Halloween movie month: Creature

Creature (2011)
Netflix, instant
Rating 1/5

Basic plot:  A group of friends taking a trip get lost in the backwoods of Louisiana and are attacked by a part-man/part-alligator creature.

There isn't really all that much to comment on, so I'm going to get right to the recommendation.  Pass.  This movie is pretty horrible.  And not in the "it's so bad it's good" sort of way.  This is just bad in the "it's so bad it's bad" sort of way.  It's not even bad in the "it was so bad that there is so much to talk about, as far as how bad it was."  It's just a bland and boring kind of bad - so bland that even trying to go into detail about what makes it bad is boring and bland.  Bad acting with bad accents. Bad sound mixing. Horrible stereotypes of "backwoods, ignorant, incestual, lunatic, religious folk."  There are absolutely no scares or startling moments.  There are several "twists," but they aren't surprising or shocking at all.  They try to play on the "it's over...or is it???" but they overdo it (as in repeating it a few times in a row) and it just becomes annoying.  The creature is lumbering apparently can only stand/look up if it is doing it very slowly - like the first time you see a monster in a movie, where it does the "slow reveal" to give the characters plenty of time to be horrified...but it does that every single time it stands up.  Honestly, I'm not really sure who the target audience for this movie is.  It's got too much gore and nudity (in the sense that it has any) to be family friendly, but it doesn't have enough to please those who are fans of that genre.  The production quality is too good to fall into the campy, B-movie genre, but the acting (and basically everything else) is too bad to be considered a good movie.

The only person who I think did a good job in the movie is Sid Haig's character.  But that might have been due mostly to the fact that he basically plays a cajun version of his character in House of 1000 Corpses, so the directing of him was probably something along the lines of "remember Captain Spaulding?  Be him, but without the clown make-up."  Pruitt Taylor Vince was also in this movie, and I'm normally a fan of his (for those of you unfamiliar with him, you might recognize him as Otis from The Walking Dead).  But his character was not only pointless, it also wasn't done very well.  This shows how important it is to have a good director at the helm.  Without a good director, even an actor like Pruitt Taylor Vince can give a bad performance.  A look at the director's (Fred Andrews) IMDB page gives some explanation as to why the production quality wasn't bad, but everything else fell short.  For those of you who don't like clicking on links, it's because he's a production designer.  Creature is the only thing he has to his credits as far as writing or directing.  Maybe if he's able to get some more experience, then he'll be able to make a movie that is actually worth watching.  But he's definitely not there yet.

Side note:  Not that I really expect any of you to actually watch this movie, but in case you do, SPOILER ALERT:  There's a reason that the poster has those four characters on it.  The creature, obviously, is because that's what the movie is about.  But as far as the three people, it's because they are the only three of the main characters that are introduced that actually survive (there is another character that "survives," but not in the same way she was at the beginning of the movie).


Be sure to check back tomorrow for the next review in Halloween movie month.

-GR

Halloween movie month: Creature from the Black Lagoon

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Netflix, instant
Rating:  3.5/5

Basic plot:  After finding a strange and unknown fossil in the Amazon, an archaeologist, a group of scientists, and their guide go on a search for the rest of the remains.  Their search leads them down river to a lagoon (the Black Lagoon) where they eventually discover that there is still a living form of this ancient creature (they never actually say if the creature had been around since pre-historic times, or if it's a descendant).

As with many movies in the 50s and 60s, there is a narrator setting the stage in the early acts of the film.  I have mixed feelings about narration in current movies, depending on how well it is done, but I generally like the narration in older movies.  Maybe it's because it brings about an inherent sense of nostalgia.  Or maybe it's because the narration in movies was basically the same type of narration that was used in documentaries of the day - which, in a way, makes the movie seem like a documentary and suggests that you should accept that what takes place really happened (or, at least, could conceivably happen).

This movie actually does a lot to suggest that the creature could conceivably exist.  For starters, the movie starts off by saying that God created the world, and then describes the millions of years of evolution that took place afterwards (and then explosions.  Lots of explosions).  So, whether you are religious, scientific, or both (or Michael Bay...cause of the 'splosions), this movie starts off with a viable explanation as to how there can be such strange and unknown creatures in the world.  There is also a conversation between two characters over whether or not they can believe the creature actually exists.  During that conversation, they discuss the lungfish (they explain that it is a creature that has basically remained unevolved for thousands of years), as well as how people believe it is possible for there to be life on other planets but they have a hard time believing in the unknown under the water on Earth.  And after watching River Monsters: with Jeremy Wade on Animal Planet, it's not that hard to believe that there are unknown creatures lurking in fresh waters.

I talked about the importance of music in my Nosferatu review, and the same holds true for Creature - the music plays a major role in helping to set the tone of the scene.  One of the reasons that the music is so vital in Creature from the Black Lagoon is that many of the scenes with the creature take place under water.  This was in the days before scuba masks that allowed people to talk to each other under water, so the music is the primary way of conveying the characters' emotions.

The look of the film isn't too bad either, but I think that a lot of that has to do with the film being in black and white.  When they are traveling on a boat, it's clear that the backdrop behind them is a video of scenery moving and not actually following a moving boat.  But it didn't look nearly as bad as some current movies that use a green screen to give the appearance of movement.  The creature effects weren't too bad either.  Nothing terribly amazing.  But, they did at least pay attention to enough detail to have air bubbles coming out of the gills rather than out of its nose/mouth.  Even though I didn't think that the effects looked too bad, I think that was due in large part to the overall picture quality and to it being in black and white.  For instance, the creature didn't look too bad because there were less details to focus on to notice whether or not it was bad.  Nowadays, everything is filmed and projected in much higher quality.  So when something doesn't look quite right, there is a much bigger discrepancy.

Recommendation:  It's a classic - everyone should see it.  As far as leading up to Halloween, it's worth seeing, but I wouldn't say that it's necessarily a "must see."  The scare factor of Creature from the Black Lagoon comes mostly from the fear of the unknown.  There is one scene in particular where Julie Adams's character is swimming in the lagoon and the creature swims up to her and touches her leg a few times before she swims back to the boat - playing on the fear that anyone who has ever swam in nature can tell you about...when something brushes against their leg and there is instant terror of "what was that??!!!??"  You might not have a fear of a part man, part fish, part reptile creature grabbing you when you are swimming - but there are certainly plenty of other deadly creatures that hide just below the surface of the water - and that scene reminds you of it.

Side note:  expect typical 50s movie stereotypes:  guys with dashing hair (even immediately after getting out of the water), damsels in distress (and the related sexual undertones of creatures capturing women.  After all, horror creatures need love too), etc.


Be sure to check back tomorrow for the next review in Halloween movie month.

-GR