BOX OFFICE REVIEW: Creature

[JessHorsley]

The latest creature feature to hit the big screen includes plenty of gore, laughs, and fun...

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Last night I attended a midnight screening of a new horror film called Creature. Written and directed by Fred Andrews, the film's description sounds like something dreamed up by a bunch of Marine infantrymen after a night of binge drinking and heavy partying. Being a former Marine infantryman who's had his fair share of long nights, I personally thought the premise sounded cool:

Venture into the wilderness of Louisiana, and chances are it won't take long before you hear the story of Lockjaw, a half crocodile/half-human monster born of an inbred family's tragedy and suffering. Roaming the backwater swamps in search of human prey, Lockjaw finds his latest victims when six friends find their road trip takes them to Lockjaw's birthplace.

Starring Mehcad Brooks, Amanda Fuller, Aaron Hill, Rebekah Kennedy, Dillon Casey, and Serinda Swan as the six friends on this horrific road trip to New Orleans whose detour puts them in Lockjaw's backwoods cabin and Pruitt Taylor Vince, David Jensen, Daniel Bernhardt, and Sid Haig as the backwoods folk, Creature makes for a solid entry in the latest monster movies hitting theaters and home video.

That's pretty much the premise of the entire film. Throw in a few gratuitous sex scenes and a lot of gory mutilations and death as well as Lockjaw's interesting, mysterious past and you've got your Creature feature. While the film has a few slow moments, Creature will keep most horror fans entertained throughout. In fact, there are a number of brilliant scenes that'll have even the hardest moviegoers jumping in their seats.

While maybe not as original as some of the newer horror films out over the past few years, and while it may owe much of its premise to the classic Creature from the Black Lagoon, Creature is simple, good ol' American horror. While it may not be the next Hatchet, Creature is, for those horror fans sick and tired of the blockbuster Hollywood torture horror, exactly what's needed because it's chalk full of the things that made horror films in the late 1970s and early 1980s great: sex, blood, and monsters.

Creature is showing now at a theater near you. For fans in the St. Louis area, check www.Wehrenberg.com for a theater near you.

- Jess C. Horsley