Creature (2011)

When a group of young tourists decide to take a detour on their way through Louisiana, they discover there's more than a legend lurking in the murky swampland. Not a bad idea as b-movies go, but CREATURE is a failure in every department of film making. The script is awful, the dialog crass and unrealistic, and the six young leads are totally unsympathetic and impossible to identify with. There isn't much action, but a few horrific set pieces are extremely gory and exceedingly unpleasant. The eponymous monster doesn't have much to do and it might have been wiser to make the villain one of the several alligators that populate the region in which the story takes place. Failing that, I imagine we're supposed to see this as some sort of homage to CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, but this film has absolutely nothing in common with that classic. Insipid, vulgar, and insulting, CREATURE is an altogether toxic film experience.

Incest. A touch of cannibalism. A sprinkling of nudity. And a half- man/half-gator creature. Hmmm. Must be the Louisiana Bayou! And so it is! Really. What can you expect from this kind of story. The moral is that you have to go into it expecting what you should be expecting. If you do - and you're not expecting some horror masterpiece - you find a movie that ain't good by a longshot, but that can still pass some time in a way that at least isn't painful.In "Creature" we're following the adventures of six young people (3 male, 3 female) on their way to New Orleans, who stop at a backwoods store and get introduced to a local legend about this creature. The creature has an interesting background. Born (evolved? transformed?) a couple of hundred years before when a brother and sister decided they had to - well - take responsibility for making sure their family continued on. Unfortunately, before they could accomplish this, the sister was eaten by a large white gator, whom the brother then killed. But driven mad by the experience, he proceeded to consume everything in the gator's lair - including his now dead sister. This apparently was enough to transform him into Gator-Man! Gator-Man now keeps the family line going, with the use of nubile young females chosen against their will for this purpose - and, just by happy (or unhappy) coincidence, there are three nubile young females in the movie.You get what you expect. And you should know what you're going to get right off the top. The movie opens with a young woman who goes swimming (stark naked) in a gator-infested swamp. Not surprisingly, we see no more of the young woman after those opening few scenes. That opening is certainly eye catching. The story from then on isn't great. It's not horrible, mind you. I've seen worse. Not unexpectedly, there are a couple of scenes that come across as mildly soft core porn-like, and there is for some reason that I didn't think was necessary a strange, religious cult-like background to the whole thing. And in at least one close up I thought Gator-Man looked surprisingly like the Gorn who did battle with Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek. There's a couple of twists involved - including one that keeps the movie going when you thought it had ended (and I'm still not sure whether that was good or bad!)The strength of this movie was actually in the performances. The cast was (to me at least) completely unknown, but they all did a good job. They didn't just go through the motions. They were taking this seriously enough, which must have been a challenge at times. I thought that the three young women especially did a great job of showing very believable terror at their plight. The performances made this rather silly story watchable. (3/10)

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...

This movie opens with a bang! The action keeps coming as it is just a short time until Lauren Schneider gives Sid Haig (Devil's Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses) - and us - an eyeful.Mehcad Brooks (Eggs from True Blood) is one tough mofo, and if anyone can survive and save his girl (Serinda Swan), it will be him. He manages to keep his head, while all others are losing theirs. Of course, I do not know how he has an unbroken bone in his body!A little girl on girl action (very little), and some brotherly love.Poor Beth (Amanda Fuller).