Save your money for something good and enjoyable

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Blistering performances.

SWAMP DEVIL is a B-movie that commits the cardinal sin of being boring. This clichéd, unoriginal film follows a well-ploughed route and barely justifies the running time with a threadbare plot that bears little resemblance to reality. Once again there's a rarely seen monster out in the woods that kills a handful of people in campy death scenes, until the main characters finally team up to tackle it. Aside from a few cool moments of not-bad monster action at the climax, this is boring stuff indeed.It doesn't help that the CGI effects used to animate the vine-man are pretty diabolical; they reminded me of something you might see in a superhero flick and the analogy is made clear when a central character reveals his ability to transform into said creature. This blows away any vestiges of credibility and it doesn't help that the guy playing the monster is an absolutely terrible actor. With the opening scene of a scantily-clad blonde being pursued through the woods at night by an unseen predator, I thought this might be mildly entertaining, but I was mistaken. A lame twist ending and barely any bloodshed to speak of work against this one as well. I did like the idea of the monster not being able to leave the town boundaries but I'm sure that's been ripped off from a previous movie as well.Sci-Fi Original movies seem to be a hit and miss affair, usually miss though. The only one I can say I've really enjoyed has been AZTEC REX, but stuff like IN THE SPIDER'S WEB and VIPERS are bottom of the barrel, just like this film – but I think SWAMP DEVIL is even worse than those two movies. The old-timer in the cast is Bruce Dern, who you have to feel sorry for, although lead actress Cindy Sampson manages to portray an inner integrity which makes her more than appealing. Otherwise SWAMP DEVIL is barely worth your time.

Don't let the varying covers of this movie trick you into thinking that there is some interesting viewing ahead, as I can assure you there is nothing remotely interesting about this mess.Movie starts with some kind of prologue that occurred 17 years ago. A young girl running from something in the swamp, runs into a man who turns out to be a deranged killer. The then local sheriff and some men track him down and instead of bringing him to justice they beat him within an inch of his life and then throw him in the bog.Flash forward to "today", and there is another young girl, albeit sightly older & more developed, running through the swamp who then gets dragged to her death and is found floating up in the marshes. The townspeople all suspect the former sheriff, who's now an old man so they set about bringing him to justice.Enter the old man's estranged daughter; lured back to the town under the false pretence that he was dying. Once back into town the story of him being a suspected murderer is revealed and she's there in the hope to help catch him.Long story short, the man who tricked the daughter to come back to town turns out to be the creature responsible and after a few ridiculous deaths and seemingly endless chases through the same part of swampland, father and daughter reconcile, creature killed and everybody lives happily ever after. The reason all this happened is that the swamp devil has been hunting down all those who "wronged" him and making their deaths look like accidents or suicides, plus by his own admission he just loves killing.The worst thing about this is not the cheap CGI, the boring deaths, the highly derivative story or the poor acting, what really got under my skin is that the identity of the killer/creature is actually given away within the first 5 minutes and then repeatedly throughout the movie. For some stupid reason the killer thrown into the bog 17 years ago simply didn't die, he instead bonded with the bog itself and became the swamp devil. Sure why not. That wouldn't be so bad except that he can somehow change from being human to vine creature at will, yet he leaves inexplicable muddy footprints wherever he seems to go and no one takes any notice. In addition he seems to be bound by the city limits, never being able to cross the county boundary line. Let's not forget the constant attempts at shooting at this thing which never works, (it is largely a plant after all) but they keep trying and of course failing and you wonder why they don't try fire, it is as I said largely a plant. So how did they manage to kill this thing? They drive to the edge of town with the creature on the back of a pick-up truck where it jumps off just before they cross the line. It then stood around like an idiot knowing that certain death was a mere 2 feet away until the old man in a car ploughed into it and threw it across the county line where it exploded in an shower of dirt, roots and vines. And like all cheap and nasty monster movies, going all the way back to the 50's, there is some kind of epilogue where the woman who owns the diner goes into the swamp and then lovingly caresses a skeletal hand shaped vine coming up out of the bog indicating that the "horror is due for a return". All I can say is, I certainly hope not!

I've previously seen several other movies from this production company (RHI), and those movies were pretty bad. "Swamp Devil" is not much better than usual for this company. For a low budget movie, it is lit and shot fairly well. Some of the special effects are also not bad for a low budget. And Bruce Dern does add a little life, but not even his talents can save the movie. Monster fans will be disappointed that there is almost no blood and no gore at all, and there's nothing in the nudity and sex department. But what sinks the movie is the script, which has a number of unanswered questions. Why can't the monster cross the county line? How was the person exactly transformed into a swamp devil? Why did the monster wait so long to get revenge against the Bruce Dern character? What is the exact relationship the swamp monster has with the diner owner? And how is what happens in the final scene possible? Clearly this was an unfinished screenplay, and should have been worked on A LOT more before shooting began.

This film was okay. I did like the story concept but the action scenes were way off. The concept was that a girl return to her hometown to try and help find her dad who is suspected in lots of crimes around the town. When she meets a guy she learns that he is not who he seems to be. He has been after her father and will do anything to get his hands on her. I thought the scenes with the swamp like creature were computer generated instead of made out of twigs,vines, and a lot of other stuff. I thought that the creature looked okay but when it was fighting it looked like the thing from the film Man-thing. Because it kicked everyone's butts and scared lots of people around the town limits. I was happy that everything turned out okay in the ending of the film. But it was scary when the hand came out of the water and then came out it's head, it's back and out for blood again!