User Reviews

"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."

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.

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?

Burning Bright is a horrific gem. One of those films where you ask yourself, "why wasn't this released in theaters?" That is exactly what I was wondering while watching. I felt my heart beating throughout the 50 minute action sequence. The premise will immediately catch your attention, a young women and her autistic brother are trapped in a house with a hungry tiger during a hurricane. The house is barricaded.

~How did the tiger get into the house? Will they survive?~

It's surprising the amount of things occurring throughout and it's a nice change from almost every one-dimensional horror films nowadays. It is also extremely believable; this can happen to anyone of us. If you thought Freddy Kruger was scary, try taking on this tiger. It's unfortunate that it was never credited because the tiger is the star of the film. Briana Evigan also gives a terrific performance as the hot women in trouble and fits this film perfectly.

There are no real flaws in Burning Bright. It is quiet perfect of how to make a suspenseful thriller. It's a thriller that actually thrills. It goes the extra mile making sure your heart is pounding out of you chest at every moment. A couple of scenes are simply unforgettable.

Burning Bright is a bright light for every inspiring filmmaker out there. It doesn't matter if your film gets the attention it deserves, someone will notice and appreciate the work that was done. The filmmakers know how to make a great film. They didn't just think of the good plot, they also spent time perfecting it and it's noticeable.

Burning Bright was never released in theaters, and frankly it should have been. It's one of the most thrilling films I have seen in years. The suspense will eat you alive.

A girl and her autistic brother are locked in a house with a Tiger during a hurricane. On paper this film sounds a disaster waiting to happen and that was what I was expecting. Sometimes it's nice to be surprised by a film though and this was one of those occasions for me.

Once you have got over the standard opening which sets the scene, it really picks up the pace. Some of the scenes in the house are incredibly tense and the director is to be applauded for that in a genre where most things have been done before.

Although it's a film with a modest budget it is well made and professional. The acting is mainly just average apart from a believable and spirited performance from the lead actress Brianna Evigan. I liked the ending of the film which thankfully didn't undo all the previous good work.

Burning Bright is an intelligent, tense and highly enjoyable film that is a cut above many of it's higher budgeted rivals. Better than it's current rating of 5.9 would suggest. Worth watching.

It is a pretty predictable but still enjoyable little movie we have here. This comes down to the actors themselves and a decent script, from which the director did get a few nice scenes out from. Those scenes are really well shot and executed. Nice framing and editing as well. You can watch it once and it will do it's job, even if you start thinking about the things that just seem to happen conveniently.

There are logical errors and you might argue that the moral is a bit too much, but then again this could also be called nit-picking. Can you oversee those obvious flaws and enjoy it as little movie that could? If so rent it and watch it

I rarely get scared anymore when watching what others would call an on the edge of your seat thriller; not so with Burning Bright. One scene in particular was very intense. If you've seen the movie then you no-doubt know the scene I'm referring to. If you haven't, then give the movie a chance. The acting was good, especially by Tahan. I say "especially" because he was just a kid and did very well. Overall the movie caries itself and once the plot unfolds it really holds your attention. I feel it deserves more than the three stars it was given. The only problem I have with the movie, unless I missed something, is the title makes no sense. Other than that, enjoy!

I had absolutely no idea what to expect of this movie, which has a rather odd title that has nothing to do with its weird plot.

After the death of her mother, Kelly is the only person who can take care of her young autistic brother but she has tough decisions to make as she is also contemplating college as an option. When she takes her brother to their stepfather's house to discuss money matters. Things are hectic as a hurricane is on the way and the house is being boarded. He informs her that whatever money their mother had left, he has used to buy a tiger for his next project: turning this property into a safari park. Later, Kelly wakes up to find out the stepfather's gone, she and her young brothers have been boarded in the house and the tiger has been left loose inside...

Yup... this is actually the premise of this film. It stretches believability in so many respect that it detracts a little but the actual film is rather entertaining once you get past that. For much of the remainder of Burning Bright, it's all about Kelly trying to survive in this house, evade this huge tiger... and of course do all that while having to care for Tom.

