I’ve seen THE BONESETTER movies from Brett Kelly, who wrote and directed this, and they were rather terrible, but he did some good things here. He kept it simple. We have campers and we have a monster. The rest sort of works itself out. The acting isn’t great but I’ve seen far worse in these sorts of films. Brett Kelly actually did a pretty good job in his role and Amanda Leigh proved decent as well. The others were passable, although Jodi Pittman was very clunky. He needed better direction or they could have said he was a cyborg and that’s why he was so robotic.
PREY FOR THE BEAST is a fun micro-budget monster movie. It’s not going to change the world, but it’s going to be worth a watch if you are into the lower budget productions. Brett Kelly, good or bad, is pumping out these movies and I have to give him credit. I give him extra credit for this one. I was amused.
Rating: 6.5/10 – Bigfoot raped a Boar!
