When a has-been Hollywood producer accidentally kills his lead, he turns to a herbal elixir in the hope of saving his movie and career. The magic he unleashes brings a plague of blood-thirsty shapeshifters into Hollywood, in a tongue-in-cheek homage to Hollywood spin and eighties horror.
What depth and darkness the script doesn’t achieve on its own terms is well compensated for in the performances of a really strong cast. The likes of C Thomas Howell (The Hitcher), Leslie Easterbrook (The Devil’s Rejects), Ray Wise (Twin Peaks), James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China), and James Duval (Donnie Darko) are without a weak link in terms of comic timing, and personal and artistic despair anesthetised by Tinseltown lifestyles.
Sadly, whatever this movie wanted to say in its own voice about the sinister underbelly of Hollywood never quite reaches the strength it could. Ray Wise channelling Lynchian mindfulness and mysticism brings a belated strength of message, but also serves to fight among the different films Beast Mode wants to be. Never quite as comedic or horrific as it could become, the overall message of glamour and self-interest driving damaged artists and executives to self-destruction come across with greater depth and comedy in Bowfinger or Bojack Horseman, both of which create their own worlds where their scripts’ unkindest laughs are all served up with real points to make. The decade Beast Mode is set in feels often more like excuse for lazy characterisation, and its attempts at profound are left feeling hollow and glib, falling foul of the Hollywood tendencies it’s set up to satirise.
