Beware (1999) — Triskaidekafiles

BEWARE

WRITERS: Jason Daly, Jared Depasaquale, Kevin Brennan, and Steve Bucherie

DIRECTOR: Jason Daly

STARRING: Raina Lake as Raina
Jared Depasquale as Chase
Jason Daly as Tim
Luciana Depasquale as Diane
Phil Dejesus as Rick
Steven Bucherie as Steve
Kevin Brennan as Shane

QUICK CUT: A group of friends spend some time in a family cabin, and relationships are tested.

THE MORGUE

Chase - A young man who has access to a cabin in the woods, and brings his friends up there to hang out for the weekend. He’s a loyal friend, and looks out for others close to him, even if he’s not afraid of causing a little trouble from time to time.

Tim - Chase’s best friend, and he also has a crush on Raina. He’s easily jealous, but is always there for his friends.

Raina - Tim’s crush, and Rick’s girlfriend. Very much the girl everyone was into in school, and has a bit of a takes no shit attitude, after a point.

Rick - Honestly, a bit of a dick. He’s barely in a relationship with Raina, and has a reputation for being obnoxious, and flirting with other girls.

Shane - A local urban legend who was forced to grow up alone in the woods, fending for himself. He is emotionally stunted, violent, and just really needs a hug.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! This week, we are going classic, and simple, with a fairly straightforward slasher. Many of the tropes are here, there's a lot of familiar ground, but still, there's something about the 1999 film Beware that sets it apart. I got ahold of this movie recently in a triple pack of films called "Shoestring Slashers". I'm sure you can see why that caught my eye. But those other movies are for other days, so let's get into Beware.

The movie starts off as a hunter is wandering the woods, and he crunches on a sign that, when he clears off the dirt and leaves, has BEWARE scrawled on it. He wonders what he's supposed to beware of, and oh, you should not have asked.

Let's cut to the chase here, he quickly becomes the hunted when our masked killer shows up. We will learn soon enough this killer is named Shane, but more on him later. I don’t feel like dancing around using his name before we know it.

Shane showcases his brutality by then finding a rabbit, grabbing it, and ripping it in half, spraying blood everywhere. Just in case you didn't get it.

Little bunny Foofoo, hoppin; through for f…OH MY GOD.

We then meet most of our main cast, heading up to Chase's aunt's house in the woods, to get away from it all. It's your usual drive into the middle of nowhere and get to know the characters stuff.

They arrive at the cabin and get settled in, and wait for the lone straggler, Rick, to show up. Tim goes to set up the generator, and spills all the gas when a cat jumpscares him. Gotta love the classics.

We spend a lot of time establishing that Raina and Rick have a rather rocky relationship, mostly due to Rick spending a suspicious amount of time with his exes. This isn't helped when Rick doesn't come with them in the truck, and instead makes his own way to the cabin. When he finally arrives, this tension is finally underlined when the couple has an argument.

After picking out their rooms, everyone gathers around the firepit, and Chase settles in to tell everyone the origins of local legend, Shane. The story starts with Hank, Shane's father. Exceeept...Hank finds out his wife had an affair, and Shane isn't REALLY his kid.

Hank took the child, dragged him outside, and tied him to a tree, where the mother had to sit and listen to the child crying for help all night long.

But then things go from worse to terrible, as Hank takes the kid deeper into the Florida forests, builds a rough shelter for the kid, and chains Shane to a tree with heavy chains and manacles. He'd visit from time to time, bringing the kid occasional food and water, and torment him. Partly to punish the kid, and partly to torment the mother.

The only thing that kept Shane alive, was his half brother, Hank's actual son, who would sneak out there, knowing full well if he was caught, it would be the death of him. He brought Shane what little food he could, and companionship, for whatever it was worth.

Unfortunately, Hank did catch his son, and Shane was left to fend for himself, with no more help from anyone.

And then, the killer revealed herself, and it was the girl from the Noxema commercials…

That would have been the end of the story, but Chase continues, with a trio of kids who wandered into the woods, and found Shane's hovel. They noticed the chains, and stayed just out of reach to taunt and tease him.

One of the guys gets a little too drunk, and gets a little too close, when he goes to Shane's clubhouse, and relieves himself on the wildman.

Shane, naturally, does not take this lying down and snaps the guys neck. The girl in the group wakes up the other guy, and he hurries to try and do something. Anyways, Shane makes quick work of the other guy, breaks free in the process, and runs off deeper into the woods.

Now that he was free, Shane heads home, and kills his dad, taking his clothes. I guess he’s the man of the house now. Which is at least an upgrade from the burlap sack he grew up in.

We finish story time, and break things up a bit, with Shane finding a pair of guys we saw joyriding earlier. Like he tends to do, Shane kills them as well, keeping the body count rising.

Back at the cabin, tensions are high, because Rick is a Dick, and Tim is getting surly and wanting to do something. A little bit of red herring spreading, I guess.

So, the group watches a "rock video" Chase made with Tim, while Steve and Diane play some bedroom games. Possibly to make a video themselves.

However, they never get the chance, as the generator goes out, as predicted. Tim and Raina head out to get gas and some smokes for Rick.

Steve heads out to poke the generator, and gets it started back up. Unfortunately, he also gets a hammer to the face. Shane then heads inside and kills Diane,

You will not believe the deal I got on these blank VHS tapes, because everyone is buying DVDs now.

While they wait, Rick continues to be a dick, and Chase has enough. He banishes the guy to the trailer, and ultimately his death at the hands of Shane.

At the gas station, we get some comic relief, and a VERY late harbinger, who warns Tim to git out of town. A bit straightforward for a warning, but hey, he's late to the movie and didn’t have time to prepare.

