When I rented this, I thought, "Oh God, this is going to be a total cheesefest." And it was. From the animated box cover that reminded me of all those cheesy movie posters in the fifties and sixties, to the bad acting, to the claymation, to the confusing ending, it was all cheese. But looking back, I LOVE this movie!
I rented it as "The Beast" and was expecting something as basic as that name. But I was pleasantly surprised to find an interesting story, with something constantly happening, and so much to like about this all. It was really cool how, all on one afternoon, this happened. Sure, there were some aspects that just weren't good. The acting was terrible, and the claymation scene of the octopus-type creature destroying that doctor's cabin was so terrible. Though, I laughed throughout the whole scene. And how they dealt with the doctor's death was a little hokey. But I could look past that. There was a lot to love about this. The weird ranger, Asmodeus, who was really odd. And when he attacked the one girl--Susan?--he was so freaky. And when the beast started menacing them, I knew this was great. I mean, the cheesy claymation really did it for me. Then when the one guy went to find the other guy in the "other world" (the whole scene was just tinted with red)--I was really interested. I mean, that just added to all that was going on. What was also cool was, it wasn't one of those stupid movies that when the guys told the girls "You stay here"--which they said a lot--the girls didn't just leave the movie. Stuff happened to them too. And by the end, so much happened that you just had to sit back and marvel.
Of course, the movie had the scene of the ending at the beginning--sort of to say that the survivor was looking back on the whole case--and that kind of gave too much away of what would happen to everyone. But then the final ending came. It was extremely confusing, and that was the only really bad part, but everything else was great. I simply love this movie, and I recommend anyone with a taste for cheese should see this. One of the best B-movies ever made.
