Creature (2011)

Thanks for the memories!

Nice effects though.

A lot of fun.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

What we have here is yet another weird and whacky monster/human hybrid lurking in the marshes and feasting on nude females. However no horror marsh movie is complete without a full set of rubes, a nonsense backstory and the obligatory group of lame city- slickers on a tour to the south; and by the south I mean the moonshine drinking, coonskin cap wearing folk. It took a while for me to even work out what the hell this was even about, however as the over-the-top story would have it, a family of inbreeds is apparently down to its last two "viable" members for producing any offspring and as they were sealing their bond an alligator comes up and kills the bride to be, which sends husband/brother into a fit a rage as he seeks to hunt down the 'gator involved. As it turns out, the alligator was killed barehanded but the revenge/rage had turned to insanity by this point and this grieving husband decides to consume all the remaining body parts of random people left uneaten by the alligator, (including his sister bride). Somehow this insanity induced cannibalism mutated this freak into the human/gator hybrid. Yeah, I didn't get it either, but it is what it is. Nonetheless this thing comes out every so often to breed with a chosen female in order to keep the line of hybrid freaks going. As to why, is anyone's guess as it would make more sense to just stop this idiotic seasonal sacrifice and just live your life but a rube's gotta do, what a rube does best. I get that horror movies in general aren't usually supposed to make a great deal of sense but it has to at least make some attempt at a coherent plot or why bother making them in the first place? And with Creature, it just makes no sense. Everybody in this does things that the average person wouldn't do. I can live with the inane dialogue but why make a horror movie and then have all the horror action performed off screen? In every single horror scene, you get a build up, the usual jump scare tactic and the aftermath. You don't get to see anything! I can understand that this may be a tactic designed to save money on special effects but it just comes off as annoying. I didn't even care for the nudity in this. Pasty white skin and unremarkable breasts on a stick figure physique does nothing for me. Despite all the nudity, sex scenes and even the girl on girl action, the whole movie meanders between tedium and boredom. Naturally by the end, only one couple out of three manage to survive and there's never a follow on to see how these two will explain the deaths of four of their friends, but why get bogged in details. An epilogue shows us that one of the girls was kept alive by the alligator man, (who is called Lockjaw by the way), he's somehow managed to breed with her and she's given birth to a bouncing baby throwback. Creature is just too boring to be remotely interesting and it's a waste that this ever got made. It's too stupid to be funny and the boredom makes it difficult to have enough vested interest to work out that the whole road trip was just a ploy by the leader of our intrepid crew of college cretins to have his girlfriend used as a surrogate for the spawn of lockjaw. Take my advice and don't waste your time with this.

This movie was just like being back in the 1990's and watching one of the countless creature features that were spawned back in that decade. And I must say that I was actually enjoying this movie, because it was like a cool trip back to the good old times.The story in "Creature" is fairly straight forward as a creature feature horror movie goes; a group of young people come to hear about the legend of Lockjaw, a supposedly half man-half alligator, and all killing machine. Bent of some sight seeing and looking into this old folktale, they seek out the old house where Grimley Boutine used to live, not knowing what horror lies in wait. The rural area holds more than one dark secret, as the locals seem to behold this monstrosity as some kind of God-like entity, offering up live sacrifice in the shape of humans to the reptilian monstrosity.Right, straight forward and fairly average storyline for a horror movie, I will agree with that. But it actually worked out nicely, because the movie plays well on superstition and keeping the audience in the shroud, revealing only bits and pieces of valuable information here and there. And there is a nice surprise twist to the storyline as well, as in who is who and whom can be trusted.The cast in the movie was quite alright, despite it mostly being unfamiliar faces. I will admit that I bought this movie for two reasons; 1. it is always fun to sit down and watch a creature feature. 2. Sid Haig is in this movie. And I was entertained on both accounts, especially because Sid Haig does such a wonderful job with these odd and dark semi-villainous roles that he usually portrays. But it was also nice to see David Jensen, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Daniel Bernhardt in this movie.And the creature effects were actually quite nice as well, especially as they had not opted to go for a myriad of spectacular CGI effects, but went for the 'old school' props and costume effects, and it actually worked out quite well.If you enjoyed creature features back in the 1990's, then chances are quite high that you will enjoy this movie as well. Thumbs up from me, and don't just ventured heedlessly into the swamp...