Briana Evigan is really great as Kelly. She does well portraying a caring, older sister, she definitely has charisma on screen and she adds a certain physicality that is vital to the action taking place, as she has to crawl, climb, twist and run in several scenes. It doesn't hurt that she is easy on the eye and spends most of the film scantily clad but really, I see legitimate actress talent there and her deep voice coupled with her looks reminds somewhat of a mix of Demi Moore and Jodie Foster. I had no idea who she was (never seen her previous mainstream credits, which are impressive in some way) but she is definitely the number 1 reason to watch.

Christine Coyle Johnson and Julie Prendiville Roux have penned a story that has some heart but has obvious plot holes that Il will not reveal to avoid spoiling things. I think it is admirable how autism doesn't take a complete backseat in the story. It's not just a cheap plot device and there is an attempt to address this, while still keeping this an action thriller. Director Carlos Brooks is able to walk the fine line too.

Without a doubt, the star of the film for many will be the tiger. Everybody knows cats of any kinds are somewhat difficult to train and are considered dangerous at all times. Most of the scenes in this movie do a decent job at making us believe the tiger IS in the house WITH our actors but some technical shortcuts had to be taken. Brooks wisely elect to use a real tiger and has little CGI as possible but few scenes show any interaction between the tiger and its potential preys. The result is still a very organic film with some stunning scenes featuring our big cat (one in particular, where he licks sweat off the floor, was memorable to me).

Credit to the filmmaker, this is an old school movie featuring a live animal, some character development in what is otherwise a by the book action thriller. Bonus points for having actor Garret Dillahunt play the creepy stepfather. One more creepy role for this fascinating actor.

The whole thing plays out like a mix between a wild animal movie such as The Edge (1997) and claustrophobic thrillers like Panic Room (2002).

Are there plot holes? Yes. Could this have gone to theatres? Probably not. But if your expectations are low, you love tigers and enjoy decent thrillers, you will probably find this entertaining enough.

I also want to command the producers for providing information regarding autism and also regarding the possible extinction of tigers we are facing during the end credits. If only one person goes to those websites and find information, then the movie will have done more than its job as far as I'm concerned.

Trapped together during a vicious hurricane, a woman must protect her autistic younger brother from the vicious, man-eating tiger her step-father illegally bought in the house with them.

Overall this one wasn't all that bad but definitely wasn't all that great either. What really tends to work for this one is the fact that there's some admittedly chilling stalking going on here as this one really manages to exploit its main premise quite nicely. The fact of getting the early scenes of the creature attacking the different workers and its back-story give off a quite effective reasoning here for the terror of the creature, and it manages to really work these quite nicely once it's loose in the house as there's a lot of genuine tension here of the monstrous beast walking around oblivious to the family members who leave just as it enters or trying to pass by undetected while attempting to do something else. This stalking here gives these scenes, from the attack in the laundry room while trying to dial here which it traps her in the vent shaft leading out of the room upstairs and the stalking in the bedrooms trapping them under the bed makes for some thrilling action to go along with the thrilling stalking. Moreover, downstairs is just as much fun with the fine encounter in the kitchen and a big chase through the house trying to lead it away from her brother trapped in a closet that has been opened rather nicely which is pretty terrifying and makes for quite an impressive enough sequence. As all of these are done by the use of a real-live tiger for the actions, it gives this a much stronger sense of realism that impacts the film greatly, but it's still not all that great as there's some individual problems that do creep up here. The main thing really holding this one back is the central premise, which not only doesn't seem usable in a full-length feature film but doesn't provide all that it could've been used for here. This one here is basically only useful for generating means of keeping the two out of harm's way in order to keep the tiger with viable targets to hunt, and that wears thin quite easily with the fact that it spends the entire time forcing that issue and really sapping the suspense that could've been generated from these incidents. Likewise, the fact that the brother is autistic doesn't do this many favors since it's more of a gimmick than anything else to bring about another challenge to get over as whether or not his antics will bring about them getting caught or not, and they get annoying enough to the point of hoping the tiger gets him anyway in hopes of just ending it. This also brings about the film's other big flaw, in the lack of a big body count here as there's only three main characters here and the chance for really letting loose with a graphic, body-count filled creature feature isn't possible with what's attempted here. Otherwise, this one wasn't all that bad.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Why are you reading a review of this movie? You should have read the synopsis and thought "Hell yeah I need to see that".

