Beast Beneath

This movie goes back and forth between horror and "teen quest" with the main characters trying to solve the mystery of an old family map. Overall the story is as good a reason as any to have a monster running around and the main characters are played well. The flashback sequences are excellent. They almost seem to be from a higher budgeted movie, but it may just be that "period piece" footage tends to look more polished when done correctly.

The creature itself isn't show stopping, but he's tough customer and shown sparingly enough to come across well. I like my monsters movies with a monster in them and this one delivers. The beast even has a purpose, although it seems to deviate from its motivation from time to time.

The wrap around story is completely unnecessary to the telling of the tale, with the possible exception that it was needed for feature length run time. The movie also suffers from a common horror movie shortcoming of not knowing it's over. Footage that would been have better used as credits overlay or extra material is used within the movie.

Overall, if you can't get enough of monster movies and SyFy's CG monstrosities are leaving you cold, give this one a spin.