Nonureva Really Surprised!

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

HansWind No, this one won't win any awards, but its not too bad either. Anyone who watches this kind of film from time to time has seen much, MUCH worse movies, acting and general film making... The plot is a near identical rip from the 1996 TV miniseries 'The Beast' staring CSI's William Petersen and Charles Martin Smith. If you like that, you'll like this... only less.

Leofwine_draca Movies about sea monsters have been ten a penny since, well, time began. JAWS helped revitalise the genre in the 1970s, forever banishing memories of campy '50s B-movie and making the monster actually FRIGHTENING. Since then, our screens have been deluged with octopi, giant squids, killer fish, piranha, made-up monsters of the deep, sharks, barracudas, you name it. This cheap television movie opts for the giant squid menace, a creature already tackled more than one, most prominently in THE BEAST, a '90s miniseries by Peter Benchley, the writer of JAWS himself. So why does EYE OF THE BEAST exist? To make a buck or two. I can see no other reason for this movie. It's a completely unoriginal, seen-it-all before offering. You know the story by heart: there's a series of unexplained deaths at sea. A scientist turns up to investigate, enlisting a pretty policewoman to help. More people die. The locals are reluctant to stop fishing and there's plenty of antagonism. Eventually, evidence reveals the existence of the creature and the locals go out to sea to kill it. Blah blah blah...It's pure hokum, not helped by the efforts of a less-than-impressive cast. I liked the Chilean actress playing the heroine, Alexandra Castillo, but that's about it. James Van Der Beek, from TV's DAWSON'S CREEK, is the hero, but he still feels like an out-of-his-league teenager to be honest: he commands no screen presence, offers no masculinity. There's a sub-plot involving racial tension between the white townsfolk and the native fishermen, but nothing is made of it other than some low-key tension. This was filmed in Manitoba, Canada, but there's little to distinguish the scenery from any dime-a-dozen monster flick. They had the chance to show off the locales but they blew it.So, does this film have any saving graces? A few. The special effects are decent, for once. There are some excellent CGI animations at the climax, when we get to see the beast in all its glory, and before then some nicely animated killer tentacles. I wasn't expecting any bloodshed – this IS a TV movie, after all – but there's a cool bit where a victim's arm pops off and we see some squirting blood from the de-tentacled monster. The main problem is that this never, ever, even once goes anything near 'scary'. It's just routine, seen-it-all-before, and eminently forgettable.

TheBigHouse ... Opening scene, a young girl on the water at night is taken by a huge, unseen animal from beneath the waves. She is soon reported missing but the small fishing town, desperate to hang onto its fragile economy, is eager to explain the accident away as a 'boating accident'. A young, bearded ocean expert arrives (on a boat) and is introduced to the town's sheriff who, while skeptical of the 'boating accident' theory, is up against pressure from the town. The ocean expert examines evidence, including mutilated remains of the female victim, and is convinced the deaths were predatory - but no one listens to him! When a second victim is taken in daylight on the beach, the town finally accepts they have a BIG problem lurking under the water, but when the sheriff closes the beaches and fisheries, the town is enraged. However, the bodies keep piling up, and the town's people soon realize they've been arrogant and shallow, and their lives are in real danger.The sheriff (who is also afraid of the water) and ocean expert join with an 'old man of the sea' on a fishing boat, and go out to face the giant beast alone, leading to night time battles where the beast 'goes under the boat' and is tracked with electronic devices, leading to a final showdown. The only difference is that, instead of needing a 'bigger boat', they are told 'we're gonna need 2 BOATS'.No, I have not just given you a plot outline of JAWS, but indeed 'Eye of the Beast'. It took these guys over 20 years to completely remake Jaws, with a squid, for TV. We all know the Jaws formula worked, but don't you want to deviate from it a LITTLE?!... Oh wait, they did! By suggesting the beasty had been lurking in the town's lake for over 20 years - it just decided to show up now and chomp people when James van Der Beek came to visit?!? A good 'so bad its good' monster movie. Van der Beek actually isn't bad.

TheUnknown837-1 Out of all the really bad science-fiction creature features that I see quite regularly on the Sci-Fi Channel, there are very few of which I can describe as descent. "Eye of the Beast" is one of those few that is surprisingly good enough to be called descent. The acting is fine, the screenplay is more intelligent than others I can think of, the special effects are better than expected, and since they are mostly shown at night, they are easier to believe. The creature is effectively not shown mostly until the end. Before then, we see nothing of it except for its tentacles (rubber, inflated) that lash out and grab onto people. The plot is kind of ludicrous. A giant squid SOMEHOW gets into a lake and SOMEHOW is not seen until now when it just decides to try human fresh off the docks, but still, it's a B-movie, so can cut it SOME slack. The characterization of the characters is very good, there are some very well-done dialogue and dramatic moments, and the music score really aids it. Ultimately, we have a climax that we really care about, speeches that are actually well-written and don't outstay their welcome (as they do in another B-flick called "Sasquatch Mountain"), and overall, "Eye of the Beast" is a very well-done creature feature. I recommend it for fans of its genre.