Michael MacCleary - The offspring conceived by Caroline and the mutated Billy Connors. Though Michael seems to be normal, aside from the dehabilitating "disease" he's suddenly come down with, he soon develops strange habits (like eating human flesh). Mike's doctor (aptly named Doc) believes it's all just growing pains, which ironically enough is true since Mike literally grows out of his own skin during the film's final moments!

"We dare you to watch the last 30 minutes of this film without screaming, covering your eyes, or running from your seat." That was the original tagline for the movie upon it's release and it strikes me as funny. Why? Because those responsible for this picture (director Phillipe Mora perhaps?) are giving a lot of hype to the film's "final terrifying thirty minutes." One would assume that the rest of the movie garbage and not worth seeing. But that is a fallacy folks, because this movie is a lot of fun to watch!

This twisted tale starts on in 1964, in the little town of Nioba, Mississippi. Eli and Caroline have just gotten married (I came to this conclusion when I saw "Just Married" painted on the back of their car. Sherlock Holmes, eat your heart out!). As they're driving down a dark road, Eli realizes he's going the wrong way, and tries to make a u-turn. Instead he ends up getting the car stuck in a ditch. He decides to leave Caroline behind with their dog as he goes to the gas station down the road (Stupid, stupid, stupid! Do you not care about your new bride?!). In the amount of time it takes for him to get back, a monstrous creature kills the dog and rapes Caroline.

Fast forward seventeen years and it turns out that Caroline gave birth to a son, named Michael. Apparently the lad has recently fallen ill, with what Doc assumes is just an overactive pituitary gland. It seems that time is running out for poor Michael, so Eli and Caroline go to Nioba in search of some answers. They poke around a bit trying to find out who (or what) raped Caroline. Eli visits Judge Curwin and gets absolutely no information from him, but Caroline finds an interesting front page article, about the death of Lionel Curwin when she visits the local newspaper archive.

After said stops, they visit Sheriff Pool and get additional information about the death of Lionel Curwin. Apparently something ate him and tried to torch his house (must've been a bear). That very evening, Michael leaves the hospital and drives to Nioba. He visits Lionel Curwin's old house first, then makes his way to Edwin Curwin's place. Edwin mistakes Michael for a new delivery boy, gives him some money, and then offers the drooling teen some hamburger. I guess Michael misunderstood because he leaps upon Edwin and starts gnawing on the middle-aged man's neck.

Michael then staggers around Nioba until he comes to Horace Platt's place where he meets Amanda Platt (ROOOWLLL!) just before he collapses to the ground. The next day, Michael seems perfectly fine and decides to swing by the Platt residence to see Amanda and thank her. Michael uses his charm and talks Amanda into going for a stroll with him. The two of them walk through a nearby swamp and soon start making out on the ground (Michael's a pretty smooth operator). Amanda's dog had followed them along and starts digging up something. That something turns out to be a severed arm, which the dog playfully carries over to the two horny teens.

After a quick time lapse, the police have arrived and begin searching for more bodies. By nightfall they discover the mother load, nearly thirty-six rotting corpses. Doc takes a look at one such body and realizes that it was one of his former patients (I'd recognize that stainless steel femur anywhere!). Then Sheriff Pool, Doc, and Eli all go and question Dexter Curwin. Naturally, Dexter denies having any knowledge of the recently discovered bodies (which satisfies our trio of investigators for the time being). They go and dig up the grave of the aforementioned corpse and find a coffin filled with rocks! Dexter, "you have some 'splaining to do!" By the time they return to the morgue, they discover Dexter has been embalmed, alive!

Moments later, it's discovered that Michael has once again wandered off so everyone hightails it to Horace Platt's house. Eli and Caroline run up the front door and knock frantically. Horace answers the door and starts arguing with them until Amanda's screams are heard upstairs. Everyone races to the rescue only to find Michael standing in the room. Michael explains that there's a killer on the loose (and no one wonders how he knew that?!) and he was only there to protect the girl, though moments earlier, he was about to bludgeon her to death. Horace and Eli have a brief scuffle and then everyone goes home. Which reminds me, there are two recurring things in this movie that sort of annoyed me.

