Banshee!!! (2008)

As Good As It Gets

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

While this film deserves to be panned for its overall failure, an outstanding and memorable performance by Kerry McGann redeems this lackluster effort from total oblivion. She is simply excellent as a local police officer who goes to battle with the dreaded titular banshee. Her portrayal of a strong and competent female character is refreshing in this sort of horror outing. Despite a weak script and poor dialog, she manages to make clear what a gifted actor can do in the worst of movies. It is only because of McGann that this is not a complete waste of time. The rest of the cast seems amateurish, as does the direction. The special effects are terrible and the cinematography is abysmal. The film is only recommended as an introduction to the work of Kerry McGann and little else.

On a camping trip for Spring Break, a group of friends run across a farming family engaged in a deadly struggle with a legendary creature and are brought into the blood-soaked war between both sides.This here was quite an enjoyable creature feature with a lot to like about it. One of the more enjoyable aspects here is the rather novel creature are the center of the film, which has plenty to like. The design and overall look to this one is pretty intriguing as this one plays out rather nicely here by being quite a unique and enjoyable design which fits the creature rather well. It also has some rather intriguing effects on the other parts of the film by showcasing some pretty intriguing tactics and abilities to make this quite unique. It's primary tactic of a hallowing, debilitating shriek which disrupts those around it as well as giving it a weapon based off its own history and is all executed quite well, while a secondary ability in the shape-shifting causes this one a lot of fun in the few scenes it's utilized. The distrust among the survivors in the house at the end by switching out different people and bring along all the different confrontations in the house due to that are all really exciting which settles onto the film's best aspect which is the rather exciting action scenes within this one. These are spread throughout here which makes for a pretty thrilling pace in addition to providing this one with a slew of exciting moments. The opening attack on the campsite which leads into the chase through the train-tracks through the woods, the two different flashbacks showing the family's struggle with the creature and the encounter in the family barn all manage to include that kind of exciting and enjoyable action while still maintaining a healthy dose of fear for the creature. Along with the rather bloody kills and a fine sense of cheese delivered through the different seduction techniques with this one, it has a lot to like though there's some minor flaws present. One of the biggest here is that this one never really gives this a healthy back-story for the creature. This one never gives up much of anything about the creature or why it's going after the family or why it's there to begin with, and there's little about that which fits this. Aside from this, the only other flaw would be the lame CGI here for everything from the creature and the kills which stands out quite readily, and slightly lowers this one.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.

Actually Banshee!!! is not quite as bad as the review title suggests, but it is hardly a good movie either, at least to me. The only things that stop it from being any worse than it turned to be were some pretty good prosthetic gore effects and a couple of scenes where it is energetically paced. But these few good moments fall far and between because the rest of the movie is to sum it up in one word...lame. The creature of the title is cheaply made, inconsistent and apart from the fact it kills it is not menacing at all. The look of the film also is not much better, the sets are decent actually but the filming generally is static and unfinished, with the use of various styles at the end proving to be too much. The dialogue is choppy and does flow very well, the story is underdeveloped with a high predictability factor, and the character especially the lead are irritating. The acting is not terrible, but it is never above mediocre level. Overall, I've seen worse but Banshee!!! was still a mess. 3/10 Bethany Cox

A predatory creature, which can imitate human form and inanimate objects, hunts a group of characters for food..locals in a small town and college students on spring break camping vacation. This winged creature screeches before attacking it's human targets and seems to be using a type of hallucinatory power which can help manipulate the minds of those it plans to assault by emulating it's victims.We follow a trio of remaining students holed up in the cabin of a local whose wife was lunch for the banshee and his visiting rock singing nephew, not to mention a female constable on patrol, all eventually coming in contact with the monster at one point or another, joining forces in an attempt to both fight and escape it with their lives hanging in the balance. One weapon they discover is that the creature reacts painfully to loud noise, but doesn't seem to be affected by bullets at all.Some pretty good prosthetic gore effects early on, but the creature is a disappointing CGI abomination. When it attacks law enforcement officers, the lame CGI effects fail to impress, and the series of decapitations are laughable. Quite a low budget creature feature, shot in Connecticut, probably cast using locals. My favorite scene shows the removal of a stick that went through a victim's leg.