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Overall Rating : 4/10
Directed By : Gary Yates
James Van Der Beek (Final Draft)
Alexandra Castillo
Arne MacPherson (The Plague)
Ryan Black
Supplied By : Genius Products
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : April. 3, 2008
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| PLOT In a small fishing village, panic and fear are spreading as the legend of a giant killer squid grows. When government scientist Dan Leland is sent to investigate the murky waters, he soon uncovers a sea monster beyond anything he could have ever imagined. |
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| THE REVIEW IN EYE OF THE BEAST, the small fishing town called Fells island has recently suffered a shortage of fish coming from their lakes. To investigate, the government agency NORA, have sent first time investigator Dan Leland out to the town to conduct some tests on the waters. Shortly after arriving and in the middle of his testing, Dan and the town locals, which includes the fisheries Officer, Katrina Tomas, witness as bodies turn up missing, and the few that are found seem to have very distinct markings near their injuries - ones that are at first unrecognizable to Leland. When reaching out for help from his comrades at NORA for help on the situation, he gets the cold shoulder, as they just see the news as some kind of joke. Without any help, he does a little probing and finds that the thing responsible for these deaths, and most likely the diminishing population of fish, is a blood-thirsty squid that has taken up residency in the town's body of water. EYE OF THE BEST is the fifth installment, in the now long-running 'Maneater Series' from Genius Products, a series in which each film is a creature feature. I have reviewed all of them thus far, and so far people have been under the attack of Gorillas, Spiders, Tigers, Crocodiles, and now with this film it's a giant Squid? Yes indeed. Now I do know that there have been a few other Squid movies before this one, but to me, the idea of a killer Squid is kind of silly - so as you may have guessed, I have never actually sat down to watch one until now. A Squid is probably the last thing i'd ever think about when thinking of a creature that would take center stage in a film, but nonetheless, that's THE CASE IN EYE OF THE BEAST. As I said, I have reviewed all of the Maneater Series so far, and to be honest, none of them have be truly great. It's true, some have been a step up from others, but not by much, they all seem to be on the same level of mediocre quality and entertainment, not to mention that they have all(as i'm sure as with the whole series) aired on the SCI-FI CHANNEL. Although not a great movie, EYE OF THE BEAST, turned out to be one of the more "watchable" film's in the series. All 5 films have basically been of the same mold and felt exactly the same, with the only exception being that the creature is replaced by another, so in reality, there's not very much room to expand here, so when you see a half way decant performance brought forth in one of them, it immediately becomes a standout.....but that's still not saying nothing much. As for the acting no one is really that memorable, but that half way decent performance I speak of comes from James Van Der Beek, the guy that the filmmakers are banking their film on anyway, so it's no surprise. So in this film, Dawson moves from the creek. to the lake, the lakes of a small Canadian town that is. Once, Van Der Beek had a career that was hot, and his future looked bright, but in recent years he has fell into the B-Movie pit, and has starred in many low budget flicks, most of which he is given lackluster material, but regardless, he still is the stand out in each one, because he usually portrays the characters that the films are built around. In the end, EYE OF THE BEAST is really just more of the same stuff, the plot is by-the-numbers Horror fare. At best if you aren't looking for anything special or original, then this one would be decent for you, but the question here is, is that how many people will watch this when there are so many better alternatives out there? |
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| GORE
METER 1.5/10 All I seem to remember are a few bodies that are torn apart, not very gory at all. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 2/10 The typical score you'd hear in a creature feature, nothing about it really stands out. | ||||
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, EYE OF THE BEAST is a step up when limiting it to just the 'Maneater Series', as it is slightly better than the others. But as a whole, I wouldn't call it a very good film, because it follows a generic formula that we've all seen many times over, and does nothing original to set itself apart from the many like it. |
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