Did anybody know this movie was coming out? I swear, this thing came from out of nowhere. It was the surprise factor, in fact, that lead to this film being the center of a date night for my wife and me. Oh, it wasn’t intended to be such. In fact, when I heard about this movie and realized it would be in theaters for a second, it became a movie that I was just going to run out and see all by my lonesome. I know my wife is not a Horror fan, so I didn’t expect her to go. I, on the otherhand, have been missing good old fashioned monster romps in the theater, so I knew I was going to go. Imagine my surprise when my wife said “looks like fun, let’s make a date of it!”
Now, if I can be honest here, I am going to blame her going with me for being the reason why the movie was so far below being actually good. Not that she is a curse, far from it. The thing is, it seems that every single time there is a movie I am looking forward to, and she sees it with me, it sucks. This usually leads to the often said comments such as “next time I pick the movie” or “that’s it, you don’t get to pick anymore.” Usually I can’t argue with her, as she is usually right that the movies suck. This usually causes the odd situation of the movies that I see on my own being great, because she is done with my picks for a bit, and then when she decides to see one of my movies again, it sucks, setting the whole vicious circle back in action.
This brings us back to Creature, a film that came from out of nowhere and just does not feel right to be watching in a theater. We have become so accustomed to bigger budget films in theaters, that when one of such a small budget and one with so little advertising campaign does show up, it just feels weird seeing it in such a setting. I had a similar feeling while watching the abysmal Priest.
The film is fairly cookie-cutter in the execution, six friends are out on a trip and decide to go exploring. One of the friends, the one who seems to be the ringleader, is a fan of strange and crazy backwood tales of the bigfoot variety. It is his interest in a local legend that the group stumbles onto while grabbing groceries in a creepy little convenient store run by genre vet Sid Haig, that leads them off on their trek.
Intrigue and espionage lead us into a whirlwind of plotholes and “what the . . .” moments shrouded in plenty of naked people and surprisingly low amounts of gore and actual suspense. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy myself to some degree, because I did. I have been dying to see an actual beastie on the rampage movie for some time that I was willing to forgive all the many missteps that this film makes. The film was full of poor monster design, no real monster attacks, no gore, very little suspense, one too many endings, etc.
The film is easily worth a $2 second run theater if you have one by you. Or, if you need to wait it will make an enjoyable stream from your online provider or rental. As a full price first run showing, you might want to pass. As the theater was just my wife and me, I am thinking everybody else chose to wait for the stream. Like I said, though, I did enjoy myself. I’m pretty easy to please with these types of films, though. I will say that I will probably never own the movie, and will more than likely never rent it now that I have seen it. I might stream it for background noise in the future, but I will not make it an addition to my collection. Damn shame, really. This thing could have been what I, and I think a lot of horror fans have been itching for, an honest to God monster on the loose, a monster that a slew of garage kit builders are dying for. Instead, we got a bland looking beastie and an even blander movie with no real thrills. Shame.
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