Project: Metalbeast (1995) Poster

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6/10
A decent way to kill 90 minutes,
willywants26 September 2005
After finding, killing and extracting a blood sample from a werewolf in Europe, a soldier injects himself with it's DNA, turning himself into a werewolf in an American military base, where he's captured and cryogenically frozen. Flash foreword 10 years, where scientists are given the man's body for an experiment involving a metal-based, organic, self-restoring skin. Upon giving the soldier the skin graph, he awakens and turns into a werewolf, but this time faster, meaner, shinier and bullet proof. I picked this movie up the other day from my local video store for $2, as they are going out of business and need to sell all their videos. I grabbed as many as I could carry home, "Project: Metalbeast" being one of them. Despite the terrible title and having heard nothing of it before, "Metalbeast" turned out to be an okay way to kill 90 minutes in my book. It's got a script that's more intelligent than your usual straight-to-video horror flick, a decent score, some likable characters, a couple of gory bits (the highlight being the death of the creature at the end), and even John Carl Buechler's creature effects weren't bad, though the Metalbeast itself looks more like a Hedgehog on crack than a werewolf. Granted, the film never steps very far out of genre territory, and the portrayal of both the scientists and the military are as clichéd as can be but in the end, "Project: Metalbeast" offered a fine dose of gore, monster action, and a interesting concept that puts a nice spin on the werewolf myth.

$2 well spent, I say.

6/10.
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5/10
"I can't believe we've got peanut butter and jelly for lunch."
utgard1421 October 2015
Having no idea this movie even existed, I was surprised to come across it late one night on cable. I thought it might be good for a few laughs. While it is worth a chuckle or two, ultimately it's not as much fun as I hoped it would be. The plot's a rather involved one that starts in the 1970s where a crazy soldier who was part of a mission to take down a werewolf injects himself with werewolf blood. For reasons, I guess. Then he's cryogenically frozen for twenty years by bad guy Barry Bostwick. In the present day of the 1990s, some scientists led by Kim Delaney are working on creating a new type of artificial skin to treat cancer patients and the like. Bostwick comes in and takes over the experiment, forcing them to test their new skin on his frozen werewolf guy. Long story unfortunately not short enough, the werewolf awakens with super strong skin that makes him even more indestructible than he already was. He goes on a killing spree and you can pretty much figure out the rest. It's a cheaply filmed bit of business with Kane Hodder in the cheesy werewolf costume. Barry Bostwick provides some fun but Kim Delaney treats the whole thing more seriously than it deserves. It's goofy and unintentionally funny at times but, as I said already, never as much fun as you want it to be. Still it's pretty watchable so give it a shot if you like low-budget '90s horror.
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6/10
I defend this neat Werewolf film
Coventry16 July 2003
Warning: Spoilers
Werewolves...Kim Delaney...and Kane Hodder as the creature. How bad could this possibly be, I wondered. The signs weren't good though. Bashed all over the net, released straight to video and hard to find on VHS. Well, I certainly didn't regret watching it. For me it was filled with pleasant surprises and loyal to the traditional "werewolf-rules"...This means a full moon, silver bullets and bloody massacres. Although the director is rather unknown ( at least, he was to me ) he had to change to work with some great actors. The above mentioned Kim Delaney ( my second favorite B-movie queen after Barbara Crampton ) and Kane " Jason Vorhees " Hodder ( he was also the stunt-coordinator ) Miller, the major villain in the story, also looked SO familiar. And after about 10 minutes it popped in my head : he's the funny mayor from Spin City. That was a pleasant surprise. And then for the most important factor about a movie: the story. I think, no matter what everyone says, that it was rather good. Sure, it had a few holes and the "creating the ultimate warrior" thing is far from original, but still...it keeps you very well focused. In order to create a new and much stronger breed of warriors, two soldiers are sent to Hungary to find the blood of a werewolf. One of them dies but the other one returns with the blood. Impatient as he is, he can't await the scientists and decides to inject the blood in his body. He becomes a werewolf and starts a killing spree. He gets shot by Miller, the brain behind the whole operation, and is frozen. 20 years later Miller finds out about a group of scientists who gained success by replacing normal skin by implanting metal skin. Miller sees his chance to continue his search for the ultimate warriors and orders the group to use the frozen corps for their further research. The werewolf elements are still active ( although I gotta admit he looks more like a giant hedgehog now ) in the corps and in combination with the metal skin, he soon becomes a very dangerous killing machine.... It sure can't live up to the older werewolf movies from the 40's, 60's and 80's but this still is a good effort in the genre. You have to take a risk from time to time to keep the field of horror interesting and the makers of this film did that. I thank them for that and I hope this film gets more appreciation someday. Until then, I'll do my part and recommend it to as many people as possible. Hence, this review...
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Metalmorphosis
Cujo1089 September 2010
A group of militants head to a Hungarian castle to get a sample of werewolf blood from the apparent tenant. Despite one of the men being killed in the process, the mission is a success. Back in the U.S., military scientists are studying the blood under the supervision of Colonel Miller (Barry Bostwick) and the militant who secured the blood in the first place, Butler (John Marzilli). The latter tires of waiting for the scientists to do their thing, so he foolishly decides to inject himself with the remaining blood. It isn't long before he turns into a werewolf and mauls two of the scientists, but Miller puts him down with some silver bullets and has him cryogenically frozen. 20 years go by as Butler remains on ice. The same military installation is now home to a research group working on a synthetic skin called bio-ferrin. Metallic in nature, the skin is meant to help burn victims. Miller gets wind of their work and decides that it's time to thaw out Butler and have these scientists fit him with the skin, in turn making an indestructible killing machine for use on the battlefield. As usual in these types of films, things do not go according to plan.

