The Beast Within

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The Beast Within is a 1982 horror film directed by Phillipe Mora. Screenplay by Tom Holland, based on the novel by Edward Levy. Starring Ronny Cox, Bibi Besch, Paul Clemens, L.Q. Jones, Don Gordon, R.G. Armstrong, Katherine Moffat, Meschach Taylor. 98 minutes, Rated R.

[edit] Plot Summary

While driving through Mississippi on their honeymoon, Caroline and Eli MacCleary (Bibi Besch and Ronny Cox) are stranded on a deserted road when their car breaks down. Eli is forced to walk several miles down the road to a service station they stopped at earlier to get a tow. While he is gone, Caroline is attacked and raped by a mysterious creature.

17 years later their son Michael (who was conceived as a result of Caroline's rape) has become gravely ill, and the doctors have no idea what is causing the sickness, only that a pituitary gland has gone out of control. Theorizing that the sickness might be genetic, Eli and Caroline finally confront the past and return to the small town where she was attacked to hopefully discover some information about the man who assaulted her. The local townspeople are reluctant to help, with both the newspaper editor and the town judge brushing aside their questions. But then Eli and Caroline hear a story about a local man who was murdered 17 years earlier, his body partially eaten and his house almost burned down.

Meanwhile Michael has escaped from the hospital and returned to the same town, unbeknownst to his parents. His personality undergoes a frightening transformation, and he quickly begins to attack and kill specific people in the community, including the paper editor and the local mortician, both of whom were related to each other.

After several more revelations, including the discovery of a swamp filled with bodies whose bones show signs of having been gnawed on, Caroline and Eli finally discover the terrible truth about the creature that attacked her those many years ago. And what's worse, it appears that the creature is about to be reborn through Michael, and its murderous actions are the direct consequence of a carefully concealed secret.

[edit] Additional Info

The film is a very loose adaptation of Edward Levy's 1981 novel. The screenplay was written by Tom Holland, his first feature film script.
It was dismissed by critics upon release as being cheap and exploitative. In more recent years it has gained a cult following.
In addition to acting, Ronny Cox also sang some of the country music that can be heard throughout the film.
The Beast Within is also the title of one of Madonna's songs. The song is a narration of some of the text from the Book of Apocalypse, the Bible. The song came out in 1990, and was recently performed at her 2004 tour The Re-Invention tour.