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With: Serinda Swan, Mehcad Brooks, Daniel Bernhardt, Dillon Casey, Amanda Fuller, Sid Haig, Aaron Hill, David Jensen, Rebekah Kennedy, Pruitt Taylor Vince
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Written by: Tracy Morse, Fred Andrews
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Directed by: Fred Andrews
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MPAA Rating: R for bloody violence and grisly images, some sexual content, graphic nudity, language and brief drug use
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Running Time: 93
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Date: 09/09/2011
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Bad 'Creature'
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Hoo-boy... this monster movie is about as bad as they come. Its amazingly low budget includes an actual latex monster rather than the typical CGI special effects. The creature isn't at all scary, but some of the behavior of the human characters can be disturbing: it includes incest and cannibalism. But aside from that, most of the characters are simply flat-out annoying.
Six (presumably) college-age kids -- who don't seem to like each other much -- drive through Louisiana on their way to a fun getaway. Stopping for gas, they meet some creepy backwoods locals, and learn about the legend of a man-monster supposedly living in a swamp. They decide to see the creature's home and wind up spending the night in the woods. Soon, the monster comes out of hiding and begins to attack. Unfortunately, the monster is looking for more than a meal: it's looking for a bride. What's more, it has some unexpected help.
On a pure storytelling level, the filmmakers steal from dozens of typical teen-road-trip horror movies, plus the old evil-hillbilly chestnut, and throw in a few depraved ideas from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's all so numbingly routine that it's not clear whether the filmmakers thought they were paying homage, making a parody, or just doing an outright ripoff. The casting of legendary character actor Sid Haig -- and a subtle mention of Haig's best movie, Spider Baby (1964) -- suggests some genre knowledge, but there's no inspiration in the cheap, lazy Creature. It's dead on arrival.
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