I rented this film back in the mid-90's and found it to be an entertaining shot in the arm to the then all but dormant werewolf sub-genre. I recently revisited it for the first time in over a decade, and I'm happy to say that it still holds up as an enjoyable treat amidst the sea of bad werewolf pictures. The idea of creating a super soldier is hardly original, but who cares? Where else are you going to see a werewolf with armored skin? Lycanthropes are threatening to begin with, but this film takes it a step further with it's metallic monstrosity. It's a hulking behemoth of a creature too, as it should be with Kane Hodder wearing the monster suit. We also get some pretty good half man, half wolf make-up following Butler's first escape from the lab. Most of the killings are partially offscreen, but they're juicy enough.

The gorgeous Kim Delaney plays Dr. Anne De Carlo, head of the bio-ferrin research group. Delaney is a personal favorite of mine, and a sorely under-appreciated actress to boot. Despite appearing in popular TV shows like "NYPD Blue" and "CSI Miami", she also did her fair share of horror films such as this one, "The Drifter" and a few others. Her character here immediately clashes with Miller, who naturally keeps the scientists in the dark about his true intentions. As Miller, Barry Bostwick chews the scenery and relishes the slimy nature of his role, that of a man who takes time to touch up his hair while being mauled by the titular "metalbeast". The rest of the cast members are nothing to write home about, but Delaney and Bostwick do more than enough to carry the picture.

While "Project: Metalbeast" certainly isn't a masterpiece of the genre or anything like that, it succeeds at being an entertaining little monster flick, which is exactly what it set out to do. Yes, Delaney runs a little too easily for someone who just had a metal rod run through her foot and the werewolf's impenetrable skin isn't milked to it's fullest, but whatever. This thing makes for a damn good time while delivering a new spin on lycanthropy. Watch it if you like low budget monster romps. And someone get this out on DVD already!
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3/10
It's now 11 years old, but It must have been bad in 1994.
bhcesl29 January 2005
Warning: Spoilers
There are no words to describe the symphony of stupidity this movies presents to us, the audience. The cast was mediocre at best and their acting skills were the same. The storyline, at times, doesn't make any sense, and there are contradictions left and right. There are points made in the course of the movie that simply don't compute, and the ending was laughable.

