Body At Brighton Rock

It’s difficult to make a truly original horror film. So much has been done before and fresh ideas are difficult to pull off no matter how talented the director. With that in mind BODY AT BRIGHTON ROCK is a movie that does its best but in the end is offers mediocre scares. At least director/writer Roxanne Benjamin deserves credit for trying. Wendy (Karina Fontes) is a part-time park ranger at a major national park filled with beautiful countryside and mountainous terrain. Not as skilled as her friends she opts to trade one of them to cover replacing signs along the trails of one of the more difficult areas. All goes fine until she gets lost in those mountains and then comes across a dead body. Near Brighton Rock on the map she calls in her location, at least where she thinks she is, and reports the body. Even though in an area with bears roaming around she’s told that she will have to make camp and stay there with the body until the following morning, it’s too late for a chopper to successfully land nearby. She follows her instructions but then strange things begin happening. The first is that while on a nearby mountain top she sees someone checking out the body. She tells him to leave it alone and has a conversation with him. He tells her he lives nearby and that he saw the body. Eventually they part ways and he leaves her to her lone vigil. It is during this night alone with a dead body nearby that things begin to happen. The question becomes are they really happening or is it an overactive imagination fueled by her surroundings. On top of that the question of her hallucinating the things she’s seeing is brought forward. It’s a harrowing night and one that she’s not likely to forget but it is the twist at the end you won’t see coming that elevates this film from what it was at the beginning. Making a horror film that takes place in a national park (unless of course it’s another teens getting killed by mad slasher flick) is not an easy task. It’s even more difficult when you rely on a single character and a dead body to move the story forward. But Benjamin does an admirable job of making the film a bit of a frightener. Perhaps not for the die-hard horror fanatic but definitely for the more average film goer. Fontes does a decent job here as well but it would be nice to see her in a meatier role before praising or condemning her as an actress. From what is seen here she has great potential. As for the rest of the cast their parts are small enough that they’re not quite noticeable enough to comment on. The end result is a movie that offers some chills and spills and a few quick laughs but mostly has you rooting for this new ranger. If you place yourself in her shoes you have to wonder if you would have chosen to spend the night with a dead body in the middle of bear infested woods or not. Let’s hope none of us ever have to make that call and if so that you’ve not seen this movie beforehand.

Entertaining.

Fabulous movie. Derp on many levels.

First off, I first thought this was a comedy. Spoilers ahead! In the first 24 hours, a young (but really cute) park ranger manages to do the following: 1.) Walkthrough the backcountry wearing ear-buds listening to music (um, never do that) and immediately gets lost. 2.) Get run over by a deer (yes thats right) and drops her map, losing it. (Was there a compass?). 3.) Pulls out a radio from 1975, discovers the 4 AAA batteries are dead and replace them with spares - she didnt check this before she left the station? 4.) Discovers a body and repeatedly and inadvertently destroys a potential crime scene. 5.) Discovers a tent, climbs into it and inadvertently destroys another potential crime scene. 6.) Notices a bear bag - where people store food, keeping it up high-away from bears, and doesnt seem to have any idea what it is (bear-bags are quite common in the backcountry). 7.) Nearly falls off a cliff from operating her 1975 radio. 8.) Camps 10 feet from a three-day old bloody, decaying corpse in bear country. 9.) Wakes up from a bad dream and sprays nearly all of her bear spray into the air...and her own eyes. 10) Likely uses most of her potable water to rinse said spray from her eyes. 11.) She tries to climb up a cliff, falls and knocks herself out. 12.) Gets attacked by a 1200 lb bear while laying on her back and fights it off by kicking it once in the nose (the bear actually stops and rubs his nose, as if saying, Ouch!. 13.) Uses the rest of her bear spray to create a flamethrower (you head that right) with the worst CG fire Ive ever seen. It does not appear to hit the bear, much less bother him. 13.) Realizes a person she saw messing with the body who she later kicked off a cliff (but didnt seem to feel bad about the murder) was actually the ghost of the body she was watching. Yeah, I dont get it either. It makes perfect sense. Wait, no it doesnt. Honestly, the director asks a LOT of the audience. We have to believe that a Park Ranger would carry a radio from 1975 (it has an extendable antenna and looks like my old Atari). Then we have to assume she would not have a GPS. Or flares. Or a knife. Or a panic button. Or any formal training in backcountry hiking. Or camping. Or emergency procedures. Or basic navigation. She hiked six hours out and the police didnt have a SAR (Search and Rescue) team to go get her until later the next day -despite the fact everyone knows she is inexperienced, alone in the woods with a dead body. We all know this movie is low-budget, after-school fodder, and I dont mind the acting. I just cant believe anyone would want a writer/director/producer credit for this. Another note: fire the titling person. The opening font was one of the reasons I first thought it was a comedy as it reminded me of Caddyshack. The Oingo Boingo didnt help.

4 stars— This cinematic outdoor thriller does what Alfred Hitchcock and Rod Serling were so deftly talented at. A simple premise that draws you in with a tale of a average normal person put in some suddenly “ what the hell is going on here” circumstances. And just like Twilight Zone And Hitchcock when you think you got it figured out— you didn’t. Good soundtrack and great outdoor views . Good film to have some friends along and see if anyone saw the twist at the end coming

Bad acting, writing, pacing. A ludicrous plot twist & unintentionally hilarious display of bad special effects. Waste of time.

Where to start? Poor plot, horrible acting, the lead actress is unlikable, and this movie is all over the place. Common sense went out the window when writing this. Very boring and then 3/4 of the way they go for weird and its all downhill from there. Unrealistic. Girl can barely manage to breathe and walk at the same time and then suddenly at the end with a bear, they have her a survival expert that can think on her feet.

Total waste of money and time. Plot 0, acting 0.

Good movie

I should of read the reviews. When you watch the trailer, you see the whole movie. Thats it folks, all she wrote. Bad. Just plain bad. Big ol stink bomb.