Back at the cabin, Chase kills time by taking a shower, in a fun little inversion of the horror movie trope. This time, it's a little something for the ladies.

Meanwhile, Tim settles in for his exile in the camper, complaining all the way. He gets fed up with his accommodations very quickly, and goes to bully his way back into the house.

Outside the camper though, he runs into Shane. Rick assumes it's just a prank, but is very quickly dissuaded from that notion.

In fairness, Rick gives one of the better struggles. He lands a few punches, a few roundhouse kicks, and survives longer than anyone else so far.

He grabs a bat, which Shane quickly catches when Rick tries to swing it at him. And unlike Rick, Shane actually connects with the bat, in a rather spectacular splat. Shane is no invading alien.

The other two get back from the gas station, and can't seem to find anyone. Well, anyone alive at least. They quickly find their friends’ dead bodies scattered around the house.

Raina sees Shane out a window, and the pair scramble around the house to close and bar all the doors.

However, they are not quite quick enough, and the guy just uh...comes in the front door. Clearly he's no Jason, or he would have just walked right through it.

The killer knocks out Tim, and Raina hides, at least for a few seconds. Shane quickly finds her, and drags her back into the house, because we have a conclusion to build up to here.

He throws Raina around the kitchen a bit, and that's when Chase remembers he's in the movie. It looks like he's gonna save the day until...

OOPS, he's actually Shane's brother from the flashback story, all grown up! It's a decent reveal, since you're probably not thinking of it, either as a possibility, or the campfire story happened so long ago.

The nice little twist of it all though, is this wasn't some plan to lure people out there for Shane to kill. Chase just wanted to find his brother, and bring him home after all these years, and the group just ran afoul of the wild man. I kinda like that.

Chase has his brother take Raina outside, to take her with them, as they figure out their next step. He then grabs a shotgun, and as he's heading out, oops, Tim wakes up.

The pair fight over the gun, just as Shane walks back inside, and takes a shotgun blast to the gut. Chase goes for revenge, and the pair fight through the house, in a very fun sequence.

It all culminates when Chase gets smashed into a window, and we find out he's been wearing a wig this whole time, to hide an earlier scar his father gave hin, that had established in the backstory.

The two continue to trash the house, until finally Chase throws some gasoline on his former friend, and cracks him over the head.

Chase pours more gas over Tim, and gets out a lighter, to do him in. Before he can do the deed though, Raina shows up with the shotgun.

Shane's brother is cocky and sure that the girl isn't gonna shoot him, but he decides, fine, we'll all just walk out the door and go our separate ways. Maybe continue this some other night.

He turns to leave, Raina cocks the gun, and blasts him right through the door, in a hilarious over the top blast.

Everyone picks themselves up and get ready to drive off into the sunrise, and they discover, in true slasher movie fashion, that Shane has gone missing, despite being shot in the gut.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: Not bad, all things considered. Typical look of a low budget indie movie shot with whatever they had available. Everything is clear though, and it adds a bit of charm.

Audio: It’s about what you’d expect from this level of budget, but everything is audible, which is a plus.

Sound Bite: “You've got heart...and a really nice ass."

Body Count: A small cast, but most of them end up dead.

1 - Just after four minutes, a random hunter meets his end on the end of a branch and the front of a machete.
2 - Shane snaps the pisser's neck
3 - And then one of the other campers
4 - Then Shane hangs up his father
5 - One of the joyriders gets poled through the gut
6 - And then it goes straight through his friend
7 - Steve gets shears in the chest
8 - Diane gets slayed in the bedroom
9 - Rick gets beaten with a baseball bat
10 - Chase kills a cop off screen
11 - Tim shoots Shane in the gut
12 - Chase gets shot in the gut

Best Corpse: Rick’s beating is both well done and nicely bloody.

Blood Type - B+: There’s quite a bit of blood with each kill, and decent effects on most of them.

Sex Appeal: Brief moments of nudity, with the highlight being naked shower Chase.

Drink Up! Every time Rick is a jerk

Movie Review: Now, there is a chance - a tiny tiny chance - a lot of this movie sounds familiar, because Jason Daly remade the film roughly 10 years later, in 2010. We might swing back around to that one some day. It might be fun to check out Daly’s evolution and growth. But back to this movie. This was a delightful surprise. Like I said, there isn’t so much new here, but it is nice when things are well executed, and on a budget. Slasher movies shouldn’t be big budget affairs. You shouldn’t need a ton of cash for “man stabs people in the woods”. This is very well made for the budget, and well directed. It sags a little in the middle with a few too much flashback to Shane’s backstory, and there’s some weirdness with cops drifting in and out of the story, due to actor availability, but that’s the danger of low budget films shooting on weekends. The twist was a nice surprise, since I wasn’t looking for it, and “evil Chase” is a lot of fun. Owning the house and having full permission to do whatever gave them a lot of reign to trash the place, and they threw themselves into it. Sometimes, you don’t need a movie to reinvent the wheel, you just need something to do it’s job well. Not a must see movie, but definitely worth seeing, especially if you’re into low budget movies. Four out of five glass shards in the skull.

Entertainment Value: The kills are pretty creative, with some decent blood, and even if they’re basic, they have a good energy to them. There are moments of genuine shock, that put a smile on my face. The wildly out of nowhere bunny kill. The twist. And some nice scenery chewing by Chase towards the end. The movie drops in moments of humour that feel like they only come from a group of friends who know each other this well. Again, nothing so much original, but there’s enough stuff unique to this movie that set this above your average slasher. Three out of five baseball bats.