There are some redeeming points, I suppose. The main actress was pretty, the werewolf, as a man, had very few lines. Oh, and the chef with a bad Mexican accent dies early, so he didn't pain us with his speech.

I don't recommend watching this movie to anyone. I did it because when the wife is out, I watch stupid movies; it helps me to realize that I don't like stupid movies.

If you must watch it, have a book on hand for when you feel you might be sick from how stupid a particular scene is.
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5/10
"unstoppable CIA werewolf"? um...
JamieWJackson9 January 2015
I'm not sure exactly where that phrase comes from, but when I saw it attached to the YouTube video description it made me laugh so much I just had to watch the movie. Turns out to be a watchable farce with some fun aspects and a few genuinely good moments.

There is a lot of cliché here, but from the opening moments it's clear that the movie was meant to be very much tongue-in-cheek while simultaneously preserving some degree of "serious" horror environment, and it works pretty well at that level.

The creature effects are solid enough to sustain a fair amount of screen time. Most of the shots don't linger very long, which is probably for the best; some of the scenes with the soldier/creature strapped to the table suffer from showing us the obvious makeup/prosthetics for too long. However, the action shots tend to be more fleeting and the creature looks pretty good in those.

The women look pretty good too. :-) Kim and Musetta are visually similar enough that I wondered why they didn't cast one of the two roles differently, but they're both beautiful so that's forgivable. They can act, too, so that helps. :-D

I liked the setting in the facility pretty well; there are enough different locations that the visuals don't get too stagnant, while still having some feeling of cohesion. When we go from room to hallway to room to wherever, it seems plausible that this all could be one large facility. The few exterior shots are good, although it seems odd (at least, to me) that there's a swimming pool right outside a military research facility. Oh well.

The pacing and editing were good. The directing was fine. The acting was good enough from the leads, although the continual varying of Musetta's accent was distracting. Thankfully, the lousy Mexican accent guy departs quickly (as noted by an earlier reviewer).

I was hoping for a bit more exploration of the whole "metal werewolf warrior" notion; mostly this is a fairly standard "experiment gone wrong, trapped in installation with monster" story, and the unique(?) angle is only partially explored. However, for a B-movie, it's entertaining enough. They probably would have needed a bigger budget to do more, like turn the guy loose on some test mission somewhere, or something.

Check this one out if you like the genre and are up for some fairly well-done silliness. If not, skip it.
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4/10
Project: Direct-To-Video
capkronos21 May 2003
Warning: Spoilers
In 1974, an American secret agent takes a blood sample from a werewolf in Budapest, then returns to the U.S., where he inject himself with it (!), kills a few people, is captured by the evil Colonel Miller (Barry Bostwick, who's awful) and cryogenically frozen. 20 years later at the "U.S. Secret Operations Center," a group of doctors experimenting with synthetic, metallic skin are given the frozen cadaver as a test subject, resulting in a red-eyed creature that looks like a cross between PREDATOR, Sonic the Hedgehog and the ALIEN monster. It's kept strapped to a bed with what appears to be Saran Wrap, escapes and starts killing again, but a few resourceful doctors melt up some silver just in time to load up a high-powered bazooka (conveniently found on the premises) and blow the sucker into a zillion bloody pieces.

The John Carl Buechler FX are alright (but silly!) and the whole scenario is pretty old (despite the werewolf angle) but there are a few good parts and I liked it OK watching it on cable at about 3 in the morning.
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5/10
Not that bad...
alucardvenom5 January 2013
I saw "Project: Metalbeast" last time when I was a kid. After that, I completely forgot about it. Recently I watch it again, and have to say, it's wasn't that bad.

