Mount Lincoln is near the sleepy little town of Ascension. Recently there have been some strange things happening on the mountain. Rumblings and strange noises have been felt and heard. What appear to be earthquakes are rattling the mountain and the town. On the mountain are two government agents taking readings, Agent O’Neil (Marsha Regis) and Agent McKewan (Shaw Madson). One of the earthquakes sends down a shower of rocks. Agent O’Neil is killed instantly, and Agent McKewan is mortally wounded. In his possession is a vital piece of equipment, a weapon. Another government agent, Jack Murray (Ty Olsson) is sent to find the weapon.
Thomas Walsh (Ed Quinn) runs a construction company. During one of the quakes a tree limb falls and hits Joe (Michael Adamthwaite), one of his workers. He is injured and Thomas decides to take him to the doctor’s. While putting him in the truck Thomas realizes that Joe is dead. The earthquakes have released carbon dioxide gas that is hanging low to the ground. The gas killed Joe in a matter of minutes.
Thomas’ father, William (William B. Davis) has been researching strange events that have been happening and has come to the conclusion that an ancient creature that lives in the core of the Earth is waking up and will result in the destruction of mankind. Thomas, and his sister, Grace (Cindy Busby) believe his mental acuity is not what it should be and that he just needs to resume taking his meds. William turns out to be right.
Emily Allington (Pascale Hutton) is monitoring seismic activity when she sees some strange readings. Not knowing if the disturbance is volcanic or not, she decides she needs to investigate what is happening on Mount Lincoln herself. Emily ends up teaming up with Thomas, her old boyfriend, to rescue Grace, who is camping on the mountain, and help Jack find the only thing that may get rid of the monster, the weapon.
“Behemoth” was released in 2011 and was directed by W.D. Hogan. It is an American Canadian co-production horror fantasy film produced by the Syfy channel and is the 22nd movie in the “Maneater” series.
The CGI isn’t the greatest, but you get the idea of what they’re trying to do. The monster itself is cool looking but doesn’t show up until later in the film and has very little screen time. For a Syfy channel offering, it’s not bad. I actually liked the elusive creature.
The story was a little different than most monster movies. Usually a giant “what’s it” is created from radioactivity or it comes from outer space. In this instance it is a mythical creature that is part of the Earth and, upon occasion, has to rebalance the cosmos by fixing whatever is wrong. In this case, it is humans that are the problem. What you thought was climate change is really just a giant cranky dragon that makes its home in the core of the planet. That’s cool.