Creature (2011)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Don't Believe the Hype

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

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

This is going to come as a total surprise to you, but for the first time ever in a feature film a bunch of youngsters head off into the woods to get drunk, smoke weed, and 'make out' (whatever that is, I don't know what with me being a Benedictine monk). I was totally expecting them just to have a good time and then head home, but it turns out that there's some monster in the woods who then proceeds to hard sell the youth some unneeded double glazing, gets knocked back, then kills them all. Well, most of them.The cover of the DVD I picked up for fifty pence at an all monk car boot sale in Glasgow boasted of gore and nudity, and while it got one of them right (there's some boobs), the gore was mostly all off-screen, which is weird in these times when our horror hungry youth demands graphic torture scenes. There's some local rednecks involved too, one of the being Sid Haig, whom I've never seen in anything good.It's fine they had practical creature effects, but other than that you've seen this plot before many times. We were all disappointed back in the monastery and had to therefore entertain ourselves with the usual game of soggy biscuit.

The opening sequence with Ophelia's swim in the swamp marks this movie as an exploitation effort: full nudity followed by gore and death.The scene then jump shifts to three upscale city couples traveling in an expensive SUV to the backwoods swamps in Louisiana. The six rich kids stop at a general store. They show their general disrespect for local traditions and people. The four men at the general store are depicted as inbred, uneducated, violent, and unsanitary.The good old boys tell a story of the Boutine family, which was dying out some decades ago. The story culminates with the almost wedding of brother and sister (Grimley and Caroline Boutine), who are the last possible breeders in the clan. The ceremony is interrupted by a legendary gator, Lockjaw, who eats the bride. The groom is discouraged by this. He kills the gator, then eats it, including parts of his almost bride. Following one of the clichés of cannibalism, Grimley absorbs some of the strengths of Lockjaw, becoming a man/monster.Let's have a moment of silence for that massive 'jump the shark' incident.The local good old boys warn the six city folk to respect the tradition, which is not explained in any detail. The city folk don't show respect, of course, and the locals attempt to force the tradition on them.Do any of the city youngsters survive this elimination derby and get home? -----Scores-----Cinematography: 6/10 Looked professional at least part of the time.Sound: 7/10 Not too bad.Acting: 4/10 Mehcad Brooks seemed way too old for the part; on the other hand, he was the best actor in the film by far. That in itself was another problem: why would such a level-headed young man get into this mess? Most of the other actors played caricatures, particularly Sid Haig. All of the actors playing swamp folk gave terrible performances.Screenplay: 3/10 The dialog the actors were given was mostly poor. The exposition of motivation left a lot to be desired: why did anyone do any of the things they did in this movie? The worst for me was during the Niles-Lockjaw fight. There is no way that Niles could survive even one hit from the monster, much less 15 or so. Ridiculous.SFX: 3/10 The creature effects were modestly convincing; they were reminiscent of the Creature in the Black Lagoon (1954). The gore effects were not convincing at all.

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...

I love to give what appears to be an Independent Horror film a shot, but movies like this, further make me want to research a ton before wasting my time with such dreck. This movie could have been decent enough, if it played out with the usual silly city kids play tough, go to the backwoods and have to fight for their lives against a local legend that lives.Especially the old guy in monster suit routine, bringing back memories of past without overwhelming digital of today.Instead we get a piece of flotsom that again makes our neighbors down South, all come across as inbred ignorant savages, worthy of death plus we get Incest spotlighted as just another passing fantasy on the human development chart of the 21st Century.Add bad acting, a monster that kicks everyone's rear, yet somehow cannot seem to take down the so-called hero of the story, (even after relentlessly pounding him in the ground in one sequence.) and overabundance of nudity to cover story flaws and boredom, you have a thriller.Then to further put the knife in, you have the DVD Extra's where the cast and crew pat themselves on the back, like they have just performed in a Oscar category flick, add on one of the actors talking about how Hot he found the Incest filming scene was, and you want to take a shower and apologize to your partner for the mistake of renting this trash!