Story starts with two soldiers coming to Hungary who kill a werewolf. They take his blood for the purposes of military experiment (this never gets old) to create a super-soldier. Of course, things turn rotten, and project is shut down. Flash forward ten years after those events, research continues, but naturally, everything goes wrong.

Shot on low budget, Metalbeast surprised me. It looked lot better then most of the direct-to-video(TV) movies of it's era. FX are also very descent with nice amount of gore. Script is also lot better then it appears to be, with some interesting moments thrown here and there. Of course, movies doesn't go too far from it's genre, leaving most of the clichés intact, but surprisingly, they kinda work in this movie. While true acting talents are pretty limited, Barry Bostwick and Kim Delaney (who would latter star in NYPD Blue) save most of the picture.

Negative side: Movie suffers from pace. It tends to slow down from time to time, has relatively slow start, but luckily becomes bit faster as the movie progress. Some dialogs are corny, but that's not a big problem. You are watching a movie about genetically enchanted werewolf with "indestructible" skin after all. I start laughing just when I say that.

Overall, "Project: Metalbeast" definitively is not a masterpiece, but it's a descent and unusual take on werewolf genre. If you are fan of werewolf movies, you might like this. You might like this if you don't have high standards for horror movies, but if you are looking for Hitchockian movie, you should avoid it.
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3/10
Secretive experiment turns deadly.
michaelRokeefe27 December 2003
At the U.S. Secret Operations Center a small group of doctors led by Kim Delaney are experimenting with a metallic skin on a frozen cadaver. This particular body is that of a secret agent that succumbed twenty years earlier to self injection of a blood sample from a...werewolf. Barry Bostwick plays the evil Colonel harboring the blueprints for this gruesome experiment. Thus the Government has given life to a wolf-like creature with metal skin. The only reason I watched this is Kim Delaney. I'd watch her do a puppet show! Also in the cast are: Brian Brophy, Carole Davis, Tim Duquette and Kane Hodder as the MetalBeast. Pretty bad movie except for the last twenty minutes or so.
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7/10
Capcom must've seen this flick while making Resident Evil.
vdeogmrlr18 October 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I bought this movie from a video store that was going out of business and the cover caught my eye, plus reading the very brief and cheesy back sold me into buying it. This is a good movie, it is a little cheesy but I must say, I think the Video Game company, Capcom, saw this movie and heavily used parts of this for the game Resident Evil. For example; replace Albert Wesker from R.E. with Barry Bostwick, the Tyrant with a metal werewolf and keep the main characters pretty much the same. The way Barry Bostwick dies is the same way Albert dies and the same for the werewolf dying just like the Tyrant. The story simply goes like this; in 1974, the US military goes into the Carpathian forest to find a werewolf to get it's blood and use it's DNA to create the ultimate biological weapon(like Resident Evil again)but one of the men gets too cocky and takes the blood himself and all hell breaks loose (close enough to RE to mention it again). Barry Bostwick manages to take down and put the cocky werewolf guy in deep freeze until 20 years later when technology has advanced enough to resume the project. Of course, the werewolf gets loose again and causes havoc again or else there wouldn't be a movie. It was entertaining and had some really good special effects. 7/10
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4/10
Update on the classic werewolf story
Leofwine_draca19 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
A typical 1990s-era B-movie, this one, and an intriguing mix of sci-fi and horror in the tale. It's only the cheapo execution which lets this one down, along with a set-up and back story that seems to take up at least half of the running time, before we move into a traditional monster-on-the-rampage extended climax. A rogue agent turns into a werewolf but is put into suspended animation, only to wake up in the laboratory a couple of decades later and go berserk. I did like the futuristic spin on the old werewolf legend, and the beast suit is pretty decent, complete with Jason himself, Kane Hodder, inside it. There's the requisite gore, action and scares, which are superficial and straightforward, but the character writing is minimal and the performances hardly interesting. With a little more finesse this could have been interesting.
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10/10
I can't believe what great electrical work they had!
imdb-2-king27 July 2002
I mean, really. The lights and stuff, they were fantastic. Not a single extension cord in ANY shot. Take that you auteur gaffers and best boys! Luciano Galli my butt! Tom Kiefer ROCKS! This is not mockery. This is straight up truth. If you can't handle the truth, don't rent METALBEAST.
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7/10
nightmarish medical thriller meets werewolf horror
kclipper16 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Here's an original concept; T.V. actor, John Marzill is an ego-maniacal special forces type that injects himself with werewolf blood in order to transform into a keen, immortal creature at will. Barry Boswick is an evil government colonel that stops him with silver bullets, freezes the corpse, and hires B-movie beauty, Kim Delaney as an experimental skin doctor to develop metal armor skin tissue in order to create a "controllable", indestructible killing machine. Of course, the plan goes haywire, and after removing the silver bullets (during a full moon no less), Marzill awakens as the super-werewolf (which is Kane Hodder in an excellent costume).

