Rating of
2/4
Survival of the Dimmest
Chris Kavan - wrote on 08/10/19
I will give this to main actress Karina Fontes, she is incredibly convincing as the clueless, in-over-her-head character - maybe too well. Body at Brighton Rock is a story of survival and perseverance as well as a story of incredible naivete, and one questions whether anyone in such a situation would act this unprepared - especially with a character that has some training.
The film presents the main character Wendy (Fontes) as a slacker in her job as a glorified tour guide at Brighton Rock State Park. She's late for work, she doesn't seem to take things too seriously and she offers to trade with her friend Maya (Emily Althaus) so she can scope out the cute boy in their group, it seems exactly like what her character would do. But it also means she has to cover a much more dangerous area of the park - something that is above her pay grade, but she does it anyway, the first of many questionable decisions.
Of course she drops her map, of course she gets lost and, as icing on this cake, she discovers a body (hence the title of the film) and she radios it in only to be told she is going to have to stay with said body overnight until the cavalry can arrive. You would think one night would be no big deal - even with a dead body - but the film makes this out to be a grueling, harrowing experience - and throws in some random supernatural angle for no good reason.
Wendy, despite obviously going through some kind of training to be even a novice tour guide, seems to revel in doing the exact wrong things at every turn - from pillaging the dead guy's belongings, to throwing away her radio to spraying herself in the face with bear mace (and wasting so much precious water trying to save her burning eyes). Hey, I get the situation isn't nominal, but she acts like it's this huge ordeal. There are two things that save this from being a complete turkey - the makeup effects on the dead body and the inevitable appearance of the bear (which is no spoiler because of the cover of the disc). The bear scene is pretty damn good, all things said - even if it's ruined at the end by the supernatural twist that is unnecessary.
The film wants to be a survival thriller, but the survival part is kind of lame and the thrills are few and far between - no matter how much the soundtrack tries to convey "creepy".
