Beast of Bray Road Movie Not a Crypto-Study

No Crypto-angle in Beast of Bray Road Movie on Sci Fi Channel on Saturday, July 15, 2006, at 9 PM EDT

A Guest Blog by Linda Godfrey

Well, it isn’t the worst slasher/monster movie ever made, but that is about all I think this movie boasting it is "based on a true story" could claim for itself. A cryptozoological study, it is not.

And please let me make it clear again, I had absolutely nothing to do with it, other than inadvertently providing them an already publicized title to use without permission (granted, you can’t copyright a title), and the context of a werewolfish creature in the small town of Elkhorn, Wisconsin.

If you enjoy Hollywood depictions of seeing human beings ripped apart, mangled and eaten in as many different ways as possible, you will like this movie. Never mind that in the dozens and dozens and dozens of witness reports I’ve now recorded from all over Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and other states, not one person has reported so much as a scratch from this creature, although the Manwolf often was in a position to do some harm if it had wished. The standard discovery scenario for the actual creature seems to be startle, intimidate, and escape. Elkhorn did not have a spate of missing persons around the time of the Bray Road reports, either. This is all fictional hogwash in the movie.

I also object to the portrayal of everyone from Elkhorn as beer-guzzling, foul-mouthed, tattooed hicks. Certainly we have people who fit some or all of those categories to some degree, but so does New York City. The typical Elkhornian is just your average, Middle American small town resident. If anything, we are probably more urbane than people would expect, since much of the population has come from the affluent Chicago suburbs in recent years. We are located only an hour between the cities of Madison and Milwaukee, and have some of the best restaurants anywhere.

I do understand why someone wanting to make a horror movie about The Beast of Bray Road would want to fictionalize it. It’s tough to create horror where there is none. You pretty much have to make that part up. I only wish they would stop saying it’s based on a true story (if so, then they had better pay the publisher for movie rights), and that they hadn’t portrayed Elkhornians in aggregate as a white trash werewolf smorgasbord. The poor acting makes it hard to even feel sorry for any of the people who are pulverized and eaten. You want to hand the creature some salt and pepper.

Predictably, I recommend you read the book and its sequel, Hunting the American Werewolf, instead. I think fact is always scarier than fiction.

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Linda Godfrey’s blog is available at her Beast of Bray Road website.

Visit there to read more on what she has to say about the illustrated Hippie Bigfoot (below).