His Star Wars helmet was that big!
Our Thankgiving film this year was Eye of the Beast (2007), which is definitely a second, or even third, echelon movie. Dr. Dan Leland is a young marine biologist investigating why the fish catch keeps shrinking in Canada’s Lake Winnipeg, arriving just in time over the latest disappearance to occur, that of young folks Krissy and Robbie. They’re not so worried about the missing as when actual bodies show up, so there’s time to show how local fishing folks detest folks like Dr. Leland, who they see as an interfering busybody. As a heaping addition of provincial scorn, local Indigenous people also view Leland suspiciously. We need some sexual tension? OK, the local law enforcement officer happens to be an attractive young lady. That keeps Leland interested.
Then Robbie’s boat, now reduced to a wreck, floats into the picture, along with Robbie himself, and we have ourselves a body and evidence. What could be down there eating fish and the occasional human snack? Well, I was voting for carnivorous hippos, since they’ve already migrated to South America courtesy of the drug trade, but I was outvoted. So the plot meanders along, finally reaching the end after reducing quite a few more folks into fish food and, somewhat cleverly, oh, well, that would be telling.
It’s a clumsily told story. For example, an innocent tourist is killed, but it’s nothing more than a killing that doesn’t do anything for the plot. Or a scientist working for the commercial firm that sent Dr. Leland tries to call him, but upon failure neither leaves an important message nor is ever shown again? Why?
Of course, you’ll see this if being a completist monster movie viewer is important to you. Otherwise, don’t bother.
