The folks out at Lions Gate shipped me out a copy of Burning Bright to review, and frankly, I was starting to get worried about Lions Gate for a while there. Their entries in the direct to video horror market had been falling like a brick for months, but then they reminded me that, sometimes, quality beats quantity. And with Burning Bright, I got a great look at that.
Burning Bright follows college-age Kelly, who’s looking at a scholarship to go to college. But she’s got a problem–her mother recently committed suicide on a series of pills. And now, she’s got a twelve year old autistic little brother to keep an eye on, because she’s also got an irresponsible flake of a stepfather. Think a malignant Matthew McConaughey, and you’ve got a good idea of Kelly’s stepdad. Kelly’s stepdad also just spent the last of Kelly’s college money to buy a tiger for his safari park, which he’s planning to put in the backyard. This would be bad enough, except for the fact that Hurricane Isobel is bearing down on Kelly’s house. Hand it to Kelly’s stepdad–he’s just boarded the place up nicely against hurricanes. But the bad news is, somehow, the tiger found its way inside. And it’s in a mood for meat.
Burning Bright is simple, and yet, effective–it’s taking place almost entirely inside one house, and yet it’s putting out a whole lot of suspense and thrills. It’s a combination of claustrophobic and adrenaline-boosting, and it’s downright welcome.
Here’s the real kicker, though–there will even be some extra twists in here. Sure, in retrospect they’ll be a little obvious, but they’ll be welcome. It’ll go from tiger-fighting to being a bit more complex, and the added note of complexity is welcome.
It’ll get a little outlandish, and a little nonsensical toward the end, but it’ll still do a decent job and will look great in the process.
The Screenhead Ten Scale hands Burning Bright, the great little dose of suspense / horror, an eight out of ten. It’s not perfect, and I’ll never say it is. But it will do a nice job overall, and the score should reflect that.
