Burning Bright (2010) Reviews

• Not much William Blake, but there is a tiger

  napierslogs2010-08-24

  "Burning Bright" is a straight-forward, simply told, thriller. With a hurricane approaching, a house gets boarded up for the night. Problem is, it's also the site of a future safari park, complete with a tiger, which gets locked in the house with a young woman and her autistic brother. The title must surely come from the William Blake poem "Tyger". "Tyger Tyger. burning bright, In the forests of the night." In which, one of the significant themes is the question of how can God create such beautiful things and destructive things at the same time? If that theme is explored in this movie, only in the most simplistic way. Blake also touches on evil and its many forms. Here, we definitely see evil, and I found it interesting how they combined all its different configurations. The film presented us with nature's evil, man-kind's evil and evil from the animal kingdom. However, that is the extent of anything beyond a simplistic thriller. "Burning Bright" gives us a damsel in distress and a young boy living in his own world. The tiger is hunting them down and our heroine experiences her fair share of close calls, ingenuity, and love for her younger brother. Briana Evigan plays the damsel, and exactly as you would expect her to - with sexy clothes, lots of sweat, fear in her eyes, and she becomes her own hero. She may now be relegated to the horror/thriller genre. Her autistic younger brother is played by Charlie Tahan, you will recognize him as the younger brother in "Charlie St. Cloud". The film does a good job of characterization to open the movie, and then we actually spend the majority of the movie with a real, live tiger - "burning bright, in the forests of the night."

• This is not your SyFy channel piece of garbage

  MiragePro2010-08-15

  At first glance of the plot it would seem that this would be another poorly written, CGI cartooned, SyFy channel movie of the week. I just finished watching this with my wife, and I can say she was covering her eyes throughout most of the film. Not only did the plot make sense, it produced a sub-plot that brought it all together. The acting was above board, and the Tiger was LIVE. They did not have to rely on using lots of special effects to make you sit on the edge of your seat. Briana Evigan's character has to stay and take care of her younger brother who has Autism, when her mother dies, and leaves them with their step- father. The step-father ends up taking her collage money to invest in his safari side show. He purchases a tiger to draw more tourists, when the hurricane strikes. Charlie Tahan did a great job in portraying a child with Autism. Having worked on several projects with Autistic children, I could easily critique his portrayal. Obviously the writers did a lot of research on Autism. You need to watch this surprising jewel to find how this all unravels, .....or is that torn to shreds?

• The director managed to stage few tensed scenes without any gore or body count.

  Fella_shibby2018-05-20

  Saw this recently on a blu-ray. Been on my radar for a long time. Viewers may find the plot silly. A girl along with her autistic brother gets holed up in her house with a ravenous tiger n the house being sealed from outside due to the hurricane. The best part of the film was the lack of cgi n the usage of a real tiger in some scenes. The director managed to stage few tensed scenes without any gore or body count. The scene where Evigan is hiding in a vent in the laundry room while our tiger stalks the room below her is frightening n tensed. Briana Evigan apart from looking good in her tight figure n scanty clothes, acted well.

• A cat-and-mouse game ... but with a real dangerous cat this time !

  peterp-450-2987162014-06-11

  "Never touch the cage." You're locked in a house together with your autistic brother who is hard to handle and you are attacked by an intruder and a cat-and-mouse game starts. In this film "Burning Bright" they have taken the cat part quite literally, because it's not some kind of escaped psychopathic madman who loves charming good-looking women for breakfast, but a full-grown tiger who hasn't eaten for already two weeks. The only thing Kelly needs to take care of, is to stay away from the tiger's claw's. An original idea for a movie. I can't remember that it was already used in another film. That's the only thing that's original in this film, the tiger, because the rest is so predictable. It's an exciting Saturday night movie which is pleasant to look at (and not only because of the beautiful Briana Evigan). Kelly Taylor (Briana Evignan) is about to go to college and wants to place her autistic brother Tom (Charlie Tahan) in a special home. When she can't pay the bill, she is forced to take him back with her again and return to her stepfather Johnny Gaveneau (Garret Dillahunt) to find out where the money went. It appears that the stepfather bought a tiger for his wildlife park that he would like to open shortly. Kelly and Tom's mother apparently committed suicide in the past, after which Kelly was solely responsible for the education of Tom. And then they end up in the home of her stepfather, which is hermetically sealed with wooden boards because of the oncoming storm, along with the hungry tiger. Revealing more is a bit absurd, otherwise there's nothing left to look forward to. It's evident that a hell of a manhunt between predator and humans is the result. It becomes an unnerving game between the two in which Kelly uses all her talents (she has developed those skills during her membership at the local scouts as they organized far-reaching survival games I guess) while keeping her brother under control. He doesn't want to be touched (otherwise he starts yelling hysterical, which in given the circumstances is not advisable ) and when he's hungry, he starts screaming for food resolutely (and after a while again louder and louder. Again not recommended). The motivation to carry out this plan of them trapped with the tiger, is one that we have already seen in hundreds of movies. The final denouement was not very original. And the corny closing was also one to frame along all the well known corny moments out of the film world. The acting itself isn't that bad. Meatloaf was introduced as a surprise act at the beginning of the film as the seller of the tiger. I didn't recognize him immediately, because he's quite shrunk in volume. Garret Dillahunt (12 Years a Slave, Looper) has a limited role as a future owner of a park and as cruel stepfather. Briana Evignan is really a picture and a female version of John McClane. For me, the best fragment was the exciting moment when she tries to escape through the "dirty laundry" shaft. Charlie Tahan (Ethan from "I am Legend") began to get on my nerves with his autistic behavior, but for someone of his age I thought it was top acting at times. However, the great stars of the film were Katie, Kismet and Schicka, the three tigers that were used.Beside some silly flaws, it was an enjoyable movie. I found it odd that in one moment an oak door wasn't an obstacle for the tiger, and it broke in two with some hard whacks from the tiger. But some wooden boards of a closet apparently were more resistant to this animal force. And I would have rammed that sharp object right into his eye for sure.A typical cliché story with quite some excitement. Good for a rainy Sunday afternoon! More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

• Not exactly 'Snakes on a Plane' but this 'Tiger in the House' delivers !

  BOOGIEMAN-pN2010-11-03

  Trapped in a hurricane-proof shelter house with a starving tiger ... one really can not expect much from a simple plot like that, with relatively unknown actors and (most likely) very modest budget. Surprisingly, I smoothly give it 7 out of 10 on my scale, and not only because of gorgeous sweaty Briana Evigan (interesting, I didn't even notice her in Sorrority Row) in a wet white undershirt through most of the movie ... but yes, sure that helped a bit in boosting my rating. I don't know how the tiger scenes were done, but they are more than satisfying, in few scenes even buzzed me out of my bed. Only thing I can complain about is lack of body count and blood, since there are only two persons in the house. If you liked The Collector (2009) go for this one too, and vice versa.