Body at Brighton Rock, 1 Blu-ray

Save your money, folks. Seriously? $6.99 for this schlock? Id request a refund if that were possible.

Great bear attack scene

This movie had a few slow spots, but overall was pretty good.

Body at Brighton Rock (2019) is the first full-length feature film directed (and written) by Roxanne Benjamin, and it demonstrates that she is indeed a horror director to watch. Benjamin has also written and directed the “Don’t Fall” segment of the excellent all-female horror anthology XX (2017) and the “Siren” segment of Southbound (2015). Body at Brighton Rock features park ranger Wendy (Karina Fontes), who is not exactly cut out for the rugged task she undertakes when she agrees to switch shifts with her friend Maya (Emily Althaus) and head out on a trail to tack up warning signs. Untrained, and not taking the perils she’s warning tourists about seriously herself, Wendy finally gets lost after inadvertently leaving her map behind. Looking over the ridge shes on, Wendy sees what seems to be a dead body below her. After confirming the man is indeed dead, Maya radios to the park headquarters and dispatch tells her she has to stay where she is and protect the possible crime scene until they can send a group out to her. Since it’s already late in the afternoon, Wendy has to stay the night with the dead body. Already terrified by the desolate location and the body, Wendy is further unsettled by the appearance of a strange man who says he’s been out there for days, presumably hunting or hiking, but who doesn’t seem to have any equipment or the phone he says he usually carries. Something seems off about this man, but it’s unclear if, as viewers, we’re infected by Wendy’s increasingly unstable point of view. Panicking, Wendy tells the man to get away from her and the body, thus losing contact with a potentially helpful stranger. Now she does have to spend the night alone. I very much recommend Body at Brighton Rock. It’s a slow film that keeps you interested because of Wendy’s hapless character, played expertly by Karina Fontes, because of the dread that inexorably builds, and because of the breathtaking landscape. Benjamin offers shot after shot of Wendy utterly dwarfed by the land, heightening our sense of her terror. The film really pays off in the last fifteen minutes or so, which I absolutely loved. It’s a satisfying ending that the film has earned, as it pulls together lots of strands and clues that the viewer probably didn’t put together in the first viewing. It also delivers two truly shocking scenes and then a slow-dawning realization of something that terrifies in a quite different way. I have a full review of Body at Brighton Rock at my website HorrorHomeroom.com.

This movie wants to be a Regular person having to overcome major adversity type of film. However, from the get-go the main character is so inept that it verges on a comedy. It would make great drinking game, take a shot every time she does something stupid. The actress herself does an ok job, it is just the plot in general. The build up to main conflict had so many not likely to happen situations. There are far better versions of this type of movie out there. A more compelling plot would have someone competent to whom bad luck and chance whammy and then they must do what they can to survive. I was just waiting for her at some point to step on a rake that was laying on the ground or something. I am annoyed at myself that I actually paid to watch this, at very least would rather have spent money on jim harrison or Peter Matthiessen novel to send to screenwriter of this.

Low budget movie all the way around. Bad acting, thin plot and it looks like it was filmed in somebody’s backyard.

This movie is weird and low budget for sure! I personally did not like it but did have a good little twist at the end.

This limp thriller has a young parks employee, Wendy (Karina Fontes), heading out into the wild to post handbills along a hiking trail. At some point she wanders off the trail and gets lost; of course her cell phone charge dies shortly after she realizes this. In trying to find a spot where her walkie talkie will make a connection she discovers a several days old body. Eeuw. (I’m not being snarky; that’s approximately her reaction.) Now she has to stick around near the corpse until help arrives and deal with another hiker (Casey Adams) – maybe a murderer! – who insists on rummaging through the body’s clothes for identification. Oh, yes, and there’s a bear that – despite much being made of it on the case art – only shows up at practically the end of the film and (SPOILER ALERT) is easily sent packing. From the cheesy, computer generated opening titles (over some of the crappiest music I’ve ever heard) to, well, just about everything else, this film misses the mark and – except for really good photography – looks every bit as low budget as it likely is. It’s essentially supposed to be a study of a young woman finding out she’s stronger and more resourceful than she realizes but Wendy is such a whiner who comes off feeling very entitled that it’s nigh impossible to care about her (particularly as she makes bone-headed decision after bone-headed decision – not that the story could proceed without them). There’s a plot twist at the very end (no, I won’t spoil that) that seems pulled in from another movie. If it is really the point here I’ll just note that Rod Serling used to do this kind of thing more successfully and in one third the time.

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.

Its a good movie fun to watch, I liked it.