Its a surprisingly good blend of sci-fi genetic mutating monster mayhem, and writer/director, Alessandro De Gaetano avoids most of the clichés and contrivances while crafting this rip-roaring action piece. Kim Delaney delivers an above-average performance, Barry Boswick is good as an emotionless bad-guy, and Kane Hodder is unrecognizable as the menacing metalbeast. It's a cut above once the monster gets loose and goes on a murderous rampage in the facility, while poor Delaney and co-workers must get away from both the beast and Boswick. This also has one of the best B-movie werewolf creatures ever, especially for a direct-to-video release. Its a howl!!
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1/10
GARBAGE
KizerSouza30 May 2001
I just saw this piece of trash on cable a few weeks ago. I checked it out on IMDB, expecting it to get a 1 or 2 rating. I was APPALLED that it scored a 7.5 and the other reviewer actually seemed to like it.

This movie is pure garbage. The acting is atrocious, the dialogue absurd, the plot asinine, and that's the good stuff!

It is just plain awful. Maybe worth a look just to laugh at it. Anyone who actually watches this movie and extracts something positive deserves to be mauled by a werewolf.
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Grade A for this Grade B film.
Bynovekka110 May 2004
Warning: Spoilers
Ever wonder what a werewolf would be like if it had superhard metal skin???? Neither have I. But the writers of this film did. And their version of what would occur makes for a surprisingly watchable lowend horror/sci-fi outing.

Without straying to far into spoilerville, the movie concerns the efforts of a pair of government covert types taken with the notion making a super solider with the aid of werewolf blood.

They succeed in getting their blood but one of the men gets exposed to the sample and himself becomes a werewolf. He chomps a person or two at the research center he works out of before being eventually killed with the old silver bullet bit. From there his body gets crongenically frozen. His former partner thaws him out twenty years later and uses his 'corpse' as a guinea pig for a new proceedure that grafts metal skin onto the human body....."Don't ask".

Of course the silver bullets are removed during the process.....and.....well...you can guess what happens next.

Beyond the terminator meets the wolfman concept, the film offers up a surprisingly lively script with some truly good lines. There's also some good performances to be had, particularly Barry Bostwick who plays a villain willing to do anything to protect "his" project.

