Beast of the Bering Sea (2013)

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

RELEASED TO TV IN 2013 and directed by Don E. FauntLeRoy, "Bering Sea Beast" (aka "Beast of the Bering Sea") chronicles events on the Alaskan coast when gold dredgers inadvertently unleash bloodsucking sea creatures. When their father (Kevin Dobson) falls prey to the ravenous beasts, siblings Donna (Cassandra Scerbo) and Joe (Jonathan Lipnicki) unite with a stalwart seafarer (Brandon Beemer) and a dedicated marine biologist (Jacqueline Fleming) to kill or be killed by the monsters.This is a snappy, action-packed TV creature feature with great ocean/gold-dredging location photography. Scerbo stands out in the cast mainly because she looks great in tight pants, which is offset by her feisty, stubborn obnoxiousness. Lipnicki is duplicitous; Beemer is palpably noble; and Fleming is intelligent, celestial and compassionate. Sure, the CGI creatures are cartoony, a meshing of stingrays, vampire bats and frogs, but they're formidable opponents. Unfortunately, the first half is better than the second, which seems to fizzle out despite all the action.THE MOVIE RUNS 86 minutes and was shot in Slidell, Louisiana (but the mountains in the background show that some of it was shot in the Great Northwest). WRITER: Brook Durham.GRADE: B-

***Warning this review does contain a spoiler or two*** Compared to Sharknado, this movie is a real gem. It was one of those "It's so bad, it's good." For a low budget made for TV movie, the acting was pretty good. I didn't buy the main Drug Lord/Antagonist' bad guy persona. He was like a cross between Boss Hogg and Mr. Potter (from It's A Wonderful Life).Anyone who watches these Alaskan gold reality TV shows know that there no gold nuggets as big as those shown just laying on the bottom, ready to be snatched up. The creature had an undefined garbage bag look. Bad CGI. I was watching the characters hide under an excavator and you could plainly see the wire attached to the creature as it landed to attack. For a movie with so many people getting killed... NO Police whatsoever. At the beginning of the movie, the ships diver gets killed. The crew opts not to notify the police until after a land lease auction takes place (which seemed plausible). But afterward, we never see any police involvement. Kevin Dobson dies 'Alien Style' in the back of the family SUV. Lot's of blood. Hours later when the vehicle is driven again, no blood. And what happened to the father? Were they driving around with a corpse in the back? Again, no police involvement. And over a 2 - 3 night period there was a lot of firearm play at the Marina, yet no police or curious locals.I did love the MacGyver weapons used. Marijuana grow lights, PVC pipe, duct tape, batteries and UV light-bulbs made for decent weapons. Kudos to the Prop Dept. But to slam the SFX again, UV lights don't shoot like laser beams. Yes the movie lacked a lot, but hey... it IS a low budget film and they did a lot with the money allotted. Overall I found the movie rather fun to watch. And isn't that what it's all about?

Somewhere on the coast of Alaska, by the gold-rich Bering Sea, feisty blonde Cassie Scerbo (as Donna Hunter) gives new deckhand Brandon Beemer (as Owen Powers) the cold shoulder. He has been hired by her silver-haired prospector father Kevin Dobson (as Glenn Hunter), for reasons later revealed. Also on board is Ms. Scerbo's muscular blond brother Jonathan Lipnicki (as Joe Hunter). He has a bigger secret than his father does. This seafaring family and their crew like to dive for gold. In the opening minutes, Mr. Lipnicki discovers the first of several victims... Apparently, divers have disturbed a hoard of hungry "sea vampires." Professor of marine biology Jacqueline Fleming (as Megan Arthur) wants to study the creatures and dastardly Lawrence Turner (as Travis Thorne) wants to outbid Mr. Dobson for diving rights. All of this begins as an interesting science fiction, but ends up being silly and tedious. The best part of the story is an interesting brother-sister relationship written by Brook Durham and performed very well by Scerbo and Lipnicki. They threw a little something worthy into this one.***** Beast of the Bering Sea (11/9/13) Don E. FauntLeRoy ~ Cassie Scerbo, Jonathan Lipnicki, Brandon Beemer, Kevin Dobson

A rather lame movie, but it does have bright spots and it is a long way from SyFy's worst. Most of the acting is decent, especially from Jonathan Lipnicki(such a cute child star he was) who gives an earnest performance and the attractive Cassie Scerbo. The scenery is nice too with some competent photography(with exceptions) and the ending has some exciting action. There is a lot wrong with Bering Sea Beast, the biggest problem being the special effects, atrocious is a good word. The sea vampires look more like garbage-bin-bags with teeth and bat-wings, and aside from how they look they are also without personality or menace, you actually cannot take them seriously. Their attacks are not suspenseful or tense in the slightest, more veering between unintentionally comical, and suffer from some sloppy and rushed editing. The music plays too much of a dirge in places and is very generic stuff complete with unconvincing and at times bizarre sound effects and mixing. Bering Sea Beast is very badly written, the dialogue just reeks of cheese apart from the odd moment of snappy banter, at the beginning there are some laughs but later on it is very grating, while the characters are stereotypical caricatures and nothing more. Especially the villain, who had a subplot that was clichéd and out of place, and the over-compensated way he was played was the chief exception to the "decent acting" plus-point earlier mentioned. The story ends on an exciting note but much of it was dull and far too ridiculous to be taken at face value, sense of terror, tension, fun, thrills, suspense and even logic are almost completely thrown out of the window. There is some fun scattered here and there but too much of it is tiresome and grating, overall while SyFy have done much worse Bering Sea Beast was rather lame. 3/10 Bethany Cox