Director: Chris W Freeman, Spain Willingham
Writer: Chris W Freeman, Spain Willingham, Drew Fortune (Screenplay)
Starring: C Thomas Howell, Leslie Easterbrook, James Hong, Ray Wise, James Duval, Robert Costanzo
Plot: ‘Bad boy’ actor Huckle Saxton lets fame get to his head and turns into a ferocious beast, ripping Hollywood to shreds. Will he sink his teeth into the role of a lifetime or succumb to the dangers of the Hollywood lifestyle?
Tagline – This Town Will Eat You Alive
Runtime: 1 Hour 27 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Beast Mode starts when Hollywood producer Breen Nash (Howell) has seen his latest movie bomb, even with the bad boy actor Huckle Saxton (Duval) starring in it, under pressure to make the next film a success, Breen get the money from Pish (Hong) to finance the next movie, only Breen has accidently killed Huckle.
Wanting to go ahead with the movie, Breen looks find a body double to replace him, while performing a ritual to try and bring Huckle back to life, while holding together the production of the film, only the ritual will have side effects.
Thoughts on Beast Mode
Thoughts – Beast Mode follows a producer that wants to make a movie happen after accidently killing the lead of the movie, which will see him first get a body double and then turning to a ritual to try and bring the actor back to life, only for it to have consequences he never planned for. This story could easily be described as a dark version of Bowfinger, seeing at the idea of a producer going to extraordinary lengths to make a movie happen, with the darker side of the film coming from seeing what happens to Huckle. We do have a well known cast here in C Thomas Howell, James Duval and Ray Wise who all don’t look out of place, even if the story doesn’t manager to become as interesting as it believes it could be. There is plenty of satire about the Hollywood system in the film too, and how it will consume people and change them. It doesn’t seem to reach the horror levels it could with what is happening, but it doesn’t hit enough of the comedy marks to be funny enough for a true comedy.
Final Thoughts – Beast Mode is an attempt to bring us a darker version of Bowfinger, only it lacks the comedy or scares.
