There is a congregation of believers that devote their lives to the pursuit of grotesque beasts. You might call these monsters Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti, the Jersey Devil, or Lockjaw, but either way these creatures are elusive and terrifying. Creature hunters bring us blurry pictures and provide us with those monster reality shows on SyFy, but what happens when they really find one?
When six friends set out on a road trip through the Louisiana backcountry, driver Oscar (Dillon Casey Valemont, The Vampire Diaries) decides to take a detour and find "The house Grimley built out of blood". While Oscar and his sister Karen (Lauren Schneider Wrestling) are dead set on exploring the story of Lockjaw and his grisly home, the rest of their passengers aren't so sure; maybe they should have just stuck to the map...
Creature is an unexpectedly raunchy film within the creature feature genre. With an overabundance of nudity and sexuality that would satisfy most teenage boys, this movie is chock full of moments that might make the prude inside of you a bit uncomfortable. However, if you are able to look past the rampant smuttiness, Creature offers a fun ride to the viewer. For those who love carnage, you’ll see some great kills in Creature. With a camptastic, blood-spurting amputated limb, a beastly impaling, and some monumental monster munchings, there’s a death to appease any gore lover. Creature ventures outside the box in terms of plot, too.
Written by Fred Andrews and Tracy Morse (P5Ych), this movie gives you shock and awe galore; you won’t know what’s coming next. Andrews also directs Creature; this may be his first directing gig, but it isn’t his first rodeo. Andrews already has twelve projects for which he was a production designer under his belt, including Dark Ride, CSI: Miami and Without a Trace. I really enjoyed the raw nature of the filming, especially when imperfections were highlighted on both the background and the actors. The "flaws" make the movie more believable, which is incredibly hard to do with a creature feature.
I was ecstatic to see the actual creature shown in the previews. It seems like when we have to wait until the end of a movie to actually see the monster, it doesn’t measure up to our expectations. Andrews wasn’t shy about showing his viewers the creature, not only in the previews, but in direct light. Full confidence in his beast helps the creature seem more realistic, and I really enjoyed being able to see the detail work that the effects team put into him.
The acting in the movie was better than I had expected in some aspects, although there were several moments of over dramatics. One thing that I was bowled over by was the fantastic regional timbre. There is a certain art to getting dialects right, and the “locals” in the movie really pulled off that Creole accent. I was also impressed by Lauren Schneider; she was actually most striking when she couldn't even speak, being bound and gagged. She was a fun character throughout the movie, but at that moment of intense terror she made me sit up on the edge of my couch. I’m sure we’ll be seeing her again. Besides Schneider, there were some of our favorite front runners: Pruitt Taylor Vince (Constantine, Natural Born Killers), David Jensen (The Mist), and, of course, the wonderful Sid Haig (The Devil’s Rejects, House of 1000 Corpses).
When it comes down to it, Creature is entertaining, but not an outstanding horror film. Creature got a lot of things right, and fans of monster movies should have a lot of fun with this one. However, this isn't a movie for everyone, especially if you're squeamish or don't like seeing excessive nudity in films.
Film Score: 1.5/5
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