Two people (a girl and her younger autistic brother)are trapped in a house with a tiger, Awesome. The tiger is there because their stepfather wants to start a safari park so he bought a tiger. Guess who he bought it from, Meatloaf, Awesome.

The Tiger is real for the vast majority of the time, Awesome. The movie is very well filmed and acted. The plot though ridiculous is still believable (sort of), Awesome. If your a Briana Evigan fan you'll love it. She spends nearly the entire movie in her underwear and at one point is soaking wet. Awesome. The effects look good. Barring one point where they look decidedly dodgy. But not to the point where your saying "oh my that looked dreadful". No you'll be saying "haha did you see that. That was brilliant". Awesome. The only way you wont enjoy this film is if you're some kind of movie snob, or a robot. I'm sure even snobs and robots need to switch their brains of and just enjoy some mindless entertainment every now and then. So do just that and you'll enjoy yourself. 8 out of 10. Awesome.

The essential premise behind "Burning Bright" is pretty good. Naturally well, nobody can really relate to finding tigers walking through their house, but we all know it would be pretty terrifying experience, and naturally it's exactly what the protagonists are experiencing now.

Actually sometimes its almost as if the tiger understands the house's design somewhat, and it keeps showing up surprisingly persistently; granted it's starved but finding the people so often stretches believability a bit.

Then there's the real problem. For conflict reasons, the protagonist's brother is autistic. Now autistic people consider routines important but in my experience they kinda pout when something throws off their routine, maybe not even that. Shouting and screaming seems doubtful. Autistic people are impaired in communications ability and social behavior; they're not incapable of understanding if their lives are in jeopardy. Yet said brother makes an awful lot of noise for someone in danger.

It's really unfortunately there's no commentary, because whether or not this character was based on an actual autistic (unlikely, but maybe...) is kinda important. I'd be surprised if he was although if not this character's portrayal brings the movie down somewhat.

An 'escaped' hungry Tiger hunts down a Teenage girl and her autistic brother in they're boarded up house while a hurricane rages outside.

What starts as a Jurassic park rip off creature feature briefly turns in to a HBO drama, as Kelly (Briana Evigan) must look after her brother as their Stepfather Johnny isn't much help, in fact he's stolen the families savings to open a Safari park. Terminator TV actor Garret Dillahunt gives a limited performance as the Stepfather who purchases a Circus Tiger from Howie (played by Meat Loaf) who can't wait get rid of the animal.

The film hasn't got a sci-fi movie channel feel but Burning Bright is an odd film, mixed with a variety of genres. Novice Carlos Brooks direction is effective enough, however, the Tiger never comes across as menacing. The animals trainers clearly don't want to bring out the Tiger's nasty instinctive streak and he ends up looking like a Tony Tiger of Frosties cereal adverts.

For most, Evigan's in shorts and a vest top climbing bare foot up laundry pipes and jogging though out the film maybe enough to keep your interest. On the other hand some may find how she handles her demanding autistic brother and the Tiger itself fascinating.

It's a film with big ideas but a small budget, let down by the ludicrous set up of how the Tiger gets to the house and the elaborate reasoning why he's been let loose. Should the tiger had just escaped from a Circus truck in a storm and gets into the house it would have given the story some credibility and weight. Less in this case would have been more.

Still, it's because of it cinematic look and feel the weirdly titled and bizarre story inexplicably keeps you watching until the end.

I think the fact that i went into this movie knowing nothing about it helped me enjoy this even more. I love how they use a real tiger instead of some CGI cartoon mixed with reality. I loved the acting and the story development, it really came together and keeps you on edge. Lets not get it twisted, this is a family friendly film but its not cheesy in any way. I highly recommend this one

In this film we see a young woman trying her best to take care of her autistic brother after their mother has committed suicide. They still live with their stepfather but as the young woman is trying to place her brother in a facility so that she can go to college knowing her brother is safe we learn that the stepfather has taken all her money. He has bought a vicious tiger in hopes of opening a animal attraction on their property. With a hurricane hours away, the home is boarded up and the tiger is brought into the house. After the tiger is loose, it becomes a fight for she and her brother to survive.

This is a lower budgeted film but I enjoyed it. Some of it seems a bit implausible but it made for an interesting film. The acting and script is ok but the stunts and CGI work could've used more attention. This isn't gonna be a very memorable film but it was an ok watch.

I feel embarrassed on behalf of the makers, or at least whomever approved this hilarious creation, and it really doesn't warrant a full length review from myself personally, because it really speaks for itself.

That having been said, at least it was everything I expected it to be; read the premise and you know you're in for a hilariously bland plot, typical horror movie format, far-fetched scenarios and ridiculously cliché close-calls. What horror movie would be equipped without them? The only difference is that decent movies have something more to offer; a twist, thrill or some underlying message, or just basic semblance of intelligence/style.

Only watch this if you're stoned, so bored that you cannot physically be rendered any more bored, or ill in bed taking the day off work.

Sometimes ridiculous or rubbish premises actually make brilliant or entertaining movies. But this definitely was not one of them.

Wow...finally...a movie that actually thrills.

Set in predominately one location, and with a minimal cast, this is one of the best examples at making not only a movie, but also making it entertaining and thrilling, captivating and memorable.

Scary from many aspects, the writers, actors, director and all involved did a spectacular film in developing what I can only state as a real thriller.

Out of all the thrillers and horror movies I've seen...this is possibly in the top 3 and with a small budget while always ensuring suspense and tension.

Awesome

I didn't really know what to expect with this film before viewing, I thought it would be a typical cgi fest, but! It turned out to be a much better film than anticipated. It's a bit of a slow burn at the beginning, but once the tiger turns up then the suspense starts building up pretty fast. A real tiger was used for this film and there are some very tense scenes between that and the lead actress. And it's a freaking scary looking man eating tiger! It's an interesting premise for a film and it kept me entertained the whole way through with it just being set in the house. The acting was decent for it being low budget with a strong performance from the main actress. Would definitely recommend this title, just for something to put on every once in a while for an enjoyable film.

So, the summary goes like this. Young girl is struggling watching her life's dreams fade away, as she cares for the autistic brother left to her by a mother who commit suicide. They have been left in the care of an evil stepfather who has just plundered said heroine's college savings to buy a tiger for his new safari ranch. Naturally, he does this the day a hurricane is coming, conveniently setting up a scenario where our two young victims are trapped in a house with a hungry tiger.

Despite the ludicrousness of the plot, I thought I'd give this a chance based on many solid reviews I have seen on my favorite horror sites, figuring if they can build the tension well enough it's no sillier a plot than many other horror movies.

The first half of this film is buildup and character development with no real action taking place. While this is fine in and of itself and I have no problem with slow burn, or character development, the problem here is an overload of melodramatic family problems and hackneyed plot devices. Let's see, mom has commit suicide, leaving two children with an evil stepdad. One child is autistic (seemingly the trendy affliction of the time to pull a few heartstrings), leaving our heroine to feel responsible for his care, at the sacrifice of her own college goals. The dramatic touch-points just keep coming in the beginning. When the action finally starts to build, the clichés just keep coming. The setting is an oncoming hurricane, leading to our character's requisite trapping in their home. Naturally, the cell phone breaks so there's no communication. The car won't start on queue. The girl is the single worst close range pistol aim you'll ever see. Of course, she does find a way to get soaking wet in a white t-shirt since the director clearly felt he was missing any T&A to check off the horror rules list.

So okay, it's a direct to video thriller with a clearly out there premise, so maybe I'm being a little harsh? Was I expecting an Oscar winner? No, of course not, but I do expect creativity. Were there moments of tension? Yes, but every one of them telegraphed so far ahead of time that I was, literally, writing the script in my head as the action went on. Too bad Vegas doesn't take bets on movie plots, because I would have made a fortune by predicting the ending exactly as it happened about halfway through the film.

I will give it credit for the effects. This could have been horrible SyFy quality crap with laptop level CGI, but instead they went for practical effects with a real tiger and I did appreciate the director for taking that approach. I found myself at times amazed more for the tiger's "acting ability" and how well it was trained than for any action going on screen.

This movie certainly isn't a waste of your time and I've seen far worse DTV horror films, but it doesn't amount to the reviews I have seen either.