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.
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