BEHEMOTH (2011)

Ed Quinn

BEHEMOTH (2011 telefilm). Director: W. D. Hogan. 

Thomas Walsh (Ed Quinn) is a construction foreman working at Mount Lincoln in the small town of Ascension. There are constant tremors and a leakage of CO2 from the ground which kills one workman and threatens to endanger the entire town. Is a long-dormant volcano awakening? Geologist Emily Allington (Pascale Hutton), an old girlfriend of Thomas', is convinced that it is but another geologist, Jack (Ty Olsson), sent from the government, knows that the real truth behind the tremors is even worse. Just as Thomas' somewhat crazy father, William (William B. Davis), has been insisting, there's a gargantuan creature in the mountain that is about to break out and threaten the entire world. 

the creature pops out

Behemoth reminds one of a story from Atlas/Marvel's old monster comics like Strange Tales, where huge, frightening beasts roamed in all sorts of places. However, in Behemoth the science behind all this is never explained in any rational or logical fashion. Worse, when the monster finally breaks out of the mountain -- "it is the mountain," says one character -- its design is not much more credible than what you get in, say, the fifties creature feature The Giant Claw! The computer effects in the movie are variable, but one sequence when a humongous eyeball peaks out through a hole in the mountain is effectively creepy. The creature has many snake-like tentacles and a reptilian kind of beak with many teeth. 

Have a smoke? William B. davis

Behemoth does manage to have some suspense and a couple of good scenes, especially one when Thomas nearly falls off the mountain trying to retrieve a weapon left behind by Jack. However, the weapon itself, a kind of bazooka, is laughable when you consider it's meant to destroy a creature of such tremendous size. The actors, at least, are quite convincing in their roles. The only recognizable face belongs to Davis, who had a recurring role on The X Files as the "cigarette-smoking man." The sequences when he tries to escape from a sunken diner with the waitress Zoe (Jessica Parker Kennedy) quickly become tiresome, unfortunately. Cindy Busby and James Kirk are appealing as Thomas' pretty sister and her ill-fated boyfriend.

Verdict: Not as good as The Giant Claw but you can't have everything. **1/2.