Movie can be seen often in its cut form on Sci-Fi channel. Check it out.
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1/10
One of the worst movies I have ever had the misfortune of viewing, but it brought about great laughter.
frodave10 September 2005
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is only watchable for the scene in which Barry Boswick shoots someone in the legs, and then states that he isn't "jumping for joy". That moment besides, the movie is a downward spiral into the abyss of film making. What possible reasoning any producer, director, or writer could have for involving themselves in this disaster of a movie escapes me. I would like to get in contact with the filmmakers and request compensation for my time and brain cells wasted. I'm having trouble thinking at which I would like to be compensated, but I can't imagine that I would settle for less than a Learjet. I suppose some of this can be credited to the werewolf/robot craze of the time, but I never imagined that the combination of the two would bear the twisted, disgusting fruit that is Project: Metalbeast. If I were to walk into a room where this movie was playing, I would kill those viewing it as an act of mercy, and then swiftly take my own life in order to avoid these travesty a second time. May God have mercy on the souls of those who actually payed money to see this movie during the four days in which it was in theaters.
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4/10
Low Budget Script and Movie
claudio_carvalho25 July 2004
In 1974, two American agents are sent to Hungary by his superior Miller (Barry Bostwick) to get werewolf blood for a secret project for the creation of an invincible warrior. One of the men dies and the other decides to inject the blood in himself, being killed by Miller. There is a shutdown of the project. Twenty years later, the scientist Anne de Carlo (Kim Delaney) is carrying out a research under the command of Miller, and the body of the dead agent is delivered for the experiment. The agent is transformed in a kind of killing metallic werewolf. The screenplay of this low budget movie has no originality. I do not know how many films I have seen with this storyline. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): `Metalbeast'
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4/10
Double Creature Feature: Humanoid Cat-Beasts & Synthezoid Werewolves (part 2)
Vomitron_G23 February 2010
MUTATOR aka TIME OF THE BEAST (1989) & PROJECT: METALBEAST aka METALBEAST (1995).

Two *very* similar B-movies. A dubious choice for this double feature, perhaps. But I know I'm most definitely not the only one around here who would voluntarily watch rubbish like...

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For some reason, I always recalled some scenes from "Mutator" being from "Metalbeast". Both films are not worth this kind of confusion. Nevertheless, "Metalbeast" is *slightly* better (even if they're practically the same movie, with people just running around in a facility with some beast after them). A little bit more money was spent on the creature design, including make-up sfx for various stages of the transformation and animatronics in the head-piece of the final creature costume. The real werewolves from the opening scenes, seem styled after the ones from Joe Dante's "The Howling". To my knowledge, "Metalbeast" is the only movie ever to feature an, ehrr... mutant werewolf synthetically enhanced with metal skin, extendible / retractable steel claws and red-glowing eyes.

Honestly, I like this movie.

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Level of Appreciation: Moderate
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5/10
"I feel we are getting off to a bad start"
hwg1957-102-26570429 April 2023
Warning: Spoilers
The movie doesn't really make sense to me. It starts with a pair of CIA agents tracking down a werewolf to obtain it's blood to use it to make super soldiers. Which sounds rather silly. Then later on a group of scientists are forced to combine werewolfism with metal skin to make super soldiers. Which sounds sillier. The scientists try grafting artificial metal skin to what they thought was a dead body. Which is ludicrous. The film is mainly about a monster running amok in a research establishment slaying people, cue lots of POV shots of corridors. Barry Bostwick plays the smirking villain Miller in an elegant suit and is the best thing in the movie. The other characters are not memorable or interesting so one doesn't mind seeing them getting offed. The monster make-up is acceptable but on the whole it's a routine film.
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4/10
Just not interesting enough to really make an impression
I_Ailurophile22 September 2023
There's no such thing as an idea for a horror film that's too ridiculous to work, but I don't think it's unreasonable to argue that the more complicated the concept - the more ideas that are layered on top of one another - the harder the road to success. Take 'Project: Metalbeast,' for example. Filmmaker Alessandro De Gaetano and co-writers Timothy E. Sabo and Roger Steinmann tossed together werewolves, military experiments with werewolves, corrupt government programs and officials, and not least, synthetic metal skin. Oh my. None of this means that success was impossible, but it does mean that one has to stretch the limits of their imagination and suspension of disbelief to accept what the movie is putting down. When one further considers how lax this tends to be in its tone and pacing, leading to a paucity of major goings-on, well, one's attention begins to wander.

