As with every unheard of slasher I see on cable, I expected nothing from Beware. Kids on a road trip, a crazy hick trying to warn them away, legend of an abused boy, etc. But when you start off a film with a couple getting shirtless in a parked car in the middle of nowhere and then getting ripped to pieces, I am so in.
Enjoy the man meat in the opening because it’s the prettiest you’re going to get here. The men in the main cast aren’t a bunch of studs, but they are a bunch of Latin actors! This is very rare occasion for a slasher. The ethnicity of the main group of kids isn’t the focal point at all, although there are a couple of suspicious comments from white folk in a small town, including a Menudo quip. Yawn. That old joke was used way back in the 80s on The Golden Girls!
Speaking of jokes, the odd thing about Beware is that the movie is very serious and dark in tone, yet there’s some pretty funny comic relief from a couple of dudes searching for pot. They add nothing to the movie except humor and a body count. They also sort of break up the monotony of all the character development of the main gang, which definitely goes on for too long.
But in the end, it’s all worth it. After their car breaks down, the kids hitch a ride with a local Latin chick and she brings them to her house to hang. We then learn the backstory of the boy who was supposedly chained to a tree in the woods by his father and how he became hungry for flesh….
As kids are offed in standard slasher fashion, we are brought to a dang good finale, with an intense chase scene, tense atmosphere, and plenty of gore. If you’re looking for a slasher you haven’t seen before, Beware is worth a watch. The curious thing to note is that the freaky killer is never unmasked in the movie, but each actor is shown during the credits, including the guy who plays the killer…without his mask on!
