Burning Bright

Burning Bright (2010)

Runtime: 86 minutes

Directed by: Carlos Brooks

Starring: Briana Evigan, Garrett Dillahunt, Charlie Tahan, Meat Loaf

From: Sobini Films

I heard about this movie earlier in the year. I’m not quite sure how I stumbled across its IMDb page, but I did and found out that basically, it’s about a young lady who gets trapped in her boarded-up house during a hurricane with her young autistic brother and the tiger that her stepfather bought from Meat Loaf in order to start up a safari ranch in Florida escapes and they have to hide from it.

From reading THAT unusual of a plot synopsis, it definitely caught my interest. Not that having a different plot really means too much, except for originality points. After all, stuff like Orphan or the 80’s sleazy classic Sleepaway Camp (with its rather shocking plot twists) is good stuff in my eyes, while the entirely original I Know Who Killed Me-the Lindsay Lohan movie I actually saw on the big screen-was awful in many different ways.

Then, I heard some rave reviews for this movie (titled after poet William Blake's The Tyger; I'm not sure what else a movie like this could be titled unless it was something like Tiger in a House) and it made me want to check it out real soon. It came out this past Tuesday but the two copies at the local Blockbuster were rented out so I had to wait until last night to pick it up. Admittedly, the rather attractive Briana Evigan as the lead wasn’t a bad reason in of itself to see the movie. Her spending a lot of her screentime wearing either PJ shorts or (briefly) a pair of panties matched with a tight white tanktop was not something I complained about while watching the movie… or the random close-ups of her butt or her cleavage.*

When I saw the movie I saw that the reviews (crude comments about the lead aside) were correct in its praise for it. I’m not quite sure how myself but the movie works very well and it is much better than it may sound and is far from being a typical crap no-budget horror/thriller/chiller/whatever.

What I said about the plot above describes things pretty well, but to flesh out a bit, stepdad Johnny (Dillahunt) buys a tiger for the safari park that he wants to start up, the old house that he and his now deceased wife used to live in being where the guests would stay for the night. The dad isn’t a very nice person, to say the least. Through events that I won’t get into (but probably won’t be much of a surprise once you see it) the tiger ends up in a boarded up house with no escape with Kelly (Evigan) and her younger autistic brother Tom (Tahan) stuck inside while a hurricane takes place.

Like I said, this movie manages to work and you believe it, despite a plot that may sound stupid on first description. Once the action starts, it never lets up and it’s very tense and suspenseful, with some surprises and jump scares (but the good kind) thrown in too. The autistic brother seems to have a pretty intense case of it, so having to hide and run away is even more difficult with a young tyke who usually stares off into space or gets mad when his set routine gets disrupted. You’d be surprised at all the different situations that can happen with two young people, a large house, and a man-eating tiger. Also, Kelly isn’t a dumb heroine and she tries various things to try and escape, including one bit out of another recent film involving a tiger in some form, but unlike there it doesn’t work quite as well here, but at least she tried, right?

Two things help make this a gem and something that you should see. First off, actual tigers are used (3 of them portray Lucifer, the tiger on the loose, and you should expect trouble if an animal has that name) instead of the awful looking low-budget CGI that you see on channels like Sci Fi (I won’t call it by its new dumb name) which look SO fake it ruins the movie right then and there. Then again, most of the giant/killer animal movies they have on there are just terrible without the special effects with the most standard and predictable of stories. The script for this movie is far better than that, trust me.

Secondly, the acting job done by Briana Evigan. She ended up doing a great job here, and you actually believe that the scenario you see here could happen, and you also believe the relationship she has with her brother and how it’s a pain in the ass at times dealing with him but yet she still loves Tom. It’s definitely more than her just being eye candy and running around all sweaty and not wearing much in the way of clothing. It’s that good of a performance, I say.

Lord knows there are countless thousands of movies that get released every year and many of them slip through the cracks. Much of those movies are worth slipping through the cracks, but this one should not suffer the same fate. Give it a try from Netflix or Blockbuster or what have you. Hopefully you'll think the same way that I do.

• Lest you think I’m being a pig for noting this… if you find what I said to be rather crude, you’d better stay away from some of the other reviews that there have been for this movie, which has mainly been from “sites” which are actually fancier versions of the Blogger page I have here. Actual film critics who get their reviews published in newspapers, they are not. Some of the things that they said about Ms. Evigan included that “she should have been naked for the movie!” or “the only way I could hook up with her would involve rope and roofies!” I swear, it’s true. Yikes. Talk about creepy. I don’t seem like quite the pig in comparison.

I'll be back Sunday afternoon with a new review.