The Being
The Being
R | 18 November 1983 (USA)
The Being Trailers

Toxic waste dumping in a small Idaho town turns a young boy into horrible mutant monster. The town's police chief and a government scientist team up to stop the monster, which is quickly killing off the town's citizenry.

Reviews
Rijndri Load of rubbish!!
HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
hellholehorror Not a good transfer, either that or the source material was really bad. It just looked soft the whole time. The cinematography is messy and has nothing interesting about it. It looks really flat and dated. The visual effects are rubbery! The sound is poor, technically it is really bad. The dubbing is awful, the sound effects bland and the clarity murky. The music is dated and lacks the subtlety that we expect today. The story is non-existent! It's a nuclear monster killing people. It reminded me of fifties monster movies but it was in colour and had a small amount of violence. A cheesy old-fashioned monster movie that has camp value and little else.
Scott LeBrun "The Being" is must viewing for those fright film fans who delight in the cheap and the cruddy. As Leonard Maltins' paperback guide to movies has always succinctly put it, this is not just a B movie but a Z movie. It's got a few distinguished thespians slumming badly, crude direction by cult favourite Jackie Kong ("Blood Diner", "Night Patrol"), a routine and silly script, and enough hilarity to keep bad movie enthusiasts chortling for 82 minutes.Kongs' then-husband Bill Osco, the producer of this thing, also co-stars under the name Rexx Coltrane, as small town detective Mortimer Lutz, trying to solve the cases of missing people in his small town of Pottsville in Idaho. The culprit is a monster spawned by improperly "disposed" toxic waste, and it leaves gallons of slime wherever it goes. The perpetually cranky mayor (Jose Ferrer) doesn't want anything to hurt local business, while Garson Jones (Martin Landau), a scientist who is a fairly slimy one himself, does some snooping around.One is certain to smile watching the ineptitude play out as "The Being" tells its tale. One of the highlights is when two stoners watching a movie at a drive-in spot the creature and one of them utters an obscenity at it. Prompting the thing, of course, to devour him. The finale is great stuff, as Lutz goes through a hilarious amount of punishment while fighting the Being; this is one protracted battle. The effects are abysmal and audience members are certain to bust a gut when we finally get a good look at our antagonist. It's pretty suggestive looking, for one thing.One could savour the casting mix here: also among the people wasting their time here are Marianne Gordon (wife of Kenny Rogers at the time), Dorothy Malone as a woman desperately searching for her son, Ruth Buzzi as the mayors' annoying wife, comedians Murray Langston & Johnny Dark and author / actor Kinky Friedman as a trio of cannon fodder, Jerry Maren as the Being, and Kent Perkins (Buzzis' husband) as dopey Officer Dudley. The adorable tyke who gets too close to the Being at one point is played by Roxanne Cybelle, the daughter of Kong and Osco.Originally filmed in 1980 under the title "Easter Sunday", when capitalizing on the concept of holidays in horror was in vogue.This is a special kind of bad; my corresponding rating applies not to quality, obviously, but simple entertainment value.Seven out of 10.
veganluke The only reason I checked out this film and bought it on VHS is because I saw a poster for it in The Monster Squad. I thought that it was going to be really good, but no was I highly wrong. One of the worst 80's horrors I have ever seen. You don't see the monster enough, and when you do all your pretty much see is it's mouth or arms. The acting was very weak, the people didn't even seem like they were trying. Some of the gore was alright in this, but this was just a big let-down of a monster horror film. I found myself getting very bored when the same monster attack kept happening over and over again, and the victim always had the same reaction. There's some strange dream sequence at one point, that was so pointless and stupid and really didn't need to be in the film. A very bad disappointing 80's horror, that I really thought was going to be good. If you're ever thinking about watching this film don't bother!
Scarecrow-88 One eyed blob monster, a product of the usual toxic waste dumping(..as mayor José Ferrer put it so adequately, Pottsville was chosen by Industrial governmental scientist Martin Landau as "the most sophisticated dump site in the country."), with slobbery sharp teeth and terribly sensitive to light, attack the locals by wrapping it's lizard tongue around their throats, whisking them out of the camera frame. Sheriff Bill Osco, who dresses like a truck driver, even when at the town station, is to the rescue, ready to kill the monster if he doesn't bore him to death first with his non-performance and monotone voice. The blob monster could very well be the son of a haggard Dorothy Malone. Meanwhile Mayor Ferrer's wife Ruth Buzzi is having Easter egg hunts with the children, holding rallies against the new massage parlor coming to town supposedly advocating an arrival of filth to the community, and holding an opera within her home for a gathering of town folk. Marianne Gordon, who seems to escape the embarrassment in a low-key performance as a waitress and possible love-interest to Osco(..why she'd even be interested in someone as lively as a block of wood is anyone's guess), will be the woman in peril who would eventually walk Malone home and never be seen in the film again.Now, to take a moment to talk about Landau. I think we can use "The Being" as an educational tool on how a prominent actor, at the very bottom of his career starring in this cinematic equivalent of a toilet bowl with fresh smelly turds, can rise from the ashes like a Phoenix thanks to two directors, Woody Allen(..in probably the finest performance of his career, "Crimes and Misdemeanors")& Tim Burton("Ed Wood"). I actually think Ferrer, last seen in this film driving off, quite wasted and frightened after seeing the blob monster, plays his role a bit tongue-in-cheek as a constantly annoyed Mayor who just wants to grow his potatoes and make his little town a wealthy place to earn a spot in Washington. Buzzi, is and always will be, Buzzi..she is the busybody always organizing something, and is aggravating as ever. I imagine that those still populating drive-ins as this flick came out(..I'm guessing, temporarily)probably cheered when Buzzi was on her way out of the picture. I think Dorothy Malone is a sex icon thanks to her work with Douglas Sirk, specifically her delicious nymphomaniac in "Written in the Wind", but is handed a terribly thankless(..practically meaningless, if the script hadn't made her son the one effected by the toxic waste) role in this steaming pile.On Jackie Kong's directorial decisions come a narrative voice at the opening after a radio DJ tells us about rain showers and thunderstorms moving into the area, prophetically announces doom to the little town of Pottsville, Idaho. She also gives us a run-down at what the surviving characters did with their lives after the incident at Pottsville is over. The climactic showdown between the hilarious monster and Osco should earn some good laughs. This hunk of excrement will probably work the best for fans of rancid schlock. I did find the drive-in sequence near the beginning pretty fun..the movie playing equals "The Being" in quality which I find irony in. There's an attack scene where the monster, in gelatinous form, oozes from the air conditioning vents and radio to somehow kill a couple making out. It also puts an arm through a deputy holding his heart. Most victims, though, are pulled away by the thing. Best kill is probably the poor kid who tries to escape the monster getting his head removed.