THE BEAST BELOW (2023)

THE BEAST BELOW (2023)

Tagline: Nope.

(Action, Adventure, Giant Lizards Will Jack You Up) [R]

Note: This movie was not given an MPAA rating. On streaming services, it’s listed as TV-MA and does contain profanity. The movie was released in Thailand under the name LEIO. The version of the film that I watched didn’t come out in the United States till March of 2023. 

That sounds really scary, I had no idea.

This one follows a fading singer who decides to go back to his hometown where they immediately find out he’s just as big a jerk as he was when he left. The idea is for him to take part in a field drilling contest to look for water, that has a huge payout in cash. As various groups split up into teams for the contest, they are quickly discovered by a vengeful giant hungry lizard set on devouring them. 

The main character Kao is played by Pichaya Nitipaisalkul who does a decent enough job. It’s one of those situations where it’s tough to root for the main characters they probably want you to like, but everyone else is even worse. Except for Fon, she’s cool. Yo is part of Kao’s team trying to win the contest and is played by Supachai Suwanon. I thought Supachai did a better job than the film's lead, but he had way less screen time. They are also with this girl Jane played by Gena Desouza who is just so-so. Then again, Gena has only been in 2 movies. We also get a bit of Fang Dhanantorn Neerasingh who plays Fon. I think her character was included other than to show the audience that being an influencer on social media is a kind of drab lifestyle off-camera, she spent a lot of time in Bangkok apparently. She ends up being the most likable person in the film. I am sure for a lot of influencers that’s true, but I am very sure that isn’t true for all of them. 

I have read a few reviews saying the characters are one-dimensional and that’s just a fact. The only one they even give a little bit of a backstory is given some flashback “look at my childhood” moments, but there is nothing of substance there. The flashbacks don’t give the character any depth. I also read some reviews where they were hoping this movie was like TREMORS, and although they do refer to TREMORS in the film, this really isn’t anything like that. The effects are pretty much in the B-movie range, but they are actually pretty effective even if they aren’t by any means realistic. Some also say the movie is boring, but that might be due to watching another version. This thing is listed as being 2 hours and 29 minutes long, but the version I watched was only 1 hour and 45 minutes. It really doesn’t have very much time to get boring. We are talking about a giant man-eating lizard here. It kind of reminds me of an updated THE GIANT GILA MONSTER throwback only updated regarding the effects. 

If I have to pick this thing apart a bit, I can say that the dialog is pretty garbage. Having said that, I fully expected it to be garbage. When you watch a B-movie, you kind of expect it to be subpar, so that way when the writing is actually amazing like in MAMMOTH, it’s a pleasant surprise. I also don’t love that there seems to always need to be at least one dude in these movies coming from overseas where they told some member of the voice cast to just sound as annoying as they could. We have to deal with this one character I can’t stand for 71 minutes. What are you doing to us? Why? Why do we have to deal with annoying voice guy for so long? Why is it even here? Just give him a regular voice. I am sure that voice actor can just do a regular voice. I am not trying to be mean or anything. In my entire life, I have maybe run into 2 people that had really interesting voices naturally, but that doesn’t bug me if it’s just your real voice. It bugs me when you hired someone to sound as annoying as possible on purpose. 

I actually dug this thing. It’s not overly convoluted. It’s a simple straightforward giant lizard flick and they even give this lizard a screech. It’s pretty cool. The lizard can even glide, what’s not to like? I thought this one was pretty fun.

THE BEAST BELOW gets a 4 out of 7. Better writing would have bumped up the score. 

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