It's not like this is abjectly awful. Everyone put in an earnest effort, and between the cast and the crew everyone made fair contributions. The acting is fine, the sets are fine, and the costume design, hair, and makeup are fine, if a little too overt. The stunts and effects are fine. I'm more concerned about the unconvincing dialogue, the halfhearted characters, and the lethargic scene writing. The plot doesn't go very far at all for the preponderance of the first hour, and all that's left for the last third is for the carnage to ensue (less than you'd think, honestly) and for the threads to be wrapped up in the manner in which we know they will be. The direction feels less than fully engaged, and for as relatively little action as there is in ninety minutes, the result feels like a bit of a slog. No, 'Project: Metalbeast' isn't fully bad, but there's just so little here to keep us invested that the picture falls quite flat.

Yawn. There are some recognizable names and faces involved here. The last act is fine. The climax is fine. Would that there were more substance to this of any sort, or that the feature did anything to make a lasting impression. As it is the viewing experience is just rather bland and dull, even in the moments of the most violence or would-be disturbing imagery, and it stops only a little bit shy of being sleep-inducing. Sure, there are worst things one could find themselves checking out, but the simple truth of the matter is that there's just no real reason to watch this flick. I suppose if one is extremely curious or bored, and open to all the wide possibilities of cinema, then one could claim sufficient impetus to press "play," but otherwise one's time is surely better spent elsewhere. 'Project: Metalbeast' was just kind of dead on arrival.
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6/10
yeah it could have been better
beowulf66630 January 2007
while it definitely could have been better , it was at least not as bad as Bram Stokers Dracula ! but then few films are !Coppola really muffed that one ! the acting wasn't that great , but the plot was OK and it gave a whole new look to Lycanthropy ! I wouldn't mind seeing a remake done by someone with real skill as a director , and some decent actors !compared to many films that have been produced since the turn of the century , it deserves a much higher rating than it usually gets ! I'd rather watch this again than I would another sequel to , ( I know what you did last summer )! or freddy number forty seven ! enough with the slasher films ! this film at least showed some imagination at work !
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9/10
Underrated effort with some great moments
kannibalcorpsegrinder10 June 2015
Acquiring a new corpse for her project, a doctor finds they used the specimen of a soldier bitten by a werewolf and now infused with metal skin and hunting them down, forcing them to fight off the ravenous creature.

Overall this one turned out to be quite an enjoyable and entertaining offering. One of the many positive points here is the fact of this one featuring a pretty novel idea of the werewolf here being infused with a metallic armor underneath his skin as part of a shady military experiment, all of which is composed of the first half here. The secretive nature of their assignment coupled with the given nature of the material comes off rather nicely with the whole affair coming off well to set the stage for the fun later on. That comes in the form of this one's rather impressive series of stalking scenes throughout the facility where there's plenty of scenes from the wolf's POV down the corridors and throughout the facility. From the brutal attacks on the security guards on the front of the building, to the rather gory and graphic attacks in the operating rooms there's some good stuff here that mixes the action and suspense rather well before getting involved in the film's best part which is the finale. Using the multi-tiered facility to its' best by staging the action throughout the various levels, including an amazing stalking chase through an endless corridor of pipes and letting the werewolf get center-stage with several showpiece kills drawing a lot of impressive blood and gore, this one is quite fun and matches the opening hunt for an overall enjoyable bookend to the film. As well, the look of the titular werewolf is one of the best in the genre with its fearsome snout, imposing muscular frame, huge claws and metal skin all leave a viable impression here which all manage to help this one overcome the minor plot-points plaguing this one. The biggest problem here is their complete lack of questioning his instructions on their ranking here which seems to exist for completely arbitrary means here in forcing along the plot that makes no sense. Stumbling upon the corpse accidentally would've been a far better use here, yet this one decides on the course that makes him out to be a prick and the group into clueless bystanders that dominate the first half and drags this to a halt at times. That's apart from the other implausibilities of the film. One of the main ones is that no reinforcements are called in when the Metalbeast escapes, which goes against military policy yet there's also the fact that it would've boosted the kill count, which no film should be against. That is as damning to the film as anything, except for the nonsensical plot. Otherwise, this one was rather enjoyable.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.
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6/10
Not great but I got a soft spot for it.
alienlegend22 August 2023
It's really a strange movie since you can tell it's aping Jurassic Park at times while also trying to be a metal werewolf movie. If it was more gruesome and insane, I think it would've been more successful but I still enjoy it. Kane Hodder gives it his all, and while the story of the movie is pretty ridiculous, the concept of a metal werewolf is badass. It deserves points for that if nothing else. Sure the "werewolf" looks kind of like a hedgehog or something but eh it's the thought that counts. I wish this could get a remake with practical FX but heck it'd probably never be that good. I mean how much can you expect from a metal werewolf movie? We're just lucky it exists.
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A pleasent surprise
lordzedd-224 January 2004
I must admit I wasn't expecting much when I first rented this movie, but the concept of a metal covered werewolf is a unique twist on an old story. Also the effects were very good. But if your not into werewolf movies then you may not like Metalbeast.

