A brother and sister prospecting for gold disturb some scary sea vampires.
For the longest time, I found it almost impossible to watch a Syfy movie because of the laughable cheese factor that accommodated it. As an indie filmmaker who has spent years trying to make movies that are believable, I found it next to impossible to watch a movie that was deliberately unbelievable. Why would a studio knowingly make a movie that was so far-fetched it simply defies logic, in every single facet of it? Well, I can sum that up in one word: “Sharknado.” That’s right. That little movie that seemingly came out of nowhere and attained cult status almost overnight and already has a sequel planned, aptly titled, “Sharknado 2: The Second One.” Well, after reviewing Syfy’s Halloween-themed “Zombie Night”, I was given another upcoming Syfy movie to review, titled, “Beast of the Bering Sea” (or “Bering Sea Beast”), whichever title they decide to go with.
Obviously, with a title like that which is supposed to take place off the coast of Alaska, I was expecting cheesy green screen effects of actors in a studio with a CGI Alaskan background added in later but lo and behold, they actually shot the majority of the film on location, which, in my opinion, adds a more realistic feel to the movie and for that, I applaud them. According to IMDb, the movie was shot on location in Slidell, Louisiana substituting for Alaska but they have enough stock footage of Alaska throughout that you wouldn’t notice the difference. And that’s a good thing.
In “Beast of the Bering Sea”, Cassie Scerbo (“Sharknado”) and Jonathan Lipnicki (the kid in “Jerry Maguire”) play a sister and brother team prospecting for gold, who accidentally disturb a colony of blood-sucking amphibious predators (sea vampires) in an underwater cave. Try saying that five times really fast. The movie also stars Kevin Dobson (“Knots Landing”). The overall quality of this movie was much better than most other Syfy movies I’ve watched. The acting, while not Oscar caliber, obviously, was sufficient enough for a Syfy movie. The producers even had the gall to steal a scene directly from “Jaws” where we find our scientist, Megan (Jaqueline Fleming) taking a stroll along the beach only to come across a corpse covered in sea crabs. Hey, if you’re going to steal an idea, steal from the best.
Our heroes accidentally realize that, like vampires, these beasts react to light but more importantly, they’ll die when UV light is shone upon them. As the film races towards its exciting finale, they inadvertently find out that a local fisherman has an indoor cannabis garden conveniently located in a hanger, which uses UV specific bulbs to maximize trichome production and which is directly situated on the water, right where the beasts originate from and they have to fight these beasts at night using said UV bulbs. I don’t want to ruin the movie for you by describing in detail what these hideous sea vampires look like, but just know, they have teeth.
Airs on Syfy November 9th
