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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