Burning Bright is a movie that was nowhere on my radar. In fact, the only reason I even received any knowledge of its existence was when a co-worker of mine was determined to tell me all about it because he had read the plot summary on his video-on-demand service and instantly thought of me. Which is both telling of my tastes and also a bit frightening that people equate me with schlock. And, let me tell you, reading a quick summary of this flick, I was expecting nothing but schlock. So colour me shocked that this is actually a well-done, sometimes suspenseful little flick that came out of nowhere to win me over.

Now, about that premise. We're let in on things early when we see Johnny (Garret Dillahunt) pulling up to a desert gas station and going through with the purchase of a circus tiger. Seems our feline friend had a bit of an incident at a recent show and has been deemed unsafe but that's all right with Johnny who wants the tiger to inhabit a "Safari Ranch" he's planning on setting up on his property. After paying for his new pet, he returns home where some yard workers are boarding the place up due to an impending hurricane - one of them also gets his hand injured when he sticks it into the tiger's cage, thus proving the accident might not have been a fluke.

Meanwhile, Kelly (Briana Evigan) is doing her best to get her autistic little brother admitted to a care facility so that she'll be able to make sure he's going to be well taken care of while she heads off to College. When trying to pay tuition, all the money in her account is gone. One guess who took it. See, Johnny happens to be their stepfather who has been tasked with taking care of them since their mother died. Kelly isn't overly impressed with the fact her cash was taken to buy a tiger, of which she's about to get very well acquainted with.

It's here that Burning Bright starts to eclipse its silly, yet intriguing, idea when Kelly and her brother get trapped in the house during the storm and our former circus performer has been let loose within. When this happens, your logic radar is sure to go off, but they actually do manage to explain it during the finale. Just be sure to put aside those nagging thoughts so you can enjoy the ride where Kelly has to try and protect her brother (and his tendencies to wander off and have temper tantrums) while they're stalked by a very hungry tiger.

Thankfully, the makers have decided to not go the CG route instead employing real tigers to menace our cast. Sure, there's a few moments of green screen that are a tiny bit distracting (this is most evident during a scene where it bursts through a wall and also when it's standing on a dining room table) but director Carlos Brooks has staged a few tense moments along the way, and also gotten a strong performance from Evigan, to distract us from this. One of the best examples of why choosing to do this over CG was a good choice is a taut scene where Kelly is hiding in a vent in the laundry room while our tiger stalks the room below her.

Evigan, who recently bored me as the heroine of Sorority Row, redeems herself here giving a solid, better than expected turn as Kelly bringing forth her stress about taking care of her brother (her only real family) and easily clicking on her survival instinct when there's no way out. Charlie Tahan as the autistic Tom shows us that not all child actors have to suck and he does a good job rising to the challenge of portraying a youngster with a serious disorder. Dillahunt, who had the task of trying to match David Hess in last year's Last House on the Left remake and did okay doing so, doesn't get a lot of screen time but is a total prick in the time he does get. That's singer-turned-sometimes-actor Meat Loaf making an unbilled cameo in the opening scene as our tiger seller.

With a script that does a good job of establishing its characters in a short amount of time and suspense moments that are confidently shot by Brooks, Burning Bright is an efficient little flick that rises (way) above its silly sounding premise. Sure, the camera trickery at play is a little obvious at times but at least its not CG and there are a few lapses but that shouldn't stop you from spending the evening with this entertaining effort - I just wish I could figure out why they've taken the film's title from the opening line of William Blake's poem "The Tyger" which he wrote in 1794. (Chris Hartley, 9/13/10)

Directed By: Carlos Brooks.
Written By: Christine Coyle Johnson, Julie Prendiville Roux.

Starring: Briana Evigan, Charlie Tahan, Garret Dillahunt, Peggy Sheffield.