There have been countless horror films in which animals are on the loose and making meals of their human victims. There are so many films with this kind of plot that you can walk directly into any video retailer and have your choice of what kind of killer animal film you would like to watch. The problem with the major majority of them is that they are all pretty much low-budget stinkers. It is rare that you come across one worth watching. However, with this film, Burning Bright, you are in luck.
Getting its title from a William Blake poem, Burning Bright is about a killer tiger that hunts a young woman, Kelly, and her autistic twelve-year-old brother, Tom, inside their own home. Kelly’s Stepfather recently has purchased the Tiger for his safari park and is keeping the animal confined in a caged trailer. With a hurricane making its way towards the house, the Tiger escapes and makes its way in. In the manner of Stephen King’s Cujo, the tiger hunts Kelly and Tom in their boarded-up home leaving them very little room to escape.
My initial thought when I saw the DVD box cover was, “Not another killer animal movie!” The SyFy channel has been churning out killer animals films weekly for the past few years. These movies are so bad they simply have given the subgenre a bad name. Burning Bright is surprisingly good, with some very intensely shot scenes. In one such scene, Kelly is crawling up a laundry chute while the tiger stalks the room below her. We see the tiger from her point of view down the chute as the animal stalks the room trying to find its prey. It’s a very effective scene. The filmmakers opt to use suspense as a way of scaring the audience rather than using blood and gore. Don’t go into this one thinking you’re walking into a bloodbath. It is the suspense that drives this film.
The film stars Briana Evigan, Charlie Tahan, and Garret Dillahunt with a cameo appearance by Meat Loaf. It is very well-rounded, with some nice acting and production values and a good script. It is very similar in plot to Stephen King’s Cujo, but it has a unique sense of suspense that will leave you on the edge of your seat. If you are one who enjoys killer animal films, this is a must-see. Even I, who never have been a fan the subgenre, did enjoy this one.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
