Creature (2011)
Directed by Fred Andrews
Starring Mehcad Brooks, Serinda Swan, Dillon Casey, Lauren Schneider, Aaron Hill, Amanda Fuller, Wayne Pére, David Jensen, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Daniel Bernhardt, Sid Haig

There was a huge media hype when this movie came out, with ads and hype all over the internet. This little independent horror movie was getting a wide theatrical release and everyone was taking notice. Until it came out. The bad reviews started pouring in and it set a record at the box office as the worst opening in history, and was then quietly pulled from the theaters. Now I try not to get too excited about or buy into all this hype, especially when it comes from the internet since with a lot of these bigger sites, it’s in their best interests to promote something before they know what it is. Helps keeps those positive connections with the studios, you know? Remember all that pre-hype about the Friday the 13th remake? There you go.

Anyway… once it came out I figured I would check it out and give my thoughts, seeing if it was bad as they all claimed. Now maybe because I was going in with my expectations so low, but I didn’t think it was terrible by any means. In fact, I found a lot of merit in there.

The story is nothing new, with a bunch of college kids heading down to New Orleans for some partying, only to get sidetrack to look for some local legend about an alligator man out in the bayou. Of course, the legend is true and the kids end up getting a lot more than they bargained for. Like I said…nothing new. But that being said, much like Adam Green’s Hatchet, I don’t think the filmmakers were trying to do anything new… other than make an entertaining monster movie that would feel like it was made in the ‘80s. And I think they accomplished that.

This is not to say the movie doesn’t have its flaws, because it does. But I think those are pretty minor and very forgivable for the positive things they do have here. First and foremost, they have a man in a rubber monster suit! No matter how bad the movie might be, when anybody does this, I will give them credit. Because that means they are taking the time to find a poor bastard that is willing to put himself through hell with the long hours and tough working conditions to get the film made. It means that they are taking the harder approach then going with some easy, cheaper, and cheesier CGI monster that looks more like a cartoon than anything remotely scary. This shows dedication and passion. So major kudos to them for that. Plus, they also took the time to create a back story for this monster. Granted, some of it just didn’t make too much sense, but none the less, they took the time to create it.

Major kudos goes out to Daniel Bernhardt who plays Grimley Boutine who eventually mutated into Lockjaw, our half man/half crocodile from the title. He’s the guy having to wear a full body costume, filming in probably the no-so-nice conditions and still manages to give a pretty entertaining performance. People like him, working under the rubber in these kinds of movies, don’t seem to get the credit they deserve. So our hats off to you, Mr. Bernhardt. Well done.

Genre fave Sid Haig plays Chopper, owner or a gas station/market out in bayou that has a little tourist trap section about the legend of Lockjaw. While it does feel a little close to his performance of Capt. Spaulding from House of 1000 Corpses, it is always nice to see Mr. Haig on the screen and is always fun to watch. Two of his companions in the film are played by David Jensen and Wayne Pére. These guys seemed to have made their careers as character actors appearing in tons of movies and TV. Here they created two of the most memorable characters in the film. Not only do they seem like real backwoods folks, but also make them pretty fun to watch. Definitely not your same old paint by the numbers characters we tend to see in a lot of these types of movies. As for the rest of the cast, they do an okay job.

Overall, if you’re looking for a cheesy monster movie, you could do much worse than with Creature. Is it a great movie? Not even close. But it is definitely worth seeing and is entertaining. So don’t let all those early reports that came out condemning this movie as garbage. Compared to the sling of crap that the Sci-Fi channel cranks out on a regular basis, this is pure gold.