This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2021) |
The Beast | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Based on | Beast by Peter Benchley |
Screenplay by | J. B. White |
Directed by | Jeff Bleckner |
Starring |
|
Music by | Don Davis |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producer | Peter Benchley Dan Wigutow |
Producer | Tana Nugent Jamieson |
Production locations | Patonga, New South Wales, Australia Sydney |
Cinematography | Geoff Burton |
Editor | Tod Feuerman |
Running time | 176 minutes |
Production companies | MCA Television Entertainment Dan Wigutow Productions Michael R. Joyce Productions |
Budget | $12,000,000 [1] |
Original release | |
Network | NBC |
Release | April 28 – April 29, 1996 |
The Beast is a 1996 television movie starring William Petersen, Karen Sillas and Charles Martin Smith. Aired in two parts as a miniseries, the movie is based on the 1991 novel Beast by Jaws author Peter Benchley. The film is about a giant squid that attacks and kills several people when its food supply becomes scarce and its offspring is killed.
It was filmed primarily in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.[ citation needed ]
The film begins with Howard Griffin and Elizabeth Griffin having a romantic night out on a yacht near the Pacific Northwest resort community, Graves' Point. After a freak occurrence causes the yacht to sink, the two are forced to head for shore in a lifeboat, only to be attacked and eaten by an unseen creature hours later. The next day, local fisherman Whip Dalton (William Petersen) finds the empty lifeboat and discovers a large claw stuck into the boat. Whip sends the claw to a university to be analyzed and it ends up in the hands of marine biologist Dr. Herbert Talley (Ronald Guttman), who comes to Grave's Point claiming it is from the tentacle of a giant squid. The island harbor master Schuyler Graves (Charles Martin Smith) hires Lucas Coven (Larry Drake) to kill the squid after both Whip's initial advice to leave it alone and several more deaths caused by the squid. Coven succeeds in slaying a squid and the carcass is promptly sold by Graves to Sea Land Texas owner Osborne Manning (Denis Arndt). The unmanned sonar detects another, much larger squid which remains unnoticed by the islanders.
When Whip and Talley are not allowed to see the squid to examine it, Dr. Talley organizes a submersible expedition to explore the squid's habitat. After analyzing the carcass of the dead squid, the scientists determine it is just a 37 ft (11 m), 2,000 lb (910 kg) baby of only three months. The information comes too late, however, and the adult squid, the baby's 66 ft (20 m), 3,000 lb (1.4 t) mother, attacks the submersible, killing everyone on board. Whip angrily blames Graves for the incident, which also resulted in the death of Christopher, Talley's assistant and boyfriend of Dana (Missy Crider), Whip's daughter. Graves then blackmails Lucas, threatening to shut Lucas down for illegal trap fishing unless he resumes the hunt for the adult squid. Dr. Talley explains to Whip that the giant squid is killing out of vengeance for the death of her offspring rather than hunger, and is now even more dangerous as a result.
Lucas resumes the hunt along with Whip's friend, Mike, and another crew member named Scranton (David Field). After enduring stormy weather they decide to head back to shore and continue the hunt the next day. The Squid attacks the boat before they make it to shore, devouring Scranton and knocking a cargo net on Mike, injuring him. It then attacks Lucas in the helm who fires a couple of shots with his gun at its tentacles. The squid then bites a hole in the hull. With water pouring in, it pulls the entire boat underwater, drowning Lucas. Whip, after learning that Mike went out to help Lucas comes to the rescue and, finding Mike holding onto a buoy, pulls him out of the water and takes him to the hospital. After hearing the squid came ashore one night, Whip then agrees to go out and hunt the giant squid but only if he can use his boat and Graves goes with him. He is also accompanied by coast guard officer, Lt. Kathryn Marcus (Karen Sillas), Dr. Talley, and Manning.
They plan to snare the squid, reel it in and shoot it multiple times with darts full of cyanide. The plan succeeds and the squid appears dead. But when the ship's engine breaks down, Manning reveals that he filled the darts with tranquilizer instead of cyanide so he could take the squid alive back to Sea Land. Graves tried to escape on a lifeboat as Whip cuts the squid loose just as it awakes. The squid soon chases down and kills Graves. Afterword's, it resumes the attack on Whip's boat, killing Manning and then jumping on the boat. It then grabs Talley and eats him. A coast guard helicopter arrives in time to pick up Kathryn and Whip. As he boards the helicopter, Whip fends the squid off with an axe, chopping open several extra fuel drums and has Kathryn use a flare gun to set his boat on fire. The squid is unable to escape as an explosion blows up the squid's beak and lower body, killing it. The helicopter flies them back to the shore where they reunite with Dana.
This TV adaption based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name is mostly faithful to the source material; but some changes were made for the sake of film locations and pacing. In the novel, the squid has much younger offspring which do not make an appearance until the end of the novel, and the titular squid is killed by a sperm whale, not by an explosion as in the movie. Many storylines and characters are added or changed in the TV adaptation. For one thing, the book took place in Bermuda while the movie took place in a Pacific North West community resort called Grave's Point. While still gigantic, the squid is smaller than portrayed in the book. While the movie has it at 66 ft (20 m) long, the book depicts the squid as being 100 ft (30 m) in length.
Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and are often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are often pictured threatening ships or spouting jets of water. The definition of a "monster" is subjective; further, some sea monsters may have been based on scientifically accepted creatures, such as whales and types of giant and colossal squid.
Anaconda is a 1997 American adventure horror film directed by Luis Llosa and starring Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, and Owen Wilson. It focuses on a documentary film crew in the Amazon rainforest that is led by a snake hunter who is hunting down a giant, legendary green anaconda. The film received generally negative reviews, though it became a cult classic. It was followed by a series of films.
Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid is a 2004 American adventure horror film directed by Dwight Little. It is a stand-alone sequel to the film Anaconda (1997) and the second installment of the Anaconda film series. The film follows a team of researchers set for an expedition into the Southeast Asian tropical island of Borneo, to search for a sacred flower which they believe will bring humans to a longer and healthier life. They soon become stalked and hunted by the deadly giant anacondas inhabiting the island.
Peter Bradford Benchley was an American author, screenwriter, and environmental activist. He is known for his bestselling novel Jaws and co-wrote its movie adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works were also adapted for both cinema and television, including The Deep, The Island, Beast, and White Shark.
The Son of Kong is a 1933 American Pre-Code adventure monster film produced by RKO Pictures. Directed by Ernest Schoedsack and featuring special effects by Willis O'Brien and Buzz Gibson, the film stars Robert Armstrong, Helen Mack and Frank Reicher. The film is the sequel to King Kong, being released just nine months after and is the second entry of the King Kong franchise.
The Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 were a series of shark attacks along the coast of New Jersey, in the United States, between July 1 and 12, 1916, in which four people were killed and one critically injured. The incidents occurred during a deadly summer heat wave and polio epidemic in the United States that drove thousands of people to the seaside resorts of the Jersey Shore. Since 1916, scholars have debated which shark species was responsible and the number of animals involved, with the great white shark and the bull shark most frequently cited.
The giant squid's elusive nature and fearsome appearance have long made it a popular subject of legends and folk tales. Its popularity as an image continues today with references and depictions in literature, film, television, and video games.
The Island of Dr. Moreau is a 1977 American science fiction horror film directed by Don Taylor, the second English-language adaptation of H. G. Wells' 1896 novel of the same name, following Island of Lost Souls (1932).
Mysterious Island is a 2005 television film made for Hallmark Channel that is very loosely based on Jules Verne's 1875 novel of the same name. It was filmed in Thailand and directed by Russell Mulcahy.
Patonga is a small beach side fishing and holiday village which is part of the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, located on the edge of Brisk Bay and near the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. It is part of the Central Coast Council local government area. Patonga is the southern most village of the Central Coast.
Jaws is a horror novel by American writer Peter Benchley, published in 1974. It tells the story of a large great white shark that preys upon a small Long Island resort town and the three men who attempt to kill it. The novel grew out of Benchley's interest in shark attacks after he learned about the exploits of Montauk, New York shark fisherman Frank Mundus in 1964. Doubleday commissioned him to write the novel in 1971, a period when Benchley worked as a freelance journalist.
The Giant Behemoth is a 1959 British-American science fiction action horror film directed by Eugène Lourié, with special effects by Willis H. O'Brien, Pete Peterson, Irving Block, Jack Rabin, and Louis de Witt. The film stars Gene Evans and André Morell. The screenplay was written by blacklisted author Daniel Lewis James with director Lourié.
Maligno is an ABS-CBN primetime horror-action-thriller which was the second installment of Sineserye Presents: The Susan Roces Cinema Collection. The show is adapted from the 1977 movie of the same name which starred Susan Roces who makes a guest appearance in the television program. It premiered from April 28 to May 23, 2008, replacing Palos, was replaced by My Girl.
Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep, also known as Deadly Water, is a 2006 television natural horror B movie produced by Nu Image Films and Brightlight Pictures as a Sci Fi Channel original film. It premiered on the Sci Fi channel on September 23, 2006. Directed by Tibor Takács and starring Charlie O'Connell, Victoria Pratt and Jack Scalia, the film focuses on a marine biologist and a sailor who join forces to find lost Trojan treasures while battling the giant squid who killed the sailor's parents when he was a child and a treasure hunting mobster; who wants the items for himself. The film was primarily panned by critics for the special effects, far-fetched plot and scarcity of scenes involving the titular creature.
Creature is a 1998 American television miniseries starring Craig T. Nelson, Kim Cattrall and Matthew Carey. It is based on the 1994 novel White Shark by Jaws author Peter Benchley. The miniseries is about an amphibious shark-like monster terrorizing an abandoned secret military base and the people who live on the island where it is located.
Moby Dick is a 2010 film adaptation of Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. The film is an Asylum production, and stars Barry Bostwick as Captain Ahab. It also stars Renee O'Connor, Michael B. Teh, and Adam Grimes and is directed by Trey Stokes.
Hellboy: The Wild Hunt is the ninth collected edition in Mike Mignola's Hellboy comic book series, the second of three connected story arcs written by Mignola and illustrated by Duncan Fegredo. Its eight chapters, collected in March 2010, were originally released from December 2008 through November 2009 as issues 1-8 of the Hellboy: The Wild Hunt limited series, also numbered as issues 37 through 44 of the continuing Hellboy series. The storyline delves into Irish and Arthurian legend, reprising several characters first introduced in Hellboy short story "The Corpse". As with Hellboy stories generally, it was published by Dark Horse Comics.
Cephalopod attacks on humans have been reported since ancient times. A significant portion of these attacks are questionable or unverifiable tabloid stories. Cephalopods are members of the class Cephalopoda, which includes all squid, octopuses, cuttlefish, and nautiluses. Some members of the group are capable of causing injury or death to humans.
Beast is a 1991 novel by Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws.
Eye of the Beast is a Canadian monster movie about a young scientist who goes to a small fishing town to find out why fish are not plentiful and ends up in a fight against a giant squid living in Lake Winnipeg. It is the 6th film in the Maneater Series.