Delivery, The Beast Within, Doesn't Deliver-A Review

M

When you want to make a horror film, you need to have within it a sense of not just suspense, but overall fright at the climax.
Delivery: The Beast Within did not deliver.
Why? Because it didn’t really give you an anchor to hold to with the film. The Exorcist had a point. The Omen had a point. Rosemary’s Baby had a point. The Amytiville Horror had a point. Paranormal Activity even has a point. With this film, what’s the point?
I’m gonna go with a Spoiler Alert on this one so if you want to find out for yourself what this film is, I would stop reading now.

Still here? Okay, good. Let’s get going.

Hand held camera footage all the way, it begins with the production setup of a reality TV series tracing a loving couple’s journey of preparing for their new bundle of joy. Everything you know how a reality show is shown on TV, this gives you the same feel. I was impressed. I had yet to see a horror film take it from that angle so Kudos to that concept.

But from there, things start to get a little out of hand. Rachel Massey, the expecting mother, goes through an ordeal by which she thinks she had just miscarried. Kyle, her husband, takes her to the hospital. After a false alarm, they go back home the next day. This is when strange things start happening in the house. Doors start slamming. An Armenian woman flips out in Rachel’s presence screaming “Devil” with a knife in her hand. They had to get out of there of course but it doesn’t stop there. Rachel starts having nightmares, the video cameras start getting very glitchy and pick up crazy demonic sounds in the audio stream. As time goes on, Rachel becomes less of herself and starts talking about a demon called Alestor who has come to possess the growing baby inside her. Kyle thinks she’s gone a bit bonkers and as usual the husband or father is the doubtful skeptic in this course of events. Of course there's also the family dog in the film which detects something strange as well. She even calls in a priest to bless the house and the baby by which it gets a bit ugly with the camera crew, Rachel’s mom and Kyle. She starts painting dark and foreboding oil paintings of Alestor.

The concept of reality show stops and it switches to unaired footage shown after Rachel’s death. Yep, they mention that she dies practically at the start of the film.

If things don’t get bad enough , signs of demonic possession start to take hold on Rachel. Kyle? Still doubtful, thinking she’s lost her mind. 

 
The birth finally happens in the house, Which was what Rachel wanted anyway via midwife assistance but it just gets very bad at the end as she gives birth.

I’ll leave the ending for anyone who wants to watch it, but I give this film 2 coffee cups and that’s only because of the creative take on the reality tv show thing. Aside from that, what ticks me off about this film is that there is no explanation as to why this happened to poor Rachel. The false alarm miscarriage was the turning point of something having happened, but what? We never know. It just is. I don’t like that. I like to know what’s in my coffee before I drink it. No explanation. No satanic cult praying, no messing with Oujai boards, no prophecy, nothing to hold to. Just that the demon’s name is Alestor. Yippie.

I like films with substance. I get that it’s a horror movie, but even the cheesiest low budget film can have a strong background as to why what’s happening is happening. This film showed promise, but fell in regards to the why of it. Perhaps there was no demon. Perhaps it really was all in Rachel’s mind. We’ll never know. I think it’s worth a watch but not worthy of my library.
What are your thoughts? Comment below and let’s talk.