Every time Eli and Caroline discuss Michael's "medical condition," they always mention taking him to Houston for treatment. Stop talking about it and just do it already! That makes up at least a quarter of the script right there! Secondly, Eli manages to have a brief scuffle with a majority of the male cast by the end of the movie. Is he obssessed with being the alpha male or something?!

Anyway, at this point we finally start to understand why Michael's becoming a psychotic killer. When Caroline was raped, Billy passed on his memory and mutant genes to Michael. The idea of genetic memory is quite interesting, but sadly it is never explored. It's merely implied so that there's a reason for Michael's hideous transformation. By the THIRD NIGHT (the transformation finally completes at this point), Michael has killed Tom Laws (I think that happened on DAY TWO actually) and pays a visit to Amanda again. He tells her to leave Nioba because the killer is after all the Curwins. Amanda refuses at first until Michael loses patience and grabs her, causing her to cut her hand on a knife. She finally agrees and goes upstairs as Michael snacks on a dab of her blood.

Said blood awakens the beast within Mike and he slowly creeps upstairs. Using his (suddenly) immense strength, Mike rips off the doorknob to Amanda's room and rushes in, yelling for her to leave. She refuses to depart so Mike loses control and begins choking her. He suddenly stops, realizes what he tried to do, and leaps out of a second story window. A short time later, Michael awakens in the local Nioban hospital and everyone's there (excluding Judge Curwin and Horace, but they'll be along shortly). As Doc checks the large line of broken skin on Mike's back, the mutating teen continuously yells, "KILL ME, KILL ME, KILL ME!" He eventually quiets down much to everybody's relief. Believing that the worst is over, Eli and the police leave the hospital.

Judge Curwin and Horace seize this opportunity and barge into the small medical facility with the intention of filling Michael with buckshot. However, they stop short when the see the disgusting spectacle before them. Mike finally begins his transformation into a Cicada-Man! And instead of running away, the horrified onlookers stand there! Eventually, Horace loses what little courage and self-control he has and fires two shots into Mike with no effect. Mutant Mike retaliates by knocking out Horace and hauling him off. In the meantime, Amanda is well on her way out of Nioba but fails to see a roadblock and swerves off of the road. How she doesn't see said roadblock is beyond me since it was in plain site (and yes she did have her headlights on).

Back in Nioba, the remaining cast has taken refuge in jail. This is where we learn all about the origin of Billy Connors. Though the Judge's tale clears up the mystery of the corpses in the swamp, it didn't explain how eating human flesh transformed Billy into the dreaded Cicada-Man. Judge Curwin is terrified and has himself locked in a cell for protection but alas, it fails. Michael smashes through the concrete wall of the cell and plucks Judge Curwin's head right off his shoulders (just as you or I would pluck a grape from a vine ... minus the blood of course). Afterwards, Michael departs from town and manages to find Amanda.

He succeeds in raping her (is it wrong that I found the look of satisfaction on the monster's face humorous?) and then stumbles off a few yards away. Eli arrives on the scene first and decides to investigate and make sure the monster is dead. It turns out that Michael was only playing 'possum and Eli ends up grappling for his life. Luckily Caroline is nearby and armed with a shotgun. With a single shot, she blows off her mutant son's head and ends his short reign of terror. Still, that was too little too late since Mike managed to rape Amanda. Will the Beast Within be unleashed a second time?!

I first watched The Beast Within on TNT's Monstervision several years ago and was overjoyed at how downright twisted it was. Though it's pacing is fairly slow, this film is saved by all the great acting. Veteran actor Ronnie Cox really stands out from the rest and gives his character, Eli MacCleary, some real depth. Eli is struggling to accept the fate of a son that supposedly isn't his. Even after Eli discovers the truth, he still defends Michael to the very end. Overall, this is a great little southern gothic thriller but it may not be for all tastes. The slow pacing will bore some viewers (especially those with ADD) and the film's two infamous rape scenes (though shown in very low lighting) may actually offend some people. If you can look past these two slight negativities, I'm sure that you'll have fun watching this film, in fact, I dare you to watch the full 98 minutes of.... THE BEAST WITHIN!