The Being (1983)

Being a monster

One the best low-budget horror film. Effects are not bad for its time. Directed by the great Jackie Kong, the guy who gave us Blood Diner. March 18, 2008

Terrible and not in a good way

When it comes to cult movies you'll be hard pressed to find a bigger fan than me. While I do enjoy mainstream movies ever since I was a child I always favored cult flicks. What most seem to write off as trash I see the greatness in. But The Being was pretty much for me a complete waste of time. I do understand the appeal; again being a fan of cult cinema I normally like these movies, but The Being was just flat out bad.

I wasn't expecting a brilliant masterpiece; I was expecting a cheesy low budget horror flick that could be classified as the so bad it's good. But instead I simply got a so bad its bad movie. The gore level was actually kind of low. The first murder scene had decent blood flow, but nothing great. Than later a cop gets punched through the back. Not as cool as it sounds believe it or not. Most of the kill scenes are off camera and that is a major letdown. All I wanted was a gory good time, but got a gore-less bad time.

The Being marked the feature film debut by writer/director Jackie Kong and its quite amazing she managed to get anymore work after this. This was her debut, but it was a terrible one. As a filmmaker I hate to trash other filmmakers. It's really not an easy job, but this movie was just an all out hack job. The script was terrible; nothing the characters say is very interesting, which I sort of expected. It was just bad writing and not in an entertaining way. As a director Kong, is even worse. There is no sense of pacing or anything.

The Being was produced and starred Bill Osco who used the name Rexx Coltrane. He also happens to be married to Jackie Kong. Osco had previously been involved in the porn industry and quite honestly maybe he should have stayed there. The one really odd thing is his voice for whatever reason was dubbed and it was dubbed by Stacey Keach. Stacey Keach is actually a very good actor, though he's done his fair share of lousy movies. Keach probably needed the money. He just says the dialogue. There is no emotion at all put into any of the lines.

The Being does have some once popular actors and best known among the bunch are Dorothy Malone, Jose Ferrer and none other than Martin Landau. All must have been rather desperate for work to appear in this movie. I'm willing to bet Landau never mentions this movie.

For me, The Being was pretty much a total waste, the 2nd half of the movie has some fairly decent moments. And what I mean by that is they are so bad they actually sort of work. But really with the exception of a scene or two everything is just bad. By the end I was barley paying attention. The gore level is low, most of the kills off camera and not even entreatingly bad. I can't say I recommend this, but while I hated the movie I do get the appeal it has. Watch at your own risk.
December 5, 2007

Fantastic B-Horror with Martin Landau!!

The Being is not a great movie. It's not even a really good movie. But as an absolutely enjoyable, laugh-aloud funny, cheesy B-level horror movie, this is possibly unbeatable!! Martin Landau is at his scenery-chewing best and gets to explain to viewers (as a government-hired expert on such things) how dumping radioactive waste into the local town water supply has no harmful effects (!!!) There are scenes which need to be watched repeatedly to get the full value of the humour out of them. If you enjoy other such movies in the B-grade (or Z-grade) horror category, and enjoy a laugh, then this is Very Highly Recommended!!

Also for fans of Martin Landau horror flicks, check out; Alone In The Dark, The Fall of The House of Usher, The Return, and Without Warning. January 28, 2007

"being"so bad it's good

i have to be fair this is really a fun movie to me. it's cheesey, and just bad, but i think it's the funniest movie i have seen in a while. martin landau still years away from oscar gold in "ed wood" must have really needed a job to even be seen in this one, and i'm sure he really loves the fact that thanks to dvd we can see the movie in all it's cleaned up widescreen glory.
oh kay here we go , the town of pottisville, idaho has been having some problems of late. it seems like after the toxic nuclear waste dump came to town strange things have been happening like, people go missing, it rains a lot, thunders a lot, a women runs around in her robe calling for "mike" or something like that,ruth buzzi becomes the mayors wife, a porn shop maybe opening up on main street, kenny rogers wife works at a dinner, the cheif of police is so bad an actor that they have to have james keach the brother of stacy, husband of "dr. quinn", and producer of "walk the line" dub his lines, and, well you get the idea, things are bad.
WOW, now you know as much as i did when i saw it we think, but don't know, that mike or what ever his name is, is now our monster, maybe.?? really thats about it but for some reason i find this movie so very funny that i'm laughing as i type this review. nothing about this film is good, but it is funny because of that. everyone acts like they think this might really be good.
well you have been warned, but if you give it a chance, in the right frame of mind this is a very funny horror movie, just have fun with it. March 15, 2006

the uninportance of "The Being"

any movie that starts in the middle can't be oscar worthery the lead actor's voice is dubed by James Keach (not sure if spelling is right), brother of Stachy Keach (see above),husband of "Dr. Quinn", and producer of "Walk the Line". I did enjoy ruth buzzi's death scene tho!!! Still i did find it very funny and great for a bad movie night with friends!!! (talk back to the screen as much as you like) December 6, 2005

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