One of my all time favorites.

Disappointment for a huge fan!

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

In the back country of Louisiana, a group of friends unearth a terrible secret that unleashes a monster from the depths of the swamp.We can now look back on this and say it was one of the worst-grossing films of all time. Perhaps that is something of an honor. To be fair, it really is not as bad as you might think based on how it did in theaters. How did it bomb? What went wrong? That is hard to say.One thing I do know is that the creators love Sid Haig, because he is prominently on display in the poster despite being a relatively minor character. And although he plays basically the Southern version of Captain Spaulding, they threw a "Spider Baby" reference in there, too. So that was nice.While I am sad that the people behind this seemed to be inspired -- at least a little -- by "House of 1000 Corpses", it makes me feel better knowing they also had a very strong "Hatchet" vibe going on. While this is nowhere near as good as Adam Green's film, they seem to have been going for the same story... without ripping it off.

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...

Over the past decade or so, so-called "creature features" have been a bit of a rarity. They were all the rage for decades, with some of the earliest dating back into the early 1900s with films like 'The Golem' and 'King Kong.' However, as times changed, so did tastes within the horror genre. Sure, every now & again, horror fans get treated to a more popular monster movie, but they very rarely ever make it to "the next level." Recently, there have been some more popular creature features like 'Cloverfield,' 'The Host,' and 'Feast,' but none of them really rebooted the trend. Now, a new creature feature, creatively titled 'Creature,' has been released by rookie writer/director Fred Andrews. Could it be the film that reignites the love for creature features? Eh, no. 'Creature' is yet another "backwoods" (or "back-swamp," I suppose) horror, which is a subgenre that has been getting a bit more focus over the past few years, probably due to the success of Adam Green's gorefest 'Hatchet,' from which Fred Andrews clearly "borrowed" plenty of inspiration. It stars a group of young actors that you may or may not recognize from random TV roles like Serinda Swan from 'Breakout Kings' or Aaron Hill from 'Greek' (in which he played a character called The Beaver. . . seriously). Anyway, the story focuses on this group of generic young people (that you'll forget as soon as the credits roll) as they make their way into the swamps of Louisiana. As they always do, the young people come across an impossible legend of a vicious monster that, of course, turns out to be the possible. Oh no. As the monster feasts on the pretty young people, horror veteran Sid Haig randomly appears to do what Sid Haig usually does: Look gross, add humour, and send a group of dumb kids to their deaths (yeah, he was basically an unpainted Captain Spaulding in this). Little tip for realism to Fred Andrews: If you're going to have Sid Haig playing a backwoods hick, don't have him wearing freshly pressed khakis. There are a certain few things that you should expect from the 70s/80s-style creature features. What are they? Stupidity, violence, gore, and nudity, right? Well, they're all here. So, if that's all you need, then check the film out, because from the first frame, you get to see a pasty, homely chick skinny dipping in a swamp you know is filled with leeches, gators, and hepatitis. What do you think happens next? Certainly not what happens any time someone goes skinny dipping in a horror film! In fact, any time you see any of those "horror movie moments" (going to get more beer, going to the bathroom alone, etc.) in this film, don't expect there to be much of a stray from PRECISELY what you'll expect.Now, how about that writing? Have you ever watched a movie or TV show and sat in awe thinking, "Wow! They talk exactly like me & my friends! It's like they copied my life!" This isn't like that. In fact, if you ever find yourself saying that the people in this movie sound like your group of friends, immediately go out and find new friends. The only line of dialogue in this film that actually holds any truth came from the previously mentioned Aaron Hill when he noted, "It doesn't get any cheesier than that." Just about sums this one up.But, hey, what importance do writing, originality, and acting have in a schlockfest? Absolutely nothing! There are really only two things that matter all that much: Creature FX and fun! And how can you ruin that? I don't really know, but somehow they did. The creature FX were lame, like a subpar ripoff of a bad Roger Corman flick. The main villain, Grimley, looked like Takka from 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.' They probably would've been more at home in a SyFy original than in a film that received a theatrical release (regardless of how short the release was). It's not as if this was a microbudget movie. They had $3 million here and couldn't produce better than the quality you see in the average film school project. Overall, 'Creature' can't even rise to the expected quality of the classic cheesy B-flicks we've come to love like 'Lake Placid' or 'Swamp Thing.' It's a poorly written, stalely directed, and lukewarm rendition of a story we've seen done much better dozens of times before. The only redeeming factor of the film is the scenery, but that isn't to compliment the filmmakers here. It's hard to film a Deep South swamp and not have it look cool. Final Verdict: 3.5/10. Avoid. I knew it'd be bad, but I didn't think it'd be boring. -AP3-

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!