I GIVE IT (7 STARS) ******* ON THE POSITIVE SIDE (+ HITS)

+ CONCEPT (I always give kudos to an original or a new twist on an old concept)

+ CREATURE EFFECTS (The Metalbeast was just plan cool)

+ ATMOSPHERE (It has spooky atmosphere with substance)

ON THE NEGATIVE SIDE (- MISSES)

  • SLOW (It has several places of slow peroids while they build up suspense, a little too long at times)


And Finally:

  • FAN BASED (If you are not a fan of horror or werewolf movies then steer clear of PROJECT: METALBEAST)
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9/10
one of the classical greats ......heres why
godinamachine4 January 2022
HEY EVERYBODY ITS ME, (4) and today we review "dog soldiers the prequal" - the movie !!!!!!!

For reals though this movie could VERY easily be the dog soldiers moves prequal and i dont think anyone would doubt if you said that .... has all the same kinds of elements in it ....

made in 1995 , watching it now in 2022 (even though ive seen it a ton of times since the 90s) it reminds us of a simpler time in movies .... a ...better time if you will ...when they just said .... all we need is some awesome monster , some blood guts and gore and a cheesy story line , a couple of pretty faces and the government involved to mess it all up and BAM instant classic lol.... sure this film as with anything has a couple of ...hmmm what /why? Kind of moments ... like at the VERY end when the shot "boyfriend /love interest/ guard guy shows back up and shouts "i have a shell" ....like bro ... how ? ... where ? When did you just happen to pick up and carry around a rocket with you JUST IN CASE you happen to meet back up with people who at one time had a rocket launcher ? ...wha if they threw it down after firing off all the rockets ....why didnt they throw it down after shooting off their rockets ? ... i mean its just extra weight at that point ....

so sure IF you think about this one to hard youll find every plot hole in the universe BUT its also about a werewolf becoming a super soldier in a secret goverment project to infuse living metal to tissue ...so i mean IF you think about it to hard anyways ....you know ... theres that ...

the acting was decent, better than what we get in most movies today from even "a listers" half the time .... the sound was good ....technically it was sound ...

now for a creature feature from the 90s , this one is pure gold ..explosions REAL ones ...NOT cgi .... monster suits with kane hodder in it REAL one not cgi kane hodder lol....action, horror elements ,... tention building .... they pretty much cover all the bases for your standard monster flick of the 80's/90s era .... this is one of those movies you would see in the video stores and ALWAYS remember it .... you rented it at least once and saw it on the saturday monster movie marathons all the time ....it gained a following and deserved it ...considered a classic in the werewolf genre and rightfully so as well .... this film for sure at the very least requires a watch on youtube .....

8.5 /10

and.
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