Six friends run afoul of a vicious predatory reptilian humanoid monster known as Lockjaw (muscular Daniel Bernhardt in a funky and convincing rubber costume) in a backwoods Louisiana swamp hamlet. Director Fred M. Andrews, who also co-wrote the fun and fairly clever script with Tracy Moore, relates the entertaining story at a steady pace, offers a flavorsome evocation of the marshy rural setting, delivers a handy helping of grisly gore and a pleasing smattering of tasty gratuitous female nudity (which includes an opening scene with a sexy skinny-dipper who shows the whole package), develops a good deal of tension, and tosses in a few neat surprise plot twists for good measure. Moreover, Andrews deserves extra kudos for not only using a guy in a cool suit beast instead of resorting to hokey CGI effects, but also for taking time to establish the six main young adult protagonists as genuinely engaging characters that the viewer actually cares about and coming up with an interesting and intricate mythology for the titular ferocious being. The sound acting by the able cast rates as another definite asset: Mehcad Brooks as the amiable and rugged Niles, the gorgeous Serinda Swan as the sweet Emily, Dillon Casey as likable goofball Oscar, Lauren Schneider as sassy redhead spitfire Karen, Aaron Hill as the hot-headed Randy, Amanda Puller as the perky Beth, Wayne Pere as scruffy hick Bud, and David Jensen as surly redneck Jimmy. Cult favorite Sid Haig contributes a zesty turn as evil, but easygoing storekeeper Chopper while Pruit Taylor Vince has an amusing minor part as antsy oddball local yokel Grover. Christopher Faloona's sharp cinematography gives the picture an impressive polished look. Kevin Heskins' shuddery score does the rousing spine-chilling trick. A nifty little straightforward and unpretentious Grade B creature feature.

Over the past decade or so, so-called "creature features" have been a bit of a rarity. They were all the rage for decades, with some of the earliest dating back into the early 1900s with films like 'The Golem' and 'King Kong.' However, as times changed, so did tastes within the horror genre. Sure, every now & again, horror fans get treated to a more popular monster movie, but they very rarely ever make it to "the next level." Recently, there have been some more popular creature features like 'Cloverfield,' 'The Host,' and 'Feast,' but none of them really rebooted the trend. Now, a new creature feature, creatively titled 'Creature,' has been released by rookie writer/director Fred Andrews. Could it be the film that reignites the love for creature features? Eh, no. 'Creature' is yet another "backwoods" (or "back-swamp," I suppose) horror, which is a subgenre that has been getting a bit more focus over the past few years, probably due to the success of Adam Green's gorefest 'Hatchet,' from which Fred Andrews clearly "borrowed" plenty of inspiration. It stars a group of young actors that you may or may not recognize from random TV roles like Serinda Swan from 'Breakout Kings' or Aaron Hill from 'Greek' (in which he played a character called The Beaver. . . seriously). Anyway, the story focuses on this group of generic young people (that you'll forget as soon as the credits roll) as they make their way into the swamps of Louisiana. As they always do, the young people come across an impossible legend of a vicious monster that, of course, turns out to be the possible. Oh no. As the monster feasts on the pretty young people, horror veteran Sid Haig randomly appears to do what Sid Haig usually does: Look gross, add humour, and send a group of dumb kids to their deaths (yeah, he was basically an unpainted Captain Spaulding in this). Little tip for realism to Fred Andrews: If you're going to have Sid Haig playing a backwoods hick, don't have him wearing freshly pressed khakis. There are a certain few things that you should expect from the 70s/80s-style creature features. What are they? Stupidity, violence, gore, and nudity, right? Well, they're all here. So, if that's all you need, then check the film out, because from the first frame, you get to see a pasty, homely chick skinny dipping in a swamp you know is filled with leeches, gators, and hepatitis. What do you think happens next? Certainly not what happens any time someone goes skinny dipping in a horror film! In fact, any time you see any of those "horror movie moments" (going to get more beer, going to the bathroom alone, etc.) in this film, don't expect there to be much of a stray from PRECISELY what you'll expect.Now, how about that writing? Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and sat in awe thinking, "Wow! They talk exactly like me & my friends! It's like they copied my life!" This isn't like that. In fact, if you ever find yourself saying that the people in this movie sound like your group of friends, immediately go out and find new friends. The only line of dialogue in this film that actually holds any truth came from the previously mentioned Aaron Hill when he noted, "It doesn't get any cheesier than that." Just about sums this one up.But, hey, what importance do writing, originality, and acting have in a schlockfest? Absolutely nothing! There are really only two things that matter all that much: Creature FX and fun! And how can you ruin that? I don't really know, but somehow they did. The creature FX were lame, like a subpar ripoff of a bad Roger Corman flick. The main villain, Grimley, looked like Takka from 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.' They probably would've been more at home in a SyFy original than in a film that received a theatrical release (regardless of how short the release was). It's not as if this was a microbudget movie. They had $3 million here and couldn't produce better than the quality you see in the average film school project. Overall, 'Creature' can't even rise to the expected quality of the classic cheesy B-flicks we've come to love like 'Lake Placid' or 'Swamp Thing.' It's a poorly written, stalely directed, and lukewarm rendition of a story we've seen done much better dozens of times before. The only redeeming factor of the film is the scenery, but that isn't to compliment the filmmakers here. It's hard to film a Deep South swamp and not have it look cool. Final Verdict: 3.5/10. Avoid. I knew it'd be bad, but I didn't think it'd be boring. -AP3-