Behemoth

Behemoth (2011)

This movie is set in a small town that sits next to a mountain. Pretty early on we see that something isn’t right because there are tremors and a few mysterious deaths. One of these deaths occurs at a logging operation run by the main character, a man named Thomas. His attempts to figure out what the heck is going on are complicated by a headstrong younger sister, a father who loses his mind when not on his medication (hey kids look it is the Cigarette smoking man from X-Files), a sneaky government man who knows more then he lets on, and a stubborn sheriff that ignores all the craziness that is happening. Eventually we see that there is a giant monster that lives in the mountain and has woken up because of all the damage we have done to the planet Earth. The creature seems intent on getting some payback on the human race, but luckily for all of us Thomas figures out that if you shoot a rocket down it’s throat the creature will explode. Pretty lucky he has a rocket isn’t it?

This is one of those Sci-Fi channel originals (I shall now and forever refuse to use their “cooler” new moniker. Science Fiction is for nerds damn it!) that premier on Saturday nights. Before I get to my review I suppose I need to explain my philosophy when it comes to these movies. I’ve always felt that these flicks were meant to recapture the spirit of heading off to the drive-in to check out the latest silly creature feature, only now instead of a cheap rubber suit and bad acting we get some cheap digital effects and bad acting. So I’ve never really understood it when people get angry or frustrated that these aren’t great movies, because I never thought they were supposed to be. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be cheesy fun, does it? So with this in mind lets get to the review.

The story is predictable and filled with the sort of stereotypical characters that I would expect. The handsome hero, his love interest that he has a history with, the precious little sister, the crazy guy that knows what is coming (the father character), and the government man that has the answers to fill in the plot. There is nothing new here character wise. And even the dramatic scenes are about what I expected. Set the characters up and knock them down one at a time until they finally get over on the creature, though I have to admit they really do milk the bit with the stepladder to the extreme that it was getting absurdly funny. Then again that might have been intended as part of the fun. But as predictable as the story is it is paced quickly gets to the good stuff fast and never lingers on anything long enough for the audience to start thinking about what we are watching. This works because when watching a movie like Behemoth you really need to sit back and turn your brain off.

Since we are talking about a creature feature I have to talk about the creature design. The creature is all CGI in this one and has a very cheap Lovecraft vibe going for it. Until the very end we mostly just see the odd tentacle, eye, and snapping mouth here and there. But when we finally get to see the Behemoth pop out of the top of the mountain I was happy with what I saw. The CGI isn’t great, but because of the size of the monster in this one it is easier to ignore. Then again maybe I’ve watched too many Godzilla movies with a guy in a rubber suit smashing paper buildings.

Let me finish this one up by saying that Behemoth isn’t a great movie. But if you sit down to watch it with reasonable expectations then I think you will have some fun with it. Personally I’ll be showing this one to my friends the next time we have a cheesy creature feature themed movie watching night.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer