Burning Bright stars Briana Evigan as Kelly, a young woman who
was all set to go to college once she enrolled her autistic younger brother in a
special school while she’s away. Their mother had recently committed suicide,
leaving them alone with their flighty stepfather John (Garret Dillahunt), who
has a strange obsession with turning their Florida house into an animal park.
Kelly doesn’t want to leave Tom (Charlie Tahan) alone with John, since she doesn’t
like him, nor does she trusts him. But her plans are derailed when the check
that Kelly wrote to cover the cost of the special school for Tom bounces due to
a lack of funds. Calling the bank, Kelly discovers that John used the money to
buy a tiger.
John figures that his animal park won’t be a big attraction unless he has a "scary" animal on display, such as a tiger. Kelly, now in dire straights, wonders what to do--her scholarship won’t wait forever for her; she needs to go to school now, or else she’ll lose the money. But doing that means leaving Tom alone with John. Yet when Kelly wakes up the following day, she discovers that she and Tom are facing an even bigger problem. John’s gone, leaving them alone in a sealed up house with a major hurricane bearing down on them, and with the tiger on the loose within the house, patiently hunting them down in their own home like prey in the jungle.
The title Burning Bright refers to the famous poem ‘The Tyger’ by William Blake, which is an ode to the tiger and its deadly beauty. But director Carlos Brooks focuses mainly on the pure fear that’s invoked in the concept of being trapped with such a dangerous animal--especially one that has not eaten in two weeks, and has a really nasty disposition; thanks to the intelligent script, which clarifies important plot points very smoothly within the story. Brooks does a marvelous job at building up and holding the tension throughout the siege that Kelly and Tom find themselves under from the tiger. And the film’s brief running time actually keeps things moving quickly without a false note spoiling it.
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Garret Dillahunt, who’s made a career at playing scuzzball characters from
Deadwood to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is very effective here as John, the stepfather. Malevolently self-absorbed and flaky to the point of being evil, he perfectly epitomizes the sort of casual, everyday villain whose actions make him a threat. Young Charlie Tahan is also superb as Tom, but it’s really Briana Evigan’s sturdy and engaging performance that makes this film so riveting to watch. She imbues her character with a quiet strength as she desperately tries to outwit the tiger at every turn. The film’s creative team eschewed CGI, instead using real tigers and trick photography which only helped to build the film’s taunt tension. If you liked Panic Room, you may want to give this one a try.
--SF
