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Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You!
USA 2012
produced by Matt Farley for Motern Media
directed by Charles Roxburgh
starring Matt Farley, Kevin McGee, Sharon Scalzo, Elizabeth M. Peterson, Jim McHugh, Kyle Kochan, Tina Kochan, Joanie Greenan, Chris Peterson, Jim Farley, Bryan Fortin, Milly Jensen, Nick Lavallee, Tiffany L'Heureux, Tom Scalzo, Jon Noble, Michelle Briand, Bill Reilly
written by Matt Farley, Charles Roxburgh, music by Matt Farley, creature design and special makeup effects by Greg Kochan
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Small Town, USA: Until a few years ago, Neil (Matt Farley) was
considered the best tutor in town - and then he fell from grace when he
claimed he saw the Riverbeast, a mythical monster roaming the local river.
The whole thing was blown out of proportion by a shady newspaperman (Kyle
Kochan) and actually led to Neil being left by his wife-to-be Emmaline
(Elizabeth M. Peterson) on wedding day. Neil has subsequently left town
... Now though, Neil has returned to face his past and start anew - and
it's not made very easy for him, as everybody remembers him and what he
has said, and subsequently he's considered a loser - but he's still a good
tutor, so he has a student in no time, unruly Allie (Sharon Scalzo) ...
who soon enough takes a (purely platonic) liking in her unconventional
tutor and decides to help him in his personal life and get back together
with Emmaline - not an easy task, considering she's engaged to a total
asshole (Nick Lavallee). Then though, murders start to happen, and since
many of the victims are people who Neil holds a grudge against (including
the newpaperman and Emmaline's fiancé), Neil becomes the prime suspect,
and he doesn't make things any easier by putting the blame squarely on the
Riverbeast - thus, Neil is arrested before too long. Allie though is
convinced he didn't murder anyone, so she tries to gather evidence to
prove his innocence - maybe not the best idea since there really is a
Riverbeast, and it's homicidal ... For a fan of vintage monster
movies, there's plenty to like about Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You!:
The lovely retro monster costume, the film's underlying (self-)irony, the
intentionally stilted dialogues, the world the film paints that so closely
resembles the world much of 1950's drive-in monster fare was set in, and
so on and so forth. However, Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You! is
by no means a perfect film: Basically, it feels a little over-long,
features quite a few too many subplots that distract from the
monster-story, and somehow, the film lacks any and all edges, everything's
much too harmless (even compared to 1950's drive-in standards) to really
leave a lasting impression. I'm not saying the movie's bad here